This election the office of governor was open for new candidates in Arkansas to run. Governor Asa Hutchinson, being term limited, will be finishing his second term in office as state governor and handing over the position to Governor-Elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Although more than half of the states allow for the re-election of a former governor as long as someone also has a chance in office for a term, this is not the case for Arkansas and Oklahoma. Some states limit governors to two terms, Virginia limits governors to only one term of service. Some states have no limits on how many times the same person can be elected governor. All of these states elect governors for 4-years at a time, except for New Hampshire and Vermont who elect their state governors for only 2 years at a time. This was also the case also for Arkansas from 1874 and 1984.
Former Arkansas state governor and U.S. president Bill Clinton won state elections five times, serving as governor from 1979-1981 and 1983-1992 when he resigned to run for president. A referendum in 1992 limited the state governor to two consecutive 4-year terms. Since then Arkansas has had four more state governors: Jim Guy Tucker (D), Mike Huckabee (R), Mike Beebe (D), and Asa Hutchinson (R).
This time around, Arkansas at least consistently elected Republican candidates including the governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and representatives to congress. Senator Boozman was re-elected to the U.S. Senate and Sarah Huckabee Sanders elected next governor of Arkansas. In Washington County, Steve Womack was re-elected as U.S. House Representative. There was a lot of local attention on the Quorum Court, a legislative body of county government that has 15 members called Justices of the Peace who are elected every two years. For the past year, the Quorum has talked about using public funds to expand the local jails. The voters spoke though, saying no to sales taxes for jail improvments. We also had our first Marshallese candidate on the ballot: Michael Mapa ran for one of 12 seats on the Quorum Court. He made a strong run as a new candidate, losing to the incumbent by only 200-300 votes. Read more in our conversation with Michael.
Chris Jones also made history, having won the primary as the Democratic candidate for governor, as the first Black man in Arkansas to run for governor. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, however with name recognition on her side as both the daughter of former state governor Mike Huckabee and as former press secretary under President Donald Trump, won 63% of the votes. Jones conceded the race, congratulating “Governor-Elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders on her history-making election as the first woman elected governor of Arkansas. Sarah’s election has shown women, including my little girls, that being a woman is no longer a barrier to becoming governor in our state.”
In his interview with Chikin Melele, Jones expressed deep concern that Sanders had not been inclusive in her campaign, worrying about who might be left out and overlooked. He talked about meeting Gov. Bill Clinton as a child and looking up “governor” in the encyclopedia to learn that a governor “makes a difference by helping people.” In his concession, he said: “While we did not have enough energy to bend time as much as we wanted, our work most certainly bent time itself and brought Arkansas one step closer to the future.” However, he also said “there is no denying Sarah’s love for Arkansas. I believe, as I have always believed, that we must come together for the sake of Arkansas.”
