From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas, is now available in paper.
On the morning of Election Day 2010, Democrats occupied three of the four Arkansas seats in the US House of Representatives, both US Senate seats, all state constitutional offices, and decisive majorities in both chambers of the Arkansas General Assembly. By the time votes were counted that evening, it was clear that the balance of power had shifted. Within five years, Arkansas Republicans would hold all six US congressional positions and every state constitutional seat and claim growing supermajorities in both state chambers. Since then, Republicans have enjoyed robust electoral success in Arkansas—formerly the last remaining state of the “Solid South” held by Democrats.
Critical reading in this election season, John C. Davis’s From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas provides a rigorous yet accessible study of this partisan shift, tracking changes in voter preference at the top of the ticket in the 1960s, generational replacement in Arkansas’ political power structure in the 1990s, and the emergence of a more nationalized and polarized electorate in the 2000s, among other developments. From Blue to Red is a fascinating look at how Arkansas went from being one of the country’s most solidly Democratic states to one of its most ardently Republican in just a few years.
“Politics wonks of every political stripe have been waiting for a full accounting of the fastest, deepest party change to any state’s party brand since the 1930s,” wrote Janine A. Parry. “John C. Davis provides it with From Blue to Red. Davis’s pairing of election and public-opinion data with in-depth interviews provides readers with a lively, holistic account of a phenomenon that will define the state for decades to come.”
John C. Davis is the executive director of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History and associate teaching professor of political science at the University of Arkansas. An eighth-generation Arkansan, Davis lives with his family in Fayetteville.