LITTLE ROCK — Angry with a president who will be out of office in a little over two years, voters resoundingly ended Arkansas’ tradition as a Democratic holdout in the South and handed Republicans control of the state. It’s a takeover that had been building over the past two elections, and rebounding from it will likely take much longer for a Democratic Party adjusting to its new role as a minority party.
The rout in last week’s election exceeded the expectations even of many Republicans, who were already confident they’d claim the party’s top prizes on the ballot. Their hopes were realized early on, when Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton’s Senate victory began a series of wins in other states that handed Republicans control of that chamber.
The Arkansas GOP by the end of the night controlled all seven constitutional offices, successfully defended all four congressional districts and dramatically expanded their ranks in the Legislature.
“This election is about a new day in Arkansas,” Republican Gov.-elect Asa Hutchinson told supporters after defeating Democrat Mike Ross in their heated race for the state’s top office.
That’s not an understatement for Hutchinson, the former congressman who had run unsuccessfully for statewide office three times before and was on the losing end of a sweep by Democrats eight years ago. He’s now succeeding Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, who defeated Hutchinson in the 2006 race.
Unlike Republicans in 2006, Democrats face a much longer haul in trying to rebuild from the midterm election.
Democrats headed into this year’s election armed with a number of factors appearing to go in their favor. Their lineup was littered with known quantities in Arkansas politics. U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, the son of former governor and Sen. David Pryor, had served 12 years in Washington. Ross, who had gotten his start in politics driving former President Bill Clinton around the state in the 1982 gubernatorial election, had also served 12 years in Congress.
They had embraced a popular issue, raising the minimum wage, which won overwhelming support from voters. They touted a ground game that they said was unlike anything Arkansas had ever seen. And Clinton repeatedly barnstormed his home state on behalf of the party’s lineup.
But Democrats said none of that was enough to overcome a Democratic president who had become politically toxic for candidates up and down the ballot.
“If there’s one common theme, it’s the White House,” Beebe told reporters the day after the election. “Look at it, and the Republicans did a really, really good job of tying every race to the president. It worked.”
As Democratic Party Chairman Vince Insalaco put it, “This is totally and completely at the doorstep of the White House.”
It’s a similar scene that was played out in other parts of the country, with Republicans even winning governorships in reliably blue states such as Massachusetts and Illinois.
Republicans say the election results can’t just be pinned on President Barack Obama’s popularity. Cotton’s campaign and Republicans say that while Democrats had touted their get out of the vote efforts, they missed a GOP ground game that surpassed Democrats’ efforts.
State Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb said the election showed just how much the state’s politics had realigned.
“The people of Arkansas realized the Republican Party reflected their views and values more than the Democratic Party,” Webb said.
The gains in the state Legislature surprised even Webb, with Republicans moving from 51 seats in the 100-member House to 64 and from 21 in the 35-member Senate to 24. The wins included the GOP making gains in once-solid Democratic regions of the state such as northeast Arkansas.
The thinning ranks of Democrats in the Legislature create a new obstacle for Democrats, who now have a depleted bench of potential candidates to draw from as they look to the 2016 election. Complicating matters further could be the amendment voters approved easing legislative term limits in exchange for new ethics rules. The new limits could give Republicans greater influence and profile in the Legislature over the long term.
The other challenge for Democrats will be assessing how they lost voters they saw as key to the major races. More than half of women went with Hutchinson and Cotton, despite Democrats trying to highlight issues such as the Violence Against Women Act and equal pay in those races, according to exit polls. Republicans also easily won voters 65 and older, despite Democrats’ focus on Social Security and Medicaid as top issues in those races. The election did mark an increase in turnout for black voters.
“I do not think this is the end of the Democratic Party,” Insalaco said. “I do think the Democratic Party does need to do some self-reflection about how we engage voters in the future.”
(Andrew DeMillo has covered Arkansas government and politics for The Associated Press since 2005. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ademillo)
(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Sign up for Daily E-news
