Pryor Center’s John C. Davis Releases New Book on Historic Partisan Shift in Arkansas

John C. Davis, executive director of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History and teaching associate professor of political science, has published a new book on the historic partisan shift in Arkansas, From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas.

On the morning of Election Day 2010, Democrats occupied three of the four Arkansas seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, both U.S. Senate seats, all state constitutional offices and decisive majorities in both chambers of the Arkansas General Assembly.

“However, by the time votes were counted that evening, it was clear that the balance of power had shifted,” Davis said.  

And within five years, Arkansas Republicans would hold all six U.S. 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.

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. 

Drawing from interviews Davis conducted of elected officials, party activists, journalists and other scholars — as well as polling data and other secondary sources — the book provides a comprehensive accounting of the decades-long effort by the GOP in Arkansas from perennial political underdog in a one-party state to becoming the dominant majority party in Arkansas.

University Professor of political science and Arkansas Poll Director Janine A. Parry called From Blue to Red 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,” she said. “John provides it with From Blue to Red. His 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.”

Pearl K. Ford Dowe, coauthor of Remaking the Democratic Party: Lyndon B. Johnson as a Native-Son Presidential Candidate, agreed, adding that “From Blue to Red provides a new view on the shifting partisan behavior within the South by looking at the uniqueness of the state of Arkansas.”

“[It] explores the trends that began in the 1970s but did not culminate until years after the Reagan administration. This is a story worth exploring,” she said.

In From Blue to Red, Davis also classifies the GOP in Arkansas into three generations from 1966 to today and explores this nearly six-decade era of the Republican Party by analyzing the state of the GOP with the perspectives of the party’s relationship with the Arkansas electorate, the state GOP’s organizational structure and the party’s impact on policy over time.

Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson called From Blue to Red the definitive book on the modern history of the Arkansas GOP.

“By researching and writing this history, Dr. Davis has critiqued the key ingredients for the rise of any political movement and then dramatically laid out the challenges of the future for the Arkansas GOP,” he said. “Dr. Davis writes in a way that both informs and inspires those interested in politics and then makes one think about the future and what it will bring. This book will be enjoyed and studied for generations into the future.”

Davis’s From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas is available through the University of Arkansas Press.

Additionally, the full interviews, which include complete transcripts and audio and video recordings, are available on the Pryor Center website.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.