Not sure if this counts as a hold or a pickup, but a Republican won a House seat in Arkansas 60-40. The reason I say that is it was held by a term-limited Democrat, then won by a Republican who died before the election last year. That puts the Arkansas House at 54-45 with one vacancy (a Dem seat).
I would say is a GOP 'hold' of a posthumous pickup. According to left-leaning blog sources from Arkansas quoted by the Swing State Project, the race has become extremely negative, as Garland County (Hot Spring)'s GOP Committee was sending mailers attacking the Dem candidate Jerry Rephan as a "pro-abortion Jewish" while advocating for the candidacy of the "Christian" GOP candidate Bruce Cozart.
While the Dem seemed to be at least a semi-serious candidate judging by the presence of a more sophisticated campaign website compared to Cozart's profile under Garland County's GOP Committee website; I must grudging agree that the attack mailer is a masterstroke by the GOP, as it seems to appeal to demographic affinity if not the strong pro-life sentiment of the district.
From my limited knowledge on the district, Arkansas' HD-24 is anchored at Hot Springs, and that area seems to be pretty homogeneous (majority-white) and heavily Christian (or even evangelical); making a liberal, Jewish-sounding Dem candidate really unappealing to the locals. In low information local (and rural) campaigns like this and Louisiana's SD-26 special a few weekends ago, tarring an opponent to something foreign to the local traditions or someone unpopular with them is a highly effective campaign tatic. IMHO, it is also an extremely deplorable use of the us-vs-them mentality in electoral politics.
