What happened in Arkanas in 2010?

[Sir Mohamed]

It’s quite stunning: In the 2010 midterms, we had a Republican wave throughout the country, and in AR, a dark red state, a Democratic governor (Mike Beebe) won reelection with over 64% of the votes. He carried every single county in the state. How did this happen?

Even in deep blue states, Democratic governors or candidates who won (re)election significantly underperformed Beebe. Did Beebe crush his opponent just for being Mike Beebe?

[KingSweden]

The more impressive thing is that the legislature didn't flip til 2012

[RINO Tom]

Maybe, just maybe, Arkansas didn't consider themselves "deep red" voters in 2010, dude.

[Kingpoleon]

Maybe, just maybe, Arkansas didn't consider themselves "deep red" voters in 2010, dude.

I mean, I don't know of any Beebe 2010/Hutchinson 2014 voters, at least in my family. That makes it interesting to me to see there are so many.

[Rjjr77]

It’s quite stunning: In the 2010 midterms, we had a Republican wave throughout the country, and in AR, a dark red state, a Democratic governor (Mike Beebe) won reelection with over 64% of the votes. He carried every single county in the state. How did this happen?

Even in deep blue states, Democratic governors or candidates who won (re)election significantly underperformed Beebe. Did Beebe crush his opponent just for being Mike Beebe?

Jim Keet was a bad candidate, Beebe was popular

[Indy Texas]

The absolute whiplash Arkansas underwent in terms of partisan leanings from the beginning of the Obama presidency to the end is incredible.

2008: Mark Pryor is reelected with Republicans not even bothering to contest the seat
2010: Blanche Lincoln is defeated by double digit margins
2012: Legislature flips
2014: Pryor is defeated by double digit margins

In less than a decade, Democrats went from being the only game in town in non-presidential races to being a rump party of blacks and Little Rock whites.

[MT Treasurer]

Arkansas wasn't nearly as Republican in 2010 as it is today, the GOP bench was basically non-existent, and Republicans didn't seriously contest this race because of Beebe's popularity, among other things.

[Pollster]

With the exception of Lincoln's infamous defeat, Arkansas was arguably a bright spot for Dems in 2010 - they held the governor's office, the legislature, and 2/4 of the House seats (all four are now GOP).

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

With the exception of Lincoln's infamous defeat, Arkansas was arguably a bright spot for Dems in 2010 - they held the governor's office, the legislature, and 2/4 of the House seats (all four are now GOP).

It took the Arkansas Republican party some time to get a good enough bench to take over the whole state.

[jamestroll]

With the exception of Lincoln's infamous defeat, Arkansas was arguably a bright spot for Dems in 2010 - they held the governor's office, the legislature, and 2/4 of the House seats (all four are now GOP).

It took the Arkansas Republican party some time to get a good enough bench to take over the whole state.

Yes exactly.

John Boozman was one of the few credible Republicans in Arkansas in 2010 and made a great choice to run for US Senate. Blanche Lincoln was fairly useless and drifted from election to election with her party ID and name ID without ever connecting to the electorate and that made her an incredibly easy target. Any sane Republican could have defeated Lincoln in 2010 even if it was a random state representative though.

Mike BeeBe would have been nearly impossible to defeat irrespective of the climate.

[Miles]

The absolute whiplash Arkansas underwent in terms of partisan leanings from the beginning of the Obama presidency to the end is incredible.

2008: Mark Pryor is reelected with Republicans not even bothering to contest the seat
2010: Blanche Lincoln is defeated by double digit margins
2012: Legislature flips
2014: Pryor is defeated by double digit margins

In less than a decade, Democrats went from being the only game in town in non-presidential races to being a rump party of blacks and Little Rock whites.

Also in 2008, none of its three House Democrats had Republican challengers.

[Heisenberg]

Also in 2008, none of its three House Democrats had Republican challengers.

And now, Republicans hold all 4 US House seats with a map designed to be Democrat-friendly (likely would have kept a 3-1 D delegation pre-2008).

[Miles]

^ Also, CD2 was the only one that Democrats contested last year.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

^ Also, CD2 was the only one that Democrats contested last year.

And to add insult to injury, Wikipedia lists the democrats as a "third party" in Arkansas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Arkansas,_2016

[smoltchanov]

Uh, it turned red because it's a conservative state...

It was a conservative state even before. Many Democrats in state legislature were at least moderate conservatives. But state elected them time and again. Then, rather suddenly (Obama - catalyzer?) it all began... Now there are very few Democrats from rural areas, and tendency is for them (Democrats) to be limited to Little Rock, Fayetteville and Black areas of the state only

[Young Conservative]

^ Also, CD2 was the only one that Democrats contested last year.
^ and by "contested" he means the only one they even bothered to put a candidate for, not seriously try to win.