2004 United States Senate election in Arkansas

The 2004 United States Senate election in Arkansas took place on November 2, 2004 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

2004 United States Senate election in Arkansas
November 2, 2004
 
Nominee Blanche Lincoln Jim Holt
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 580,973 458,036
Percentage 55.9% 44.1%
County results
Lincoln:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%
Holt:      50–60%
U.S. senator before election

Blanche Lincoln
Democratic

 Elected U.S. Senator

Blanche Lincoln
Democratic

Elections in Arkansas

Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln won re-election to a second term in office, while President George W. Bush carried the state with almost the same margin of victory. As of 2020, this is the last time the Democrats have won the Class 3 Senate Seat from Arkansas.

Background

Incumbent Democrat Blanche Lincoln ran for re-election. Lincoln won re-election over Republican State Senator Jim Holt while President George W. Bush carried the state with almost the same margin of victory.

The Democratic Party held super-majority status in the Arkansas General Assembly. A majority of local and statewide offices were also held by Democrats. This was rare in the modern South, where a majority of statewide offices are held by Republicans. Arkansas had the distinction in 1992 of being the only state in the country to give the majority of its vote to a single candidate in the presidential election—native son Bill Clinton—while every other state's electoral votes were won by pluralities of the vote among the three candidates. Arkansas has become more reliably Republican in presidential elections in recent years. The state voted for John McCain in 2008 by a margin of 20 percentage points, making it one of the few states in the country to vote more Republican than it had in 2004. (The others being Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia.)[1] Obama's relatively poor showing in Arkansas was likely due to a lack of enthusiasm from state Democrats following former Arkansas First Lady Hillary Clinton's failure to win the nomination, and his relatively poor performance among rural white voters (Clinton, however, herself lost the state by an even greater margin as the Democratic nominee in 2016).

Democrats had an overwhelming majority of registered voters, the Democratic Party of Arkansas is more conservative than the national entity. Two of Arkansas' three Democratic Representatives are members of the Blue Dog Coalition, which tends to be more pro-business, pro-military, and socially conservative than the center-left Democratic mainstream. Reflecting the state's large evangelical population, the state has a strong social conservative bent. Under the Arkansas Constitution Arkansas is a right to work state, its voters passed a ban on same-sex marriage with 74% voting yes, and the state is one of a handful that has legislation on its books banning abortion in the event Roe vs. Wade is ever overturned.

Republican primary

Candidates

Results
Republican Primary results[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Jim Holt 37,254 68.9%
Republican Andy Lee 10,709 19.8%
Republican Rosemarie Clampitt 6,078 11.3%
Total votes 54,041 100.0%

General election

Candidates

Campaign

Lincoln was a popular incumbent. In March, she an approval rating of 55%.[4] Lincoln calls herself an advocate for rural America, having grown up on a farm herself. Holt is from Northwest Arkansas, who also lives on a farm.[5] Holt was widely known as a long shot. By the end of June, he only raised $29,000, while Lincoln had over $5 million cash on hand.[6] Holt tried to make gay marriage a major issue, because defining marriage was on the ballot. He even said, "it is the most important issue, I believe, in America."[7]

Debates

Results
Arkansas Senate election 2004
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Blanche Lincoln (Incumbent) 580,973 55.9%
Republican Jim Holt 458,036 44.1%
Independent Write Ins 340 0.0%
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See also
  • United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2002
  • United States Senate election in Arkansas, 2008

References
  1. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Election-state-04-08.png
  2. "Blytheville Native Launches U.S. Senate Bid". kait8.com. 31 March 2004. Archived from the original on 6 April 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2009.
  3. David Leip. "2004 Senatorial Republican Primary Election Results - Arkansas". uselectionatlas.org.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-03-09. Retrieved 2010-09-04.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. "Sen. Lincoln Visits with Constituents in Region 8". kait8.com. 2 July 2004. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  6. "Can Republicans hold on to the Senate?". NBC News.
  7. "NewsMax Archives". newsmax.com. Archived from the original on 2012-05-27. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
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