Dr. John C. Davis
Ten years ago, few could have predicted how quickly Arkansas’s political map would flip.
In a matter of years, a state long defined by Democratic leadership became firmly Republican. What happened, and why?
Dr. John C. Davis will examine Arkansas’s dramatic political realignment during a Lyon College convocation lecture, “From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas,” scheduled for Thursday, March 5, at 4 p.m. in Nucor Auditorium in the Lyon College Business and Economics Building, 2300 Highland Rd., Batesville. The event is free and open to the public.
Davis is executive director of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History at the University of Arkansas. His lecture will explore the rapid shift in political power that reshaped Arkansas politics during the past decade.
On the morning of Election Day 2010, Democrats held three of the state’s four U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats, all state constitutional offices, and strong majorities in both chambers of the Arkansas General Assembly. By the end of that night, the balance of power had begun to change. Within five years, Arkansas Republicans controlled all six U.S. congressional seats, every state constitutional office, and large supermajorities in the legislature.
Since then, Republicans have maintained consistent electoral success in Arkansas, once considered the last stronghold of the Democratic “Solid South.”
The lecture is presented by the Lyon College Convocation Committee as part of the college’s ongoing convocation series.
For more information, visit lyon.edu.
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