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Arkansas's 1st congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in eastern Arkansas that elects a representative to the United States House of Representatives. It is currently represented by Republican Rick Crawford. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of R+21, it is the most Republican district in Arkansas, a state with an all-Republican congressional delegation.[2]

Arkansas's 1st congressional district
Representative	Rick Crawford R–Jonesboro
Area	17,521 sq mi (45,380 km2)
Distribution	55.5% rural 44.5% urban
Population (2021)	714,143[1]
Median household income	$45,540[1]
Ethnicity	76.3% White 18.0% Black 3.1% Hispanic 1.6% Two or more races 0.5% Asian 0.4% other
Occupation	48.8% White-collar 35% Blue-collar 16.2% Gray-collar
Cook PVI	R+21[2]

Geography

2003–2013

Before the 2010 census, the 1st district represented portions of northeastern Arkansas, encompassing the counties of Arkansas, Baxter, Clay, Cleburne, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Fulton, Greene, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Lawrence, Lee, Lonoke, Mississippi, Monroe, Phillips, Poinsett, Prairie, Randolph, Saint Francis, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, and Woodruff.

2013–2023

The district was redesigned to take in additional counties in the southeastern portion that were part of the 4th district which in turn took the entire eastern Arkansas border. It is now more than 76% white, and they support Republican presidential candidates.

The district fully encompasses the counties of Arkansas, Baxter, Chicot, Clay, Cleburne, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Desha, Fulton, Greene, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Lawrence, Lee, Lincoln, Lonoke, Mississippi, Monroe, Phillips, Poinsett, Prairie, Randolph, Saint Francis, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, and Woodruff. The district also encompasses parts of Jefferson county.

Character

The Mississippi Delta became dominated by industrial agriculture in the 20th century, with cotton, rice and soybeans by far the biggest exports from the region. The 1st District covers most of the Arkansas Delta area and stretches as far west as the Ozarks. The farming areas, despite their fertility, are generally poor by national standards. Jobs are limited and unemployment and undereducation are major issues. Rice farms receive substantial subsidies from the federal farming program. Three of the top five subsidy farms in the United States are in the 1st District, and they have received more than $100 million since 1996.

Some manufacturing has been sited in the region recently. Several auto parts factories were built in Marion, and Toyota has considered it as the site for its seventh North American plant.

Jonesboro is the largest city. It is home to a sizable food processing industry, with companies such as Nestle and Frito-Lay sited here. Jonesboro is also home to Arkansas State University (ASU)-Jonesboro. While Jonesboro is dominated by conservative white Republican voters, as are some of the hill counties, African Americans in the Mississippi River Delta are committed Democratic voters.

Until recently, this resulted is a fairly closely divided vote in national politics. However, the district has been swept up in the growing Republican trend in Arkansas. While Al Gore narrowly carried the district in 2000 with 50% of the vote, George W. Bush won the district in 2004. The district swung even more Republican in 2008, giving John McCain 58.69% of the vote while Barack Obama received 38.41% here. The Republican vote has steadily increased since then, culminating in Donald Trump tallying 65 percent of the vote in 2016, his best showing in the state.

Recent election results from statewide races

Year	Office	Results
2000	President	Bush 51 - 45%
2004	President	Bush 54 - 44%
2008	President	McCain 59 - 38%
2012	President	Romney 61 - 36%
2016	President	Trump 65 - 30%
2020	President	Trump 69 - 28%

List of members representing the district

The district was created in 1853 after the 1850 United States Census added a second seat to the state. The at-large seat then was split between this district and the second district.

Member	Party	Year	Cong ress	Electoral history
District created March 4, 1853
Alfred B. Greenwood	Democratic	March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1859	33rd 34th 35th	Elected in 1853. Re-elected in 1854. Re-elected in 1856. Retired.
Thomas C. Hindman	Democratic	March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1861	36th	Elected in 1858. Re-elected in 1860 but resigned due to Civil War.
Vacant		March 4, 1861 – June 22, 1868	37th 38th 39th 40th	Civil War and Reconstruction
Logan H. Roots	Republican	June 22, 1868 – March 3, 1871	40th 41st	Elected in 1868 to finish term. Re-elected in 1868. Lost re-election.
James M. Hanks	Democratic	March 4, 1871 – March 3, 1873	42nd	Elected in 1870. Retired.
Asa Hodges	Republican	March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875	43rd	Elected in 1872. Retired.
Lucien C. Gause	Democratic	March 4, 1875 – March 3, 1879	44th 45th	Elected in 1874. Re-elected in 1876. Retired.
Poindexter Dunn	Democratic	March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1889	46th 47th 48th 49th 50th	Elected in 1878. Re-elected in 1880. Re-elected in 1882. Re-elected in 1884. Re-elected in 1886. Retired.
William H. Cate	Democratic	March 4, 1889 – March 5, 1890	51st	Elected in 1888. Lost contested election.
Lewis P. Featherstone	Labor	March 5, 1890 – March 3, 1891	51st	Successfully contested William H. Cate's 1888 election. Lost re-election.
William H. Cate	Democratic	March 4, 1891 – March 3, 1893	52nd	Elected in 1890. Retired.[3]
Philip D. McCulloch Jr.	Democratic	March 4, 1893 – March 3, 1903	53rd 54th 55th 56th 57th	Elected in 1892. Re-elected in 1894. Re-elected in 1896. Re-elected in 1898. Re-elected in 1900. Retired.
Robert B. Macon	Democratic	March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1913	58th 59th 60th 61st 62nd	Elected in 1902. Re-elected in 1904. Re-elected in 1906. Re-elected in 1908. Re-elected in 1910. Lost renomination.
Thaddeus H. Caraway	Democratic	March 4, 1913 – March 3, 1921	63rd 64th 65th 66th	Elected in 1912. Re-elected in 1914. Re-elected in 1916. Re-elected in 1918. Retired to run for U.S. senator.
William J. Driver	Democratic	March 4, 1921 – January 3, 1939	67th 68th 69th 70th 71st 72nd 73rd 74th 75th	Elected in 1920. Re-elected in 1922. Re-elected in 1924. Re-elected in 1926. Re-elected in 1928. Re-elected in 1930. Re-elected in 1932. Re-elected in 1934. Re-elected in 1936. Lost renomination.
Ezekiel C. Gathings	Democratic	January 3, 1939 – January 3, 1969	76th 77th 78th 79th 80th 81st 82nd 83rd 84th 85th 86th 87th 88th 89th 90th	Elected in 1938. Re-elected in 1940. Re-elected in 1942. Re-elected in 1944. Re-elected in 1946. Re-elected in 1948. Re-elected in 1950. Re-elected in 1952. Re-elected in 1954. Re-elected in 1956. Re-elected in 1958. Re-elected in 1960. Re-elected in 1962. Re-elected in 1964. Re-elected in 1966. Retired.
William Vollie Alexander Jr.	Democratic	January 3, 1969 – January 3, 1993	91st 92nd 93rd 94th 95th 96th 97th 98th 99th 100th 101st 102nd	Elected in 1968. Re-elected in 1970. Re-elected in 1972. Re-elected in 1974. Re-elected in 1976. Re-elected in 1978. Re-elected in 1980. Re-elected in 1982. Re-elected in 1984. Re-elected in 1986. Re-elected in 1988. Re-elected in 1990. Lost renomination.
Blanche Lincoln	Democratic	January 3, 1993 – January 3, 1997	103rd 104th	Elected in 1992. Re-elected in 1994. Retired.
Robert Marion Berry	Democratic	January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2011	105th 106th 107th 108th 109th 110th 111th	Elected in 1996. Re-elected in 1998. Re-elected in 2000. Re-elected in 2002. Re-elected in 2004. Re-elected in 2006. Re-elected in 2008. Retired.
Rick Crawford	Republican	January 3, 2011 – present	112th 113th 114th 115th 116th 117th	Elected in 2010. Re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2016. Re-elected in 2018. Re-elected in 2020. Re-elected in 2022 Incumbent.

Recent election results

2002

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2002

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Robert Marion Berry*	129,701	67%
	Republican	Tommy F. Robinson	64,357	33%
Majority			65,344	33%
Total votes			194,058	100.00
	Democratic hold

2004

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2004

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Robert Marion Berry*	162,388	67%
	Republican	Vernon Humphrey	81,556	33%
Majority			80,832	33%
Total votes			243,944	100.00
	Democratic hold

2006

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2006

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Robert Marion Berry*	127,577	69%
	Republican	Mickey Stumbaugh	56,611	31%
Majority			70,966	39%
Total votes			184,188	100.00%
	Democratic hold

2008

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2008

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Robert Marion Berry*	124,304	100%
Majority				100%
Total votes			124,304	100%
	Democratic hold

2010

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2010

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Rick Crawford	93,224	52%
	Democratic	Chad Causey	78,267	43%
	Green	Ken Adler	8,320	5%
	Write-In	Write-ins	205	0.11%
Majority			14,957	9%
Total votes			180,016	100.00%
	Republican gain from Democratic

2012

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2012

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Rick Crawford*	138,800	56%
	Democratic	Scott Ellington	96,601	39%
	Libertarian	Jessica Paxton	6,427	3%
	Green	Jacob Holloway	5,015	2%
Majority			42,199	17.10%
Total votes			246,843	100.00%
	Republican hold

2014

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2014

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Rick Crawford*	124,139	63%
	Democratic	Jackie McPherson	63,555	32%
	Libertarian	Brian Scott Willhite	8,562	5%
Majority			60,584	31%
Total votes			196,256	100.00%
	Republican hold

2016

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2016[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Rick Crawford*	183,866	76.28%
	Libertarian	Mark West	57,181	23.72%
Majority			126,685	52.56%
Total votes			241,047	100.00%
	Republican hold

2018

The 2018 election was held on November 6, 2018.

Arkansas' 1st congressional district, 2018

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Rick Crawford (incumbent)	138,757	68.9
	Democratic	Chintan Desai	57,907	28.8
	Libertarian	Elvis Presley	4,581	2.3
Total votes			201,245	100.0
	Republican hold

2020

Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District House Election, 2020

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Rick Crawford (incumbent)	237,596	100.0
Total votes			237,596	100.0
	Republican hold

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections in Arkansas, 2010

Notes

Arkansas will hold their Primary Elections on May 24, 2022 – a process which the State of Arkansas calls a Preferential Primary Election. If no candidate in a contested Primary Election receives 50% of the vote or more of the vote, than a Runoff Primary Election will be held on June 21, 2022 – a process which the State of Arkansas calls a General Primary Election.[5][6]

There are currently three declared candidates for Arkansas’ 1st Congressional District for the 2022 Election Cycle.[7]

2022 Arkansas’ 1st Congressional District Primary Elections
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
Republican	Rick Crawford *	TBD	TBD
Republican	Brandt Smith	TBD	TBD
Democratic	Monte Hodges	TBD	TBD

The incumbent office holder is denoted by an *. Any rumored candidates are denoted by an +.

Arkansas will hold their General Election on November 8, 2022. If no candidate in a contested General Election race receives 50% or more of the vote, than a General Runoff Election will be held on December 8, 2022.[5][6]

References

Specific

General

• Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
• Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present

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