Arkansas was won by Republican John McCain by a 19.86% margin of victory, a much greater margin than George W. Bush attained in 2004, despite a large national Democratic trend. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state McCain would win, or otherwise a red state. The state trended dramatically Republican in 2008, as McCain received over 4% more of the statewide popular vote than Bush earned in 2004 and more than doubled his margin of victory. Only five counties swung more Democratic in 2008, and the vast majority of counties swung heavily Republican, some by as much as 30%.[1] Of the ten counties with the largest percentage swing to the Republicans in the U.S. during this election, six of them were located in Arkansas.[2]
Obama became the first Democrat to ever win the White House without carrying Arkansas. Since 1996, Arkansas has rapidly transformed from a Democratic stronghold into one of the most Republican states in the nation. It was also one of the six states where neither Obama nor McCain won during the primary season, and the strongest of five states that swung rightward in this election, the others being Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Despite McCain's landslide victory in the state's presidential race, Democratic Senator Mark Pryor easily won re-election on the same ballot, in which he did not face Republican opposition. This was the first time Arkansas voted for a losing presidential candidate since 1968.
