From Blue to Red

About

On the morning of Election Day 2010, Democrats occupied three of the four Arkansas seats in the US House of Representatives, both US Senate seats, all state constitutional offices, and decisive majorities in both chambers of the Arkansas General Assembly. By the time votes were counted that evening, it was clear that the balance of power had shifted. Within five years, Arkansas Republicans would hold all six US congressional positions and every state constitutional seat and claim growing supermajorities in both state chambers. Since then, Republicans have enjoyed robust electoral success in Arkansas—formerly the last remaining state of the “Solid South” held by Democrats.

John C. Davis’s From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas provides a rigorous yet accessible study of this partisan shift, tracking changes in voter preference at the top of the ticket in the 1960s, generational replacement in Arkansas’ political power structure in the 1990s, and the emergence of a more nationalized and polarized electorate in the 2000s, among other developments. From Blue to Red is a fascinating look at how Arkansas went from being one of the country’s most solidly Democratic states to one of its most ardently Republican in just a few years.

Blue to Red Oral History Project – Pryor Center

Author

John C. Davis is the executive director of the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History and associate teaching professor of political science at the University of Arkansas. An eighth-generation Arkansan, Davis lives with his family in Fayetteville.

Review

“From Blue to Red draws from countless sources, including numerous interviews with elected officials, party activists, journalists, and scholars, including Mike Huckabee, Mike Beebe, Wesley Clark, and others, to successfully paint a vivid picture of the massive transformation in Arkansas politics.”
—Seth A. Weitz, Journal of Southern History, May 2025

Praise

“From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas is the definitive book on the modern history of the Arkansas GOP. By researching and writing this history, Dr. Davis has critiqued the key ingredients for the rise of any political movement and then dramatically laid out the challenges of the future for the Arkansas GOP. Dr. Davis writes in a way that both informs and inspires those interested in politics, and then makes one think about the future and what it will bring. This book will be enjoyed and studied for generations into the future.”
—Asa Hutchinson, former Arkansas governor

“From Blue to Red provides a new view on the shifting partisan behavior within the South by looking at the uniqueness of the state of Arkansas. John C. Davis uses interviews, historical overview, and voting data to explore the trends that began in the 1970s but did not culminate until years after the Reagan administration. This is a story worth exploring.”
—Pearl K. Ford Dowe, coauthor of Remaking the Democratic Party: Lyndon B. Johnson as a Native-Son Presidential Candidate

“Politics wonks of every political stripe have been waiting for a full accounting of the fastest, deepest party change to any state’s party brand since the 1930s. John C. Davis provides it with From Blue to Red. Davis’s pairing of election and public-opinion data with in-depth interviews provides readers with a lively, holistic account of a phenomenon that will define the state for decades to come.”
—Janine A. Parry, University Professor and Arkansas Poll Director, Department of Political Science, University of Arkansas

Media

“Author: How Arkansas went from blue to red” – The Jonesboro Sun, December 2023