Congressional Districts

The Arkansas delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives has been made up of four members since redistricting took place in the early 1960s. Since statehood in 1836, the total number of seats allotted to the state has fluctuated from one to seven. The boundaries of the districts continue to shift based on population growth or decline in certain portions of the state.

The Arkansas Territory gained representation in the House in 1819 when delegate James Woodson Bates of Batesville (Independence County) took his seat in the Sixteenth Congress. Previously, what is now the state of Arkansas received representation from the delegates of the Louisiana Territory and later the Missouri Territory. With the Missouri Territory on schedule to enter the Union in 1820 as a new state, the area below the Missouri southern border became the Arkansas Territory. Bates represented the entire territory until 1823, when he was defeated for a third term by Henry Conway. Conway served until his death in 1827. The seat remained vacant for a short period before Conway’s cousin Ambrose Sevier took the post, serving until 1836 and Arkansas’s statehood.

With admission to the Union in 1836, Arkansas received one seat in the House. Called the At-Large Seat, it included the entire state. Democrat Archibald Yell, elected in 1836, served until 1839. When Yell left Congress that year to run for governor, Edward Cross of Hempstead County replaced him, serving for three terms. Yell returned to the seat in 1845 but resigned the following year to serve in the Mexican War. Thomas Newton, a Whig, won a special election to fill the remainder of the term. Robert Johnson returned the seat to the Democratic Party and held it from 1847 until 1853 when he became a U.S. senator.

The 1850 federal census placed the Arkansas population at just under 210,000, more than doubling the 97,000 listed in the 1840 census. This increase gave the state an additional seat in the House as it expanded from 223 representatives to 234. This led to the state being split into two districts. The First District included roughly the northern third of the state and dropped to the south along the Mississippi River, taking in Phillips County. The Second District included the remainder of the state, including Little Rock (Pulaski County) and Fort Smith (Sebastian County). These districts remained in place until the state seceded in 1861 on the brink of the Civil War.

Democrats held both seats until 1861. Alfred Greenwood of Bentonville (Benton County) represented the First District from 1853 to 1859, when he was replaced by Thomas C. Hindman of Helena (Phillips County) for a single term. Edward Warren and Albert Rust alternated representing the Second District, with Warren holding the seat from 1853 to 1855 and again from 1857 to 1859, while Rust served from 1855 to 1857 and 1859 to 1861.

Upon the approval of the secession of the state to become part of the Confederacy in 1861, Albert Rust took a seat in the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, while Thomas C. Hindman undertook military responsibilities for Arkansas and later the Confederacy. Hindman was officially expelled from the House on July 11, 1861, due to his new allegiance. Edward Gantt, elected in 1860 to represent the Second District, never took his seat due to secession. The Provisional Congress included four other Arkansans, including Augustus Garland, Robert Johnson, Hugh Thomason, and William Watkins.

While the Provisional Congress set up the new Confederate government, elections for the First Confederate Congress were held on November 6, 1861, and it began meeting on February 18, 1862. Arkansas received four seats in the Confederate House of Representatives, and the districts each took up about a quarter of the territory of the state. The First District, centered in the northwestern corner of the state, was represented by Felix Batson. Grandison Royston represented the Second District, based in southwestern Arkansas. The Third District, stretching from Chicot County in the southeastern corner of the state to include Prairie, Pulaski, and Saline counties, was represented by Augustus Garland. Thomas Hanly represented the Fourth District in the northeastern corner of the state. The 1863 election saw only one immediate change to the Arkansas delegation, with Royston defeated by Garland’s older brother, Rufus Garland, who ran as a peace candidate to help end the war.

After the conclusion of the war, Arkansas was without representation until the opening of the Fortieth Congress in 1867. Receiving another seat in 1863 based on the population recorded in the 1860 census, the seat was not filled until 1867. The three districts were represented by Republicans Logan H. Roots, James Hinds, and Thomas Boles. The First District, represented by Roots, included northeastern Arkansas and stretched to Morrilton (Conway County) in the west and Arkansas Post (Arkansas County) to the south. James Hinds represented the Second District, which included the southern part of the state and stretched north to include present-day Cabot (Lonoke County). Little Rock was included in the Second District. The Third District took in the northwestern corner of the state and reached the Red River in the southwestern corner, including Arkadelphia (Clark County) to the east. The following Congress saw the districts modified slightly, with Little Rock moved into the Third District. Republicans held all three seats from 1867 until 1869. Hinds was assassinated in 1868, and James Elliott completed his term. In 1869, Anthony Rogers won the Second District and served for a single term as a Democrat. The Third District also changed representatives in the middle of the 1871–1873 term, with John Edwards replaced by fellow Republican Thomas Boles after the latter challenged the results of the 1870 election.

The state received a fourth congressional seat in 1873. For the 1873–1875 Congress, William Hynes represented the At-Large district. In 1875, the congressional districts were redrawn to include the new district. The First District led by Lucien Guase, located in northeastern Arkansas and stretching south along the Mississippi River to include Dumas (Desha County), also jutted to the west to cover Batesville. The Second District represented by William Slemons, included all of southern Arkansas, reaching from Lake Village (Chicot County) to Texarkana (Miller County) while stretching north to include Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). Little Rock, Fort Smith, Hot Springs (Garland County), and Fordyce (Dallas County) were all included in the Third District, stretching from the western edge of the state to central Arkansas and represented by William Wilshire. Thomas Gunter represented the Fourth District, which included the northwestern corner of the state, reaching down to include Conway (Faulkner County) and Searcy (White County) while reaching the western edge of the Missouri Bootheel and including Jonesboro (Craighead County). The year 1875 saw Democrats take all four districts, which they would hold with one exception until 1967.

Some changes to district boundaries went into effect for the Forty-seventh Congress which began meeting in 1881. The First District expanded to include Jonesboro and Paragould (Greene County), represented by Poindexter Dunn. The Second District also grew, taking in Arkadelphia and Malvern (Hot Spring County), with James Jones representing the district. Fort Smith and Little Rock remained in the Third District, with Jordan Cravens representing the district, but it became more compact and no longer extended into southern Arkansas. The Fourth District likewise became more compact, still centered in northwestern Arkansas, represented by Thomas Gunter.

Continued population growth led to the addition of a fifth seat after the 1880 census. For the 1883–1885 Forty-eighth Congress, the Fifth District was elected statewide. New boundaries went into effect for the Forty-ninth Congress. The newly redesigned First District stretched from Chalk Bluff (Clay County) to Lake Village in the south. The district followed the Mississippi River, but the northern portion stretched to the west to take in Batesville and Hardy (Sharp County). The Second District included much of central Arkansas, stretching from Garrett Bridge (Lincoln County) to Optimus (Stone County) and Russellville (Pope County), represented by Clifton Breckenridge.

Thomas McRae represented the Third District, which now included southern Arkansas with Mena (Polk County) in the northwestern corner and Wilmot (Ashley County) in the southeast. Centered in the west-central part of the state, the Fourth District included Little Rock, Hot Springs, and Fort Smith. The new Fifth District included northwestern Arkansas, stretching to Mammoth Spring (Fulton County) in the east, with representation by Samuel Peel.

Population growth in the state led to the addition of another seat after the 1890 census. Containing northeastern Arkansas, the First District was represented by Phillip McCulloch and extended to the southern edge of Phillips County. The Second District included Fort Smith and reached across the state to take in Bradley and Drew counties, along with Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, and Mena. Including the southern edge of the state, the Third District included De Queen (Sevier County) and Arkadelphia before cutting below the southern edge of the Second District and taking in Chicot and Desha counties. Little Rock, Russellville, and Franklin County were included in the Fourth District, represented by William Terry, with Hugh Dinsmore’s Fifth District incorporating northwestern Arkansas, with a finger stretching south to include Conway. The Sixth District included Mountain Home (Baxter County), Pine Bluff, and Batesville, stretching to cover Arkansas County, represented by Robert Neill.

The 1900 census led to the addition of another seat in 1903, giving the state a total of seven representatives in the House. This number would not change over the next half century. During this period, the First District remained based in northeastern Arkansas and included Woodruff County to the west while stretching from Greene County in the north to Phillips County in the south. The Second District was located directly to the west of the First and included Randolph, Independence, and Sharp counties in the north and stretched down to include Arkansas County in the south. The new Third District included northwestern Arkansas and took in a portion to the southeast, including Van Buren County. Running along the Oklahoma border, the Fourth District stretched from Crawford County to Miller County in the south. The Fifth District included Pulaski County and stretched northwest to Franklin County. Centered in southeastern Arkansas, the Sixth District covered Jefferson, Lonoke, and Garland counties. The Seventh District included the southern edge of the state, including Chicot, Clark, and Hempstead counties.

After significant population gains in the early twentieth century, Arkansas lost roughly two percent of its population according to the 1950 census. This led to the reduction of the state’s House delegation to six seats. The new districts became effective with the Eighty-third Congress in 1953. The First District continued to include the northeastern corner of the state and extended from Greene County to Phillips County in the south. Craighead and St. Francis counties to the west were included in the district. The Second District remained unchanged other than the removal of Woodruff County to the First District. The eastern boundary of the Third District remained the same, but the western edge extended to the south to take in Sebastian and Scott counties. Taking in the southwestern corner of the state, the Fourth District extended from Polk County in the northwest to Ashley County in the southeast. Pulaski, Pope, and Yell counties, along with several others in central Arkansas, made up the Fifth District. The Sixth District encompassed a wide swath of south-central Arkansas, stretching from Chicot County to Garland County.

Following the 1960 census, which reported another population loss for the state, Arkansas lost two seats in the House. This brought the number allotted to the state to four, where it remains in the twenty-first century. These changes went into effect with the Eighty-eighth Congress in 1963. The boundaries of the First District remained unchanged, while the Second District now took in Arkansas County to the southeast, Perry County to the southwest, Conway County to the northwest, and Randolph and Fulton counties on the northern edge of the district. The Third District continued to include northwestern Arkansas and extended to Van Buren County in the east and south down to Scott County. The Fourth District covered the remainder of the state, including the entire state border with Louisiana, and extended north to Jefferson, Saline, and Polk counties.

Although the number of seats allocated to Arkansas has not changed since 1963, the boundaries of the congressional districts have continued to evolve due to changing population trends within the state. The next changes went into effect for the Ninetieth Congress in 1967. Jackson, Lawrence, Randolph, Monroe, and Woodruff counties were added to the First District, while the Second District added Baxter County. The Third District expanded to the south, taking in Little River, Sevier, Howard, and Hempstead counties, among others. The Fourth District in southern Arkansas did not expand.

Additional changes went into effect for the Ninety-third Congress in 1973. The First District expanded into north-central Arkansas, taking in Van Buren County and continuing to stretch to the south along the Mississippi River to Phillips County. The Second District remained positioned in central Arkansas, stretching from Arkansas County in the south to Conway and Saline counties to the west. The Third District reached from Benton County to Polk County and to the east to Perry County. The Fourth District grew in size, gaining Hempstead, Howard, Pike, and Sevier counties. A decade later, more changes followed the 1980 census. Jefferson and Prairie counties moved from the First District to the Second, while Cleburne County moved to the First. Perry and Yell counties moved from the Third District to the Second, while Howard and Sevier counties moved to the Third from the Fourth. Finally, Garland County moved from the Third to the Fourth District.

Changes following the 1990 census included the addition of Lonoke and Searcy counties to the First District from the Second and Third Districts, respectively. The Second District received Van Buren County from the First District while the Fourth District gained Sevier, Howard, and Montgomery counties from the Third District. The 2000 Census led to the Third District becoming more compact, with Logan, Scott, and Polk counties moving from the Third to the Fourth District.

More changes occurred following the 2010 census, with the First District expanding along the Mississippi River and incorporating Desha, Chicot, and Lincoln counties from the Fourth District. It also gained Baxter County from the Third District. The Fourth District in turn gained Polk, Newton, Madison, Franklin, Yell, and Johnson counties, while the Second District did not gain any counties.

The 2020 census saw a major change as Pulaski County was split among the First, Second, and Fourth Districts, a change criticized by many as gerrymandering, given that it split a heavily African American part of the county among three congressional districts. Boone and Marion counties joined the First District, while the Third District gained Madison County.

Districts are redrawn every decade, following the completion of a new federal census. The districts are drawn by the Board of Apportionment, comprised of the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general, as detailed in Article 8 of the 1874 Arkansas Constitution. The reapportionment after the 2020 census drew a federal lawsuit when approximately 23,000 Black voters in southern Pulaski County were split between the First and Fourth Districts from their traditional home in the Second District. A ruling by a panel of judges on the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the lawsuit challenging the shift in 2023, leaving the district boundaries as drawn by the Board of Apportionment.

Districts, Broken Down by Individual Congresses:

For additional information:
Arkansas Secretary of State. https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/ (accessed April 5, 2024).

Ellis, Dale. “Federal Judges Dismiss Challenge to Arkansas’ Congressional Map.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 26, 2023. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/may/26/new-congressional-map-survives-suit/ (accessed April 5, 2024).

Martis, Kenneth. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts: 1789–1983. New York: Free Press, 1982.

David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University