United States Senators from Arkansas

The United States Congress, as created under the Constitution of the United States in 1787, consists of an upper and a lower house: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Until the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by the legislatures of their respective states. Since that ratification, senators have been chosen by popular vote of each state. A senator must be at least thirty years of age, a citizen of the United States for nine years, and a resident of the state that they represent. A senator serves a non-term-limited term of six years. Unlike the House, in which the entire body is up for reelection every two years, only one-third of senators are voted on during each general election. Each of the fifty states elects two senators, making the current Senate consist of 100 members. In the twenty-first century, due to urbanization (especially in states that typically lean Democratic), the Senate as an institution structurally favors Republicans, given that rural, more conservative states are over-represented in this half of the U.S. Congress.

The first two senators chosen by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1836 were William S. Fulton and Ambrose Sevier. Since that time, the state has been represented by some of the most powerful and respected senators in U.S. history, including Joseph T. Robinson (who was also the vice presidential nominee in 1928), John L. McClellan, James William Fulbright, David Pryor, and Dale Bumpers. In 1932, Arkansas elected Hattie Caraway, the first woman elected to a full term in the Senate. Senator Caraway was followed by Blanche Lincoln in 1998. As a southern state in which the Democratic Party was the dominant political force before the modern civil rights movement, Arkansas has been represented, in total, by only seven Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Stephen Dorsey, Alexander McDonald, Powell Clayton, and Benjamin Rice served during Reconstruction. The next Republican senator, the first ever chosen by statewide election, was Tim Hutchinson in 1996. In 2020, the two Arkansas senators, John Boozman and Tom Cotton, were both Republicans. Given the increased preference for Republicans by white southerners, Arkansas, once a solidly Democratic state, will likely continue to send Republican senators to Washington DC in the near future.

NAME (LAST)	NAME (FIRST)	LIVED	SERVED	CONGRESS	PARTY
Ashley	Chester	1791–1848	1844–1848	28th–30th	Democratic
Berry	James H.	1841–1913	1885–1907	49th–59th	Democratic
Boozman	John	1950–	2011–	112th–	Republican
Borland	Solon	1811–1864	1848–1853	30th–32nd	Democratic
Bumpers	Dale	1925–2016	1975–1999	94th–105th	Democratic
Caraway	Hattie W.	1878–1950	1931–1945	72nd–78th	Democratic
Caraway	Thaddeus H.	1871–1931	1921–1931	67th–72nd	Democratic
Clarke	James P.	1854–1916	1903–1916	58th–64th	Democratic
Clayton	Powell	1833–1914	1871–1877	42nd–44th	Republican
Cotton	Tom	1977–	2015–	114th–	Republican
Davis	Jeff	1862–1913	1907–1913	60th–61st	Democratic
Dorsey	Stephen W.	1842–1916	1873–1879	43rd–45th	Republican
Fulbright	J. William	1905–1995	1945–1974	79th–93rd	Democratic
Fulton	William S.	1795–1844	1836–1844	24th–28th	Democratic
Garland	Augustus H.	1832–1899	1877–1885	45th–49th	Democratic
Heiskell	John N.	1872–1972	1913	62nd	Democratic
Hodges	Kaneaster Jr.	1938–	1977–1979	95th	Democratic
Hutchinson	Tim	1949–	1997–2003	105th–107th	Republican
Johnson	Robert W.	1814–1879	1853–1861	33rd–36th	Democratic
Jones	James K.	1839–1908	1885–1903	49th–57th	Democratic
Kavanaugh	William M.	1866–1915	1913	62nd	Democratic
Kirby	William F.	1867–1934	1916–1921	64th–66th	Democratic
Lincoln	Blanche	1960–	1999–2011	106th–111th	Democratic
McClellan	John L.	1896–1977	1943–1977	78th–94th	Democratic
McDonald	Alexander	1832–1903	1868–1871	40th–41st	Republican
Miller	John E.	1888–1981	1937–1941	75th–77th	Democratic
Mitchel	Charles B.	1815–1864	1861	37th	Democratic
Pryor	David H.	1934–	1979–1997	96th–104th	Democratic
Pryor	Mark	1963–	2003–2015	108th–113th	Democratic
Rice	Benjamin F.	1828–1905	1868–1873	40th–42nd	Republican
Robinson	Joseph T.	1872–1937	1913–1937	63rd–75th	Democratic
Sebastian	William K.	1812–1865	1848–1861	30th–37th	Democratic
Sevier	Ambrose H.	1801–1848	1836–1848	24th–30th	Democratic
Spencer	Lloyd	1893–1981	1941–1943	77th	Democratic
Walker	James D.	1830–1906	1879–1885	46th–48th	Democratic