Arkansas has sentcongressional delegations to theUnited States Senate andUnited States House of Representatives since it became a state in 1836,^[1] with the exception of theCivil War andReconstruction period between 1861 and 1868.^[a][3] Before becoming a state, theArkansas Territory elected anon-voting delegate at-large to Congress, beginning with the16th United States Congress in 1819.^[4]: 88 Arkansas first sent a voting representative to Congress in the25th United States Congress, following its statehood.^[4]: 115

Each U.S. state elects two senators to serve for six years in general elections, with their re-election staggered. Prior to the ratification of theSeventeenth Amendment in 1913, Arkansas senators were elected by theArkansas General Assembly; afterwards, senators were elected directly by the people of the state.^[5]

Each state elects at least one member of the House to a two-year term. The number of House members is proportional to the state's share of the national population, and changes every ten years with the results of theUnited States Census.^[6][7] Arkansas's representation began with one representative immediately after statehood, and peaked from 1903 to 1953 following the1900 United States census, with seven seats in the House. Arkansas has sent four members to the House in each congressional delegation since 1963.^[8]

As a senator for 34 years, from 1942 to 1977,John L. McClellan was the longest-serving senator to represent Arkansas in Congress.^[9] The current dean, or longest-serving incumbent, of Arkansas's congressional delegation is senatorJohn Boozman, who has represented Arkansas in Congress since 2001.^[10] While Arkansas politics was dominated by the Democratic Party from the 1870s to the 1960s, Arkansas's current delegation consists entirely of Republicans. Some scholars consider the2010 elections the beginning of the modern rise of theArkansas Republican Party.^[11]

Current U.S. senators from Arkansas

Arkansas CPVI(2025):[12] R+15	Class II senator	Class III senator
	Tom Cotton (Junior senator) (Little Rock)	John Boozman (Senior senator) (Rogers)
Party	Republican	Republican
Incumbent since	January 3, 2015	January 3, 2011

Arkansas's current congressional delegation in the119th Congress consists of two senators and four representatives, all of whom areRepublicans. The state has had four representatives in the House since 1963, following the1960 census.^[4]: 41 The current dean, or longest-serving incumbent,^[13] of the Arkansas delegation is SenatorJohn Boozman, who has represented Arkansas in the Senate since 2011 and in Congress since 2001.^[10]

TheCook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI) is a measure of how strongly partisan a state is.^[14]: 274 For each district or state, the CPVI measures the party leaning (Democratic or Republican) and the number of percentage points more partisan than the national average. For instance, a rating of R+4 would mean the district or state voted four percentage points more Republican than the national average, while a rating of D+9 would mean the district or state voted nine points more Democratic than the national average.^[15] As of 2025, the CPVI rated all four districts in Arkansas as leaning Republican, withthe 1st district, represented byRick Crawford in the House, leaning most heavily at R+23, andthe 2nd district, represented byFrench Hill in the House, leaning the least at R+8.^[16] The CPVI gave Arkansas an R+15 rating as a whole.^[12]

Current U.S. representatives from Arkansas

District	Member (Residence)[17]	Party	Incumbent since	CPVI (2025)[16]	District map
1st	Rick Crawford (Jonesboro)	Republican	January 3, 2011[18]	R+23
2nd	French Hill (Little Rock)	Republican	January 3, 2015[19]	R+8
3rd	Steve Womack (Rogers)	Republican	January 3, 2011[20]	R+13
4th	Bruce Westerman (Hot Springs)	Republican	January 3, 2015[21]	R+20

35 people have served as aU.S. senator from Arkansas, consisting of 33 men and two women, as well as 28Democrats and 7Republicans.^[9] Two,William K. Sebastian andCharles B. Mitchel, were expelled from the Senate because ofArkansas's secession from the Union at the start of theAmerican Civil War; Sebastian was the only senator from a Confederate state to later be reinstated, albeit posthumously.^{[22]: 95–98} Afterher husband's death in office,Hattie Caraway, became the first woman to beelected to a full term in the Senate, after finishing his term.^[23]: 123 The longest-serving senator from Arkansas,John L. McClellan, chaired many Senate committees during his 34 years in office, including theSenate Committee on Government Operations and theSenate Appropriations Committee.^[9][24] For some time, he served withJ. William Fulbright, known for theFulbright Program, establishing an Americanstudent exchange program; his chairing of theSenate Foreign Relations Committee, resulting in theGulf of Tonkin Resolution andFulbright hearings; and his opposition to thecivil rights movement.^{[25]: 21–22 [26]} Other senators from Arkansas also served in leadership roles in the Senate, includingJoseph T. Robinson, who served asSenate Majority Leader,^[27] andAmbrose Sevier andJames P. Clarke, who both served aspresident pro tempore of the Senate.^[3]

Senators are elected every six years depending on theirclass, with each senator serving a six-year term and elections for senators occurring every two years; the class up for re-election rotates such that each election, around one-third of the seats in the Senate are up for election.^[28] Arkansas's senators are elected in classes II and III. Currently, Arkansas is represented in the Senate byTom Cotton andJohn Boozman.^[29]

Arkansas has been represented in the House since 1819, whenJames Woodson Bates was sent to Congress as a delegate fromArkansas Territory, except for during theAmerican Civil War.^{[4]: 162, 166, 170} Because Arkansas seceded from theUnion and joined theConfederacy during the war, its representatives were sent to theConfederate States Congress instead.Robert Ward Johnson, who previously served as both a representative and senator from Arkansas, andAlbert Rust, who was a sitting member of Congress from Arkansas during secession, both later served in the Confederate Congress.^{[2]: 228–229, 231–232}

Many representatives from Arkansas have held leadership roles in the House.William A. Oldfield served as theHouse Minority Whip for theDemocratic Party.^[45]Wilbur Mills was elected in 1938, serving as the powerful chairman of theHouse Ways and Means Committee from 1957 until his retirement in 1977, following scandals related to hisalcoholism and anaffair with stripperFanne Foxe.^{[46]: 1 [47]} Some representatives have gone on to serve in other political and judicial offices after their time in Congress, includingThomas C. McRae, who later served asgovernor of Arkansas;^[48]: 1Tim Griffin, who later served aslieutenant governor of Arkansas;^[49]Asa Hutchinson, who later became governor of Arkansas and led both theDrug Enforcement Administration and part of theDepartment of Homeland Security;^[50] andRay Thornton, who later served on theArkansas Supreme Court.^[51]

Each district uses a popular vote to elect a member of Arkansas's delegation in the House of Representatives.^[6] Districts are redrawn every ten years, after data from theUS Census is collected.^[52] While it has sent varying numbers of representatives to Congress over the years, Arkansas has sent four representatives to the House since 1963, following the1960 United States census.^[8] Arkansas is currently represented in the House by fourRepublicans:Rick Crawford,French Hill,Steve Womack, andBruce Westerman.

TheArkansas Territory was created on March 2, 1819, and it sent a non-voting delegate to the House.^{[53][4]: 88}

Following statehood on June 15, 1836, Arkansas had one seat in the House.^[4]: 111

Following the1850 census, Arkansas was apportioned two seats in the House.^[4]: 146

Following the1860 census, Arkansas was apportioned three seats.^[4]: 41

Following the1870 census, Arkansas was apportioned four seats.^[4]: 41

Following the1880 census, Arkansas was apportioned five seats.^[4]: 41

Following the1890 census, Arkansas was apportioned six seats.^[4]: 41

Following the1900 census, Arkansas was apportioned seven seats.^[4]: 41

Following the1950 census, Arkansas was apportioned six seats.^[8]

Since the1960 census, Arkansas has been apportioned four seats.^[8]

• List of United States congressional districts
• Arkansas's congressional districts
• Political party strength in Arkansas

• United States representatives from Arkansas
• United States senators from Arkansas
• United States congressional delegations by state
• Politics of Arkansas
• Lists of Arkansas politicians

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