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Arkansas' 4th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 Democratic primary)

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2026
2022
Arkansas' 4th Congressional District
Ballotpedia Election Coverage Badge.png
Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: November 14, 2023
Primary: March 5, 2024
Primary runoff: April 2, 2024
General: November 5, 2024
How to vote
Poll times: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Voting in Arkansas
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Republican
DDHQ and The Hill: Safe Republican
Inside Elections: Solid Republican
Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds
U.S. House battlegrounds
Federal and state primary competitiveness
Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2024
See also
Arkansas' 4th Congressional District
1st2nd3rd4th
Arkansas elections, 2024
U.S. Congress elections, 2024
U.S. Senate elections, 2024
U.S. House elections, 2024

A Democratic Party primary took place on March 5, 2024, in Arkansas' 4th Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate would run in the district's general election on November 5, 2024.

Risie Howard advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Arkansas District 4.

All 435 seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies.[1] As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election. To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Republican candidate won 71.0%-26.2%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Donald Trump (R) would have defeated Joe Biden (D) 66.2%-31.0%.[2]

Candidate filing deadline Primary election General election
November 14, 2023
March 5, 2024
November 5, 2024


A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Arkansas utilizes an open primary system. Registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.[3][4]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Arkansas' 4th Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Risie Howard advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Arkansas District 4.

Candidate profiles

There were no candidate profiles created for this race. Candidate profiles would have appeared here as candidates completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Arkansas

Election information in Arkansas: March 5, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

  • In-person: Feb. 5, 2024
  • By mail: Received by Feb. 5, 2024
  • Online: N/A

Was absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

No

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

  • In-person: March 1, 2024
  • By mail: Received by Feb. 27, 2024
  • Online: Feb. 27, 2024

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

  • In-person: March 5, 2024
  • By mail: Received by March 5, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

N/A

What were the early voting start and end dates?

Feb. 20, 2024 to March 4, 2024

Were all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, was a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

7:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. (CST)


Campaign finance

Name Party Receipts* Disbursements** Cash on hand Date
Risie Howard Democratic Party $12,982 $9,156 $2,287 As of December 31, 2024

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

  • District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
  • Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2024 U.S. House elections in the state.
  • Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
  • State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.


Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

2023_01_03_ar_congressional_district_04.jpg
See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Arkansas.

Arkansas U.S. House competitiveness, 2014-2024
Office Districts/
offices
Seats Open seats Candidates Possible primaries Contested Democratic primaries Contested Republican primaries % of contested primaries Incumbents in contested primaries % of incumbents in contested primaries
2024 4 4 0 9 8 0 1 12.5% 1 25.0%
2022 4 4 0 12 8 0 3 37.5% 3 75.0%
2020 4 4 0 7 8 0 0 0.0% 0 0.0%
2018 4 4 0 13 8 1 2 37.5% 2 50.0%
2016 4 4 0 6 8 0 1 12.5% 1 25.0%
2014 4 4 2 10 8 0 2 25.0% 0 0.0%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Arkansas in 2024. Information below was calculated on 1/22/2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

Nine candidates filed to run for Arkansas' four U.S. House districts—four Democrats and five Republicans. That's 2.25 candidates per district, fewer than the three candidates per district in 2022, but more than the 1.75 candidates in 2020. In 2018, 3.25 candidates ran per district, the most this decade.

Incumbents filed to run in every district. The last year there was an open seat in Arkansas was 2014, when two incumbents didn’t run.

The Republican primary in the 3rd district was 2024's only contested primary. Three primaries—all Republican—were contested in 2022, tying 2018 as the most this decade. No primaries were contested in 2020.

Rep. Steve Womack (R), the incumbent in the 3rd district, was the only incumbent facing a primary challenger this cycle.

Democratic and Republican candidates ran in all four districts, meaning no districts were guaranteed to either party.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+20. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 20 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Arkansas' 4th the 43rd most Republican district nationally.[5]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in Arkansas' 4th based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden Democratic Party Donald Trump Republican Party
31.0% 66.2%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district.[6] The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline Democratic Party Republican Baseline Republican Party Difference
30.0 67.9 R+37.9

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Arkansas, 2020

Arkansas presidential election results (1900-2020)

  • 20 Democratic wins
  • 10 Republican wins
  • 1 other win
Year 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Winning Party D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D AI[7] R D R R R D D R R R R R R
See also: Party control of Arkansas state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Arkansas' congressional delegation as of May 2024.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Arkansas
Party U.S. Senate U.S. House Total
Democratic 0 0 0
Republican 2 4 6
Independent 0 0 0
Vacancies 0 0 0
Total 2 4 6

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Arkansas' top four state executive offices as of May 2024.

State executive officials in Arkansas, May 2024
Office Officeholder
Governor Republican Party Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Lieutenant Governor Republican Party Leslie Rutledge
Secretary of State Republican Party John Thurston
Attorney General Republican Party Tim Griffin

State legislature

Arkansas State Senate

Party As of February 2024
     Democratic Party 6
     Republican Party 29
     Independent 0
     Other 0
     Vacancies 0
Total 35

Arkansas House of Representatives

Party As of February 2024
     Democratic Party 18
     Republican Party 82
     Other 0
     Vacancies 0
Total 100

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

Arkansas Party Control: 1992-2024
Eleven years of Democratic trifectas  •  Ten years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Governor D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R
Senate D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R
House D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Arkansas in the 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Arkansas, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State Office Party Signatures required Filing fee Filing deadline Source
Arkansas U.S. House Ballot-qualified party N/A Fixed by party 11/14/2023 Source
Arkansas U.S. House Unaffiliated 3% of qualified voters in the district, or 2,000, whichever is less N/A 11/14/2023 Source

See also

External links

Footnotes


Senators
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
Republican Party (6)