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Arkansas Supreme Court elections, 2018
- General election: Nov. 6
- Voter registration deadline: Oct. 9
- Early voting: Oct. 22 - Nov. 5
- Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 5
- Online registration: No
- Same-day registration: No
- Voter ID: Photo ID required (preliminary injunction issued on April 26, 2018)
- Poll times: 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
| 2018 election dates | |
|---|---|
| Deadline to file candidacy | |
| March 1, 2018 | |
| General election | |
| May 22, 2018 | |
| Runoff | |
| November 6, 2018 | |
| 2018 State Judicial Elections | |
|---|---|
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| Overview | |
| Supreme Courts Overview | |
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Courtney Goodson's first term as Position 3 Justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court expired on December 31, 2018. She stood in a nonpartisan election by voters in 2018 in order to remain on the bench. There are seven justices on the state supreme court.
Goodson defeated Arkansas Department of Human Services chief counsel David Sterling in a Nov. 6 runoff election for the Position 3 seat. In the May 22 election, Goodson and Sterling were the top two vote-getters, receiving 37 percent and 34 percent of the vote, respectively. Kenneth Hixson received 29 percent. As no candidate received more than 50 percent, a runoff was scheduled.
The Republican State Leadership Committee spent $1.1 million on ads and mailers opposing Goodson and supporting Sterling through October 24. Ahead of the May 22 election, the Judicial Crisis Network spent $935,000 on ads opposing Goodson and Hixson.
Goodson was elected in 2010 and ran for chief justice in 2016, losing to Dan Kemp.
Candidates and results
Position 3
Runoff election
General runoff election
General runoff election for Arkansas Supreme Court Position 3
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Courtney Rae Hudson (Nonpartisan) | 55.7 | 463,631 |
 | David Sterling (Nonpartisan) | 44.3 | 369,283 | |
| Total votes: 832,914 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
General election
General election
General election for Arkansas Supreme Court Position 3
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Courtney Rae Hudson (Nonpartisan) | 37.1 | 113,825 |
| ✔ | | David Sterling (Nonpartisan) | 34.2 | 104,817 |
 | Kenneth Hixson (Nonpartisan) | 28.7 | 87,948 | |
| Total votes: 306,590 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Satellite spending
- The Judicial Crisis Network spent $935,000 on ads opposing Goodson and Hixson ahead of the May 22 election.[1]
- The Republican State Leadership Committee spent $1.1 million on TV ads and mailers opposing Goodson and supporting Sterling, according to an October 24 Associated Press report.[2]
Campaign advertisements
Courtney Goodson
Oppose
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David Sterling
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Noteworthy events
The group Judicial Crisis Network spent $935,000 on televised ads critical of Goodson and Appeals Court Judge Kenneth Hixson. Goodson filed a lawsuit against local TV stations in May to block an ad from appearing, deeming it defamation.[1][3][4]
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza granted Goodson's request for a preliminary injunction, preventing TV stations from airing the ad in the Little Rock area through the May 22 election. Circuit Judge Mackie Pierce denied the request to prevent the ads from airing in northwest Arkansas.[4][5]
About the Arkansas Supreme Court
- See also: Arkansas Supreme Court
There are seven justices on the Arkansas Supreme Court, each elected to eight-year terms. They compete in nonpartisan primaries (occurring at the same time as the primary elections for other state officials) in which the candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the vote wins the seat. If no candidate garners a majority of the vote, the top two candidates compete in a runoff during the general election.[6]
Political composition
| ■ Karen R. Baker | Elected in 2010 | |
| ■ Josephine Hart | Elected in 2012 | |
| ■ Courtney Hudson Goodson | Elected in 2010 | |
| ■ Shawn Womack | Elected in 2016 | |
| ■ Dan Kemp | Elected in 2016 | |
| ■ Rhonda Wood | Elected in 2014 | |
| ■ Robin Wynne | Elected in 2014 |
Selection
Selection of supreme court justices in Arkansas occurs through the nonpartisan election of judges.[6] Judges' terms begin on January 1 of the year after they were elected.[7] In the event of a midterm vacancy, an interim judge is selected by the governor. This appointee will serve until the next general election taking place four or more months after the vacancy occurred.[6]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:
- at least 30 years old;
- of "good moral character;"
- learned in the law;
- a U.S. citizen and state resident for at least two years; and
- a legal practitioner for at least eight years.[6]
Arkansas does not use judicial nominating commissions to screen or select potential candidates.[8]
Selection of the chief justice
The court's chief justice is selected by voters at large and serves in that capacity for a full eight-year term.[6]
State profile
| Demographic data for Arkansas | ||
|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 2,977,853 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 52,035 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 78% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 15.5% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 1.4% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 0.6% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2.1% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 6.9% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 84.8% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 21.1% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $41,371 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 22.9% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Arkansas. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern
- See also: Presidential voting trends in Arkansas
Arkansas voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
Pivot Counties (2016)
Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Arkansas, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties.[9]
Pivot Counties (2020)
In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Arkansas had one Retained Pivot County, 0.55 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.
More Arkansas coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in Arkansas
- United States congressional delegations from Arkansas
- Public policy in Arkansas
- Endorsers in Arkansas
- Arkansas fact checks
- More...
Pivot Counties
- See also: Pivot Counties by state
One of 75 Arkansas counties—1.33 percent—is a Pivot County. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.
| Counties won by Trump in 2016 and Obama in 2012 and 2008 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| County | Trump margin of victory in 2016 | Obama margin of victory in 2012 | Obama margin of victory in 2008 | ||||
| Woodruff County, Arkansas | 8.91% | 4.21% | 7.46% | ||||
In the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump (R) won Arkansas with 60.6 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton (D) received 33.7 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Arkansas voted Democratic 66.67 percent of the time and Republican 30 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, Arkansas voted Republican all five times.
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Arkansas judicial election' OR 'Arkansas court election' OR 'Arkansas election 2018'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Associated Press, "Bitter, expensive fight for Arkansas court seat to drag on," May 23, 2018
- ↑ Associated Press, "Group spends $1.1M against Arkansas Supreme Court justice," October 24, 2018
- ↑ ‘’Arkansas Times,’’ “Supreme Court faces ruling on one of its own,” July 31, 2018
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 ‘’Arkansas Online,’’ “On appeal, Little Rock TV station says free-speech rights violated in election ads case,” July 31, 2018
- ↑ US News & World Report, "The Latest: Arkansas Judge Says Outside Campaign Ads Can Air," May 18, 2018
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Arkansas," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Arkansas.gov, "Elected Officials," accessed May 20, 2014
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Arkansas; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Arkansas, Western District of Arkansas
State courts:
Arkansas Supreme Court • Arkansas Court of Appeals • Arkansas Circuit Courts • Arkansas District Courts • Arkansas City Courts
State resources:
Courts in Arkansas • Arkansas judicial elections • Judicial selection in Arkansas
