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Rhonda Wood
2015 - Present
2030
10
Rhonda Wood is a judge for Position 7 of the Arkansas Supreme Court. She assumed office on January 1, 2015. Her current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Wood ran for election as Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court. She lost in the general runoff election on November 5, 2024.
Wood completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Wood was elected in 2014 to a term that began on January 1, 2015 and ends December 31, 2030.[1] To read more about judicial selection in Arkansas click here
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Wood received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Rhonda Wood was born in Ottumwa, Iowa. Wood earned a bachelor's degree from Hendrix College in 1996 and a J.D. from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law in 1999. Her career experience includes working as a judge and assistant dean of the Bowen School of Law.[4] Wood began her judicial career as a Division 5 judge for the Twentieth Circuit Court. She was appointed to that position in 2006 by Governor Mike Huckabee (R) and began serving in January 2007. She was elected to the Arkansas Court of Appeals in 2012, taking office in January 2013. She was then elected to the state supreme court in 2014, again taking office the following January.[5]
Elections
2024
See also: Arkansas Supreme Court elections, 2024
General runoff election
General runoff election for Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice
Karen R. Baker defeated Rhonda Wood in the general runoff election for Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Karen R. Baker (Nonpartisan) | 52.7 | 546,713 |
 | Rhonda Wood (Nonpartisan)  | 47.3 | 491,148 | |
| Total votes: 1,037,861 | |||
| = 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 for Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice
Karen R. Baker and Rhonda Wood advanced to a runoff. They defeated Barbara Webb and Jay Martin in the general election for Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Karen R. Baker (Nonpartisan) | 27.2 | 86,850 |
| ✔ | | Rhonda Wood (Nonpartisan) | 26.3 | 84,139 |
 | Barbara Webb (Nonpartisan) | 25.9 | 82,735 | |
 | Jay Martin (Nonpartisan) | 20.6 | 65,875 | |
| Total votes: 319,599 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Wood in this election.
2022
See also: Arkansas Supreme Court elections, 2022
General election
The general election was canceled. Rhonda Wood (Nonpartisan) won without appearing on the ballot.
2014
Wood ran for election to the Arkansas Supreme Court. She won without opposition in the general election on May 20, 2014.[6][1]
2012
- See also: Arkansas judicial elections, 2012
In October 2011, Wood declared her candidacy for District 2, Position 2 on the Arkansas Court of Appeals. This seat was formerly held by Cliff Hoofman.[7] She defeated Judge Mitch Cash in the primary election on May 22, 2012, receiving 62.76% of the vote.[8]
2010
- Main article: Arkansas judicial elections, 2010
Wood ran for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals in 2010. She narrowly lost in the primary election to Josephine Hart, winning only 48.17% of the vote.[9]
Campaign themes
2024
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released January 30, 2024 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Rhonda Wood completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wood's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
- “When I first ran for the Supreme Court, I pledged to bring Arkansas values to our state’s highest court – faith, family, hard-working, conservative values. Throughout my time on the bench, I’ve done just that, making tough decisions in the face of immense pressure. As a member of the court, I will always uphold the rule of law and the Arkansas Constitution will be my guide.”
- "The Chief Justice position is one that comes with not only immense responsibility, but opportunity. I’m confident that I have the right experience and judicial temperament to serve in this important role."
- I care passionately about juvenile justice and have worked to reform juvenile justice and child welfare for the last 18 years.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Wood’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
|
” |
| —Rhonda Wood’s campaign website (2024)[11] | ||
2022
Rhonda Wood did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[12]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[13]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Rhonda
Wood
Arkansas
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Wood donated $2,651 to Republican candidates and organizations. She received $1,000 from Gov. Mike Huckabee (R).
Noteworthy events
Professional misconduct complaint (2018)
On September 20, 2018, the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disciplinary Commission announced charges of ethical misconduct against Arkansas Supreme Court Justices Dan Kemp, Robin Wynne, Courtney Hudson Goodson, Josephine Hart, Karen Baker, and Rhonda Wood. The charges followed a complaint Pulaski County Judge Wendell Griffen filed in April 2017. Griffen alleged the justices did not give him enough time to respond to a ruling removing him from capital punishment cases.[14]
On April 14, 2017, Griffen filed an injunction preventing the execution of seven inmates by capital punishment. He attended a death penalty protest the same day. On April 15, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R) asked the state supreme court to reverse Griffen's injunction and remove him from a case involving the death penalty. The supreme court clerk contacted Griffen about Rutledge's request the afternoon of April 15 and gave Griffen until 9 a.m. April 17 to respond. He was removed from the case after failing to respond by the deadline.[15]
The judicial commission said the justices did not provide Griffen with a sufficient amount of time to respond.[15]
State supreme court judicial selection in Arkansas
- See also: Judicial selection in Arkansas
The seven justices on the Arkansas Supreme Court are selected through nonpartisan elections. They compete in nonpartisan general elections—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 November general election.[16]
The winners are elected to eight-year terms.[16]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:[17]
- licensed to practice law in Arkansas for at least eight years;
- a qualified elector within the geographic area from which chosen.
Chief justice
The court's chief justice is selected by voters at large and serves in that capacity for a full eight-year term.[18]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, an interim judge is selected by the governor to fill the empty seat. If the open seat would have been filled at the next general election if the vacancy did not occur, the appointed justice will serve the remainder of the unexpired term. If the open seat would not have been regularly filled at the next general election, the appointee will serve until the next general election if the vacancy occurred more than four months prior to the election. If the vacancy occurs less than four months prior to the next general election, then the justice will serve until the second succeeding general election. A justice appointed by the governor to serve an unexpired term is ineligible to run for re-election to their seat.[16]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice |
Officeholder Arkansas Supreme Court Position 7 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Arkansas Secretary of State, "Nonpartisan Election Results," June 1, 2014
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 20, 2024
- ↑ Arkansas Judiciary, "Court of Appeals, Judges, Rhonda Wood," accessed June 1, 2014
- ↑ Arkansas Online, "2014 Elections Filings, Non-partisan judicial races," accessed March 26, 2014
- ↑ Arkansas News, "Wood announces for Court of Appeals," October 13, 2011
- ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "2012 Official Primary Election Results," accessed June 1, 2014
- ↑ Arkansas Secretary of State, "Unofficial Primary Election Results 5/18/10," accessed June 1, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Committee to Elect Justice Rhonda Wood, “Priorities,” accessed December 14, 2023
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Arkansas Judicial Discipline & Disciplinary Commission, "Press release," accessed September 20, 2018
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Talk Business & Politics, "Panel files formal charges against six Arkansas Supreme Court justices over Griffen fight," accessed September 20, 2018
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Arkansas Judiciary, "Arkansas Supreme Court," accessed March 27, 2023 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "ssc" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Services, "Ark. Const. Amendment 80, §16," accessed April 15, 2025
- ↑ Justia, "Arkansas Constitution - Amendment 80 - Qualifications of justices and judges.," accessed March 27, 2023
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