Editing Searcy County, Arkansas (section)

==Government and politics==

=== Government ===
The county government is a constitutional body granted specific powers by the [[Constitution of Arkansas]] and the [[Arkansas Code]]. The quorum court is the legislative branch of the county government and controls all spending and revenue collection. Representatives are called ''justices of the peace'' and are elected from county districts every even-numbered year. The number of districts in a county vary from nine to fifteen, and district boundaries are drawn by the county election commission. The Searcy County Quorum Court has nine members. Presiding over quorum court meetings is the ''county judge'', who serves as the [[chief operating officer]] of the county. The county judge is elected at-large and does not vote in quorum court business, although capable of vetoing quorum court decisions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quorum Courts |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/quorum-courts-6348/ |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Office of County Judge |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/office-of-county-judge-5720/ |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
|+Searcy County, Arkansas Elected countywide officials<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Searcy {{!}} Association of Arkansas Counties |url=https://www.arcounties.org/counties/searcy/ |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=www.arcounties.org}}</ref><ref>https://www.arcounties.org/site/assets/files/6033/november_races.pdf</ref>
!Position
!Officeholder
!Party
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|County Judge
|Tony Horton
|Republican
|-
|County/Circuit Clerk
|Cassy Ward
|(Unknown)
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Sheriff/Collector
|Kenny Cassell
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Treasurer
|Mary Beth Martin
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Assessor
|Randy Crumley
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Coroner
|Jerry Patterson
|Republican
|}
The composition of the Quorum Court following the 2024 elections is 9 Republicans. Justices of the Peace (members) of the Quorum Court following the elections are:<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Searcy County, Arkansas, elections, 2024 |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Searcy_County,_Arkansas,_elections,_2024 |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=Ballotpedia |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Election Night Reporting |url=https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/AR/Searcy/119931/web.317647/#/summary?v=333152/ |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=results.enr.clarityelections.com |language=en}}</ref>

* District 1: Rob Woods (R)
* District 2: Kim D. Loftin (R)
* District 3: James Matt Smith (R)
* District 4: Danny Loggins (R)
* District 5: Wayne Witcher (R)
* District 6: Joel Brian Ragland (R)
* District 7: Jason Ragland (R)
* District 8: Cindi Silor (R)
* District 9: Jerry Loggins (R)
Additionally, the townships of Stone County are entitled to elect their own respective constables, as set forth by the [[Constitution of Arkansas]]. Constables are largely of historical significance as they were used to keep the peace in rural areas when travel was more difficult.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is a Constable? |url=https://www.uaex.uada.edu/business-communities/ced-blog/posts/2022/may/what-is-a-constable.aspx |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=What is a Constable? |language=en}}</ref> The township constables as of the 2024 elections are:<ref name=":1" />

* District 1: Bill Sellers (R)
* District 2: Troy Dye (R)

=== Politics ===
Along with adjacent [[Newton County, Arkansas|Newton County]], Searcy is unique among Arkansas counties in being traditionally [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] in political leanings even during the overwhelmingly Democratic "[[Solid South]]" era. This Republicanism resulted from their historical paucity of [[slavery in the United States|slaves]], in turn created by infertile soils unsuitable for intensive cotton farming, and produced support for [[Union (American Civil War)|the Union]] during the Civil War.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}} These were the only two counties in Arkansas to be won by [[Alf Landon]] in 1936,<ref>[http://geoelections.free.fr/USA/elec_comtes/1936.htm Geographie Electorale]</ref> [[Wendell Willkie]] in 1940, [[Charles Evans Hughes]] in 1916, and even [[Calvin Coolidge]] in 1924. In Presidential elections post-[[1932 United States presidential election|1932]], [[Harry S. Truman]] and [[Jimmy Carter]] are the only Democrats to carry the county.<ref>[http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/comparemaps.php?year=2008&fips=5&f=1&off=0&elect=0 David Leip's Election Atlas (Electoral Maps for Arkansas by year)]</ref> In the 1992 election [[George H. W. Bush]] won his second-highest margin in the state, despite former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton being the Democratic nominee. In fact, Republican nominee Bob Dole also carried the county 4 years later despite Clinton's success almost everywhere else in the state. Republicans have received over 60 percent of the vote in the county in every election since 2000.<ref>[http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html?scp=1&sq=%22election%20map&st=cse The New York Times electoral map (Zoom in on Arkansas)]</ref> In [[2016 United States presidential election in Arkansas|2016]], [[Donald Trump]] received more than 79 percent of the vote in the county, while former Arkansas First Lady [[Hillary Clinton]] received just 16 percent. In [[2020 United States presidential election in Arkansas|2020]], Trump received more than 83 percent of the vote, and in 2024 he received over 85%. Trump's performances in each of these elections are the best of any candidate in the county's history.

{{PresHead|place=Searcy County, Arkansas|source=<ref name="DL">{{cite web|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/|access-date=November 18, 2016}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|3,305|511|53|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|3,365|588|66|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|2,955|601|172|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|2,699|814|181|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|2,726|961|160|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|2,565|1,370|57|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|2,610|1,229|219|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|1,786|1,669|514|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|1,772|1,679|533|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|2,743|1,340|60|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|2,819|1,313|69|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|2,459|1,536|188|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|2,699|3,180|0|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|3,163|853|0|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|1,909|724|726|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1964|Republican|1,649|1,508|6|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|2,297|1,022|32|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|2,441|909|24|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|1,996|1,007|1|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|1,064|1,205|57|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|1,409|891|7|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|1,292|982|4|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1936|Republican|1,010|767|1|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|846|947|15|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|1,425|606|15|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|797|415|109|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|1,070|594|96|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|919|629|0|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1912|Republican|514|438|180|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|636|597|159|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|709|404|39|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|869|567|0|Arkansas}}
{{PresFoot|1896|Republican|737|615|4|Arkansas}}

The county is in [[Arkansas's 1st congressional district]], which from [[Reconstruction Era|Reconstruction]] until 2010 sent only Democrats to the U.S. House. That year, it elected Republican [[Rick Crawford (politician)|Rick Crawford]], who currently holds the seat as of 2023. In the [[Arkansas House of Representatives]] Searcy County is represented by first-term Republican Steven Walker from the 27th district.<ref>[https://www.arkansashouse.org/district/27 Arkansas House page]</ref>
The state senator, [[Missy Irvin|Missy Thomas Irvin]], is also a Republican, serving her fourth term from the 24th district.<ref>[https://senate.arkansas.gov/senators/missy-irvin/ Arkansas Senate site] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107040713/http://www.arkansas.gov/senate/details.php?district=18 |date=January 7, 2014 }}</ref>

Since 1980, in gubernatorial races, the county has tended to favor Republicans in all but one contest. It voted for [[Frank D. White|Frank White]] in his successful run against freshman Democratic incumbent [[Bill Clinton]] in 1980. It supported White again in 1982 and 1986 in rematches with Clinton. It also voted for [[Woody Freeman]] over Clinton in 1984. It was the only county in Arkansas where Republican [[Sheffield Nelson]] won in both 1990 and 1994.<ref>[http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/comparemaps.php?year=2006&fips=5&f=1&off=5&elect=0 David Leip's Election Atlas (Gubernatorial electoral Maps for Arkansas by year)]</ref> In 1990, it was Nelson's best county in the entire state, winning 64 percent to then-Governor [[Bill Clinton]]'s 36 percent in Searcy County. In 1994, Searcy County was among the two counties to vote for Nelson over incumbent Democrat [[Jim Guy Tucker]], [[Benton County, Arkansas|Benton County]] being the other (which actually voted for Clinton over Nelson in 1990).

In 1998, Searcy County voted for Republican [[Mike Huckabee]] with just under 70 percent, and again in 2002, albeit with a reduced margin of 57 percent. In 2006, it voted 52 percent for Republican ex-Congressman [[Asa Hutchinson]], who lost to Democrat [[Mike Beebe]]. In 2010, however, it did vote for incumbent Democrat [[Mike Beebe]] with a margin of 57 percent to 40 percent over former state Senator [[Jim Keet]], the first time it had done so since 1978. Keet was regarded as a weak candidate, as he failed to carry a single county.