Editing Clark County, Arkansas (section)

==Politics and government==

=== 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 Clark County Quorum Court has eleven 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=2025-04-28 |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=2025-04-28 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>

Republicans hold every county-wide office except the Sheriff and Collector, and have a seven-to-four super-majority on the Quorum Court. Most positions regularly go unopposed with only one candidate making the general election ballot.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=December 8, 2022 |title=2023 County & District Officials |url=https://www.arcounties.org/site/assets/files/6092/2023_county_and_district_officials.pdf |access-date=March 3, 2023 |website=Association of Arkansas Counties}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=November 8, 2022 |title=2022 General Election and Nonpartisan Judicial Runoff Election |url=https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/AR/Clark/115778/web.307039/#/summary?v=314048%2F |access-date=March 3, 2023 |website=Arkansas Secretary of State}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Quorum Court – Clark County Arkansas |url=https://clarkcountyar.gov/?page_id=7448 |access-date=March 3, 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref> Democrats picked up one seat in 2022 by flipping District 2.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Phelps |first=Joel |date=November 9, 2022 |title=Hannah, Johns, Angle keep JP seats; Buscher ousted |url=https://arkadelphian.com/2022/11/08/most-jp-incumbents-maintain-seats/ |access-date=March 3, 2023 |website=News in Arkadelphia and Southwest Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+Clark County, Arkansas Elected County-Wide Officials<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
!Office
!Officeholder
!Party
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|County Judge
|Troy Tucker
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|County Clerk
|Tracey Pruitt
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Circuit Clerk
|Brian Daniel
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#92C5DE;
|Sheriff/Collector
|Jason Watson
|Democratic
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Treasurer
|Karen Arnold
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Assessor
|Mona Vance
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Coroner
|Tim Welch
|Republican
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|Constable 
(Caddo Township)
|George Hawthorn
|Republican
|}
The composition of the Quorum Court following the 2024 elections is 7 Republicans and 4 Democrats. Justices of the Peace (members) of the Quorum Court following the elections are:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Quorum Court<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Quorum Court – Clark County Arkansas |url=https://clarkcountyar.gov/quorum-court/ |access-date=2025-04-28 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Clark County, Arkansas, elections, 2024 |url=https://ballotpedia.org/Clark_County,_Arkansas,_elections,_2024 |access-date=2025-04-28 |website=Ballotpedia |language=en}}</ref>
!District
!Justice of the Peace
!Party
!District description
|-style="background-color:#92C5DE;
|1
|Zach Bledsoe
|Democratic
|North-east Arkadelphia, including [[Ouachita Baptist University]]
|-style="background-color:#92C5DE;
|2
|Michael L. Ankton
|Democratic
|Most of southern Arkadelphia
|-style="background-color:#92C5DE;
|3
|Vanilla Nelson Hannah
|Democratic
|North-central Arkadelphia, including [[Henderson State University]]
|-style="background-color:#92C5DE;
|4
|Llewellyn Terry Sr.
|Democratic
|Stretches from central Arkadelphia to south-east Arkadelphia
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|5
|Jimmy King
|Republican
|North-west Arkadelphia
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|6
|Stuart Thomas
|Republican
|North-central Clark County, including part of Hollywood, with an arm reaching north-west into parts of Alpine and Fendley
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|7
|Jenna Scott
|Republican
|North-east Clark County, including Caddo Valley and Joan
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|8
|Garry (B.J.) Johns
|Republican
|North-west Clark County, including Amity and parts of Alpine and Fendley
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|9
|Andrea Angle
|Republican
|Starts just south of Okolona and stretches south-east, including Burtsell, most of Gurdon, and part of Beirne
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|10
|Wayne Baumgardner
|Republican
|Stretches from central Clark County to its western border with Pike County, including Okolona, Boswell, and part of Hollywood
|-style="background-color:#F48882;
|11
|Tracy Ellis Drake
|Republican
|South-east Clark County, including Whelen Springs, Barringer, Kansas, Vaden, and part of Gurdon, with an arm reaching north to Curtis and Gum Springs
|}

=== Politics ===
[[John Kerry]] was the last Democrat to win the county in a presidential election, in [[2004 United States presidential election|2004.]] [[John McCain]] and [[Mitt Romney]] defeated [[Barack Obama]] by single-digit margins here, and [[Donald Trump]] beat former Arkansas First Lady [[Hillary Clinton]] by a nine-point margin. Four years later, Trump defeated [[Joe Biden]] by a margin of over 14 points, the largest margin for a Republican since [[Richard Nixon]] defeated [[George McGovern]] by over 20 points in 1972. [[Mike Ross (politician)|Mike Ross]] was the last Democrat to win the county in a gubernatorial election, in [[2014 Arkansas gubernatorial election|2014.]] [[Conner Eldridge]] was the last Democrat to win the county in a US Senate election, in [[2016 United States Senate election in Arkansas|2016.]]

As of 2023, Clark County is split between districts 89 and 90 in the [[Arkansas House of Representatives]] and fully contained within District 3 in the [[Arkansas Senate]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 24, 2021 |title=2021 House Boundaries |url=https://arkansasredistricting.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/House2021_FinalBoundaries_Landscape.pdf |access-date=March 3, 2023 |website=Arkansas Board of Apportionment}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=November 24, 2021 |title=2021 Senate Boundaries |url=https://arkansasredistricting.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Senate2021_FinalBoundaries_Landscape_ARCH_E.pdf |access-date=March 3, 2023 |website=Arkansas Board of Apportionment}}</ref> All three seats are held by Republicans Justin Gonzales, Richard Womack, and Steve Crowell, respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Members of the 94th General Assembly - Arkansas House of Representatives |url=https://www.arkansashouse.org/representatives/members |access-date=March 3, 2023 |website=www.arkansashouse.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Senators |url=https://senate.arkansas.gov/senators/ |access-date=March 3, 2023 |website=Arkansas Senate |language=en}}</ref>{{PresHead|place=Clark 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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709214827/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/|archive-date=July 9, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|4,526|2,959|172|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|4,616|3,438|341|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|4,404|3,620|502|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|4,343|3,811|255|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|4,608|4,267|219|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|4,144|4,990|77|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|3,776|4,661|189|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|2,112|5,281|729|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|2,403|5,767|752|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1988|Democratic|3,389|4,675|66|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1984|Democratic|4,185|4,638|30|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|2,743|6,122|288|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|1,816|6,641|22|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|4,173|2,741|46|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1968|American Independent|1,642|2,733|2,776|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|1,884|4,127|26|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|1,357|3,295|431|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1956|Democratic|1,973|2,809|58|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|1,679|2,963|5|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|383|1,750|376|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|637|1,981|3|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|311|2,008|8|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|193|1,962|8|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|183|3,037|15|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|913|1,817|6|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|483|1,223|204|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|1,020|1,507|19|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|678|1,975|0|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|376|1,051|299|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1908|Democratic|1,007|1,206|103|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|732|722|182|Arkansas}}
{{PresRow|1900|Democratic|753|1,232|134|Arkansas}}
{{PresFoot|1896|Democratic|833|1,910|82|Arkansas}}