Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1980

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Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1980
Flag of Arkansas (1924-2011).svg
←  1978 November 4, 1980 1982  →
  Frank D. White 1995.jpg Bill Clinton (37899881792) (cropped2).jpg
Nominee Frank D. White Bill Clinton
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote435,684403,241
Percentage51.93%48.07%
Arkansas Governor Election Results by County, 1980.svg
Results by county
Clinton:
     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%
White:
     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%
Governor before election

Bill Clinton
Democratic

Elected Governor

Frank D. White
Republican

The Arkansas gubernatorial election of 1980 was only that state's third election since Reconstruction when a Republican candidate won the governorship, and the first in which an incumbent was defeated.

Republican Party (United States) political party in the United States

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.

The incumbent is the current holder of an office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent(s). For example, in the Hungarian presidential election, 2017, János Áder was the incumbent, because he had been the president in the term before the term for which the election sought to determine the president. A race without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat.

Contents

One-term Democratic Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton was narrowly defeated by Republican Frank D. White, which made him, as he joked, "the youngest ex-governor in the nation." Clinton ran again two years later and regained the governorship, continuing to serve until he was elected to the presidency in 1992. Both the Democratic and Republican primaries were held on May 27.

Bill Clinton 42nd president of the United States

William Jefferson Clinton, commonly known as Bill Clinton, is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the presidency, he was the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992, and the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideologically a New Democrat and many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy.

Frank D. White American politician

Frank Durward White was an American banker and politician who served as the 41st governor of Arkansas. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of two people to have defeated Bill Clinton in an election, the other being the late U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt of Arkansas' 3rd congressional district.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Monroe Alfred Julius Schwarzlose was a turkey farmer in Cleveland County, Arkansas, who was a Democratic primary opponent in 1980 of incumbent Governor Bill Clinton. He gained 31 percent of the ballots cast, but Clinton lost the ensuing general election to Republican Frank D. White.

Arkansas House of Representatives lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly

The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 29,159 according to the 2010 federal census. Members are elected to two-year terms and, since the 2014 Amendment to the Arkansas Constitution, limited to sixteen years cumulative in either house.

Results

Democratic primary results [1] (p38) [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Bill Clinton 306,73668.87
Democratic Monroe Schwarzlose 138,67031.13
Total votes445,395100.00

Republican primary

Candidates

Marshall Ney Chrisman, Jr., is a businessman from Ozark in Franklin County in northwestern Arkansas, who served from 1969 to 1970 as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives. For a single term, he represented Franklin and neighboring Johnson counties. In 1980 and 1982, Chrisman fell far short in primary bids against Frank D. White for the Republican gubernatoirial nomination.

Results

Republican primary results [1] (p43)
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Frank D. White 5,86771.75
Republican Marshall Chrisman 2,31028.25
Total votes8,177100.00

Campaign

Schwarzlose's unexpected strong challenge in primaries and his 31 percent of the primary vote foreshadowed that Clinton could be in trouble for the upcoming general election. [2]

Clinton's increase in the cost of automobile registration tags was also unpopular. He was also hurt by President Jimmy Carter's decision to send thousands of Cuban refugees, some unruly, to a detention camp at Fort Chaffee, outside Fort Smith in Sebastian County in western Arkansas. [2] [3] (See Mariel boatlift.)

Jimmy Carter 39th president of the United States

James Earl Carter Jr. is an American politician and philanthropist who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A Democrat, he previously served as a Georgia State senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. Carter has remained active in public life during his post-presidency, and in 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center.

Cuba Country in the Caribbean

Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean meet. It is east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the U.S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The area of the Republic of Cuba is 110,860 square kilometres (42,800 sq mi). The island of Cuba is the largest island in Cuba and in the Caribbean, with an area of 105,006 square kilometres (40,543 sq mi), and the second-most populous after Hispaniola, with over 11 million inhabitants.

Fort Smith, Arkansas City in Arkansas, United States

Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 86,209. With an estimated population of 88,037 in 2017, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents that encompasses the Arkansas counties of Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian, and the Oklahoma counties of Le Flore and Sequoyah.

1980 general election was marked by decisive Republican victories—the GOP won the White House, a majority in United States Senate and 34 seats in the United States House of Representatives. Clinton's narrow loss was viewed as part of Reagan's coattails.

Result

Frank White narrowly won the election. [1] (p48) [2]

Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1980 [1] (p48)
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Frank D. White 435,68451.93
Democratic Bill Clinton 403,24148.07
Total votes838,925100.00

Effect

Max Brantley said after Clinton lost the election in 1980: "The guy was like a death in the family. He was really destroyed after that election". [4] Rudy Moore also added: "He never blamed anybody else. He accepted the responsibility. He didn't whine about it. In fact, it was within days, we were trying to figure out what we could to do to improve his political life after that" [4]

After Clinton was defeated, an opportunity arose in which Clinton would lead the Democratic National Committee through the 1980s to battle Ronald Reagan and the Republicans, instead of running for another term for Governor of Arkansas. When Clinton campaigned for election in 1982 against White, he explained that he had learned the importance of adaptability and compromise from his defeat in two years prior. [5]

During the campaign of 1982, Clinton promised to make major strides in education, including a large investment of public money, but he avoided saying he would raise taxes. [6]

There was some skepticism on whether Clinton's record on the economy in Arkansas would translate into Democrats losing in upcoming elections. The regular legislative session in Arkansas of 1985 was devoted to economic development. The legislature approved almost all of Clinton's program, which included changes in banking laws, start-up money for technology-oriented businesses, and large tax incentives for Arkansas industries that expanded their production and jobs. Arkansas was one of the best states in new job creation in the next six years, but most of the jobs did not pay high wages, and it remained one of the worst states in average income. [6] Democrats wanted a counter to Reaganomics, but feared Clinton's plan would lead to more unhappy blue collar workers bolting to the Republicans as his plan offered no real solution to stagnant wages.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "1980 Arkansas Elections" (PDF). Arkansas Secretary of State. January 1982. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Frank Durward White (1933–2003)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
  3. ↑ "Bill Clinton (1946–)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
  4. 1 2 Takiff, Michael. A Complicated Man : The Life of Bill Clinton as Told by Those Who Know Him. New Haven, US: Yale University Press, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 19 April 2017.
  5. ↑ Clinton House Museum. CHM, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.
  6. 1 2 Bill Clinton (1946–)-Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Encyclopedia of Arkansas, n.d. Web. Apr. 17, 2017.
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