Incumbent Democratic governor Mike Beebe was ineligible to run for re-election due to term limits established by the Arkansas Constitution.

[1] Democrats nominated former U.S. representative Mike Ross and Republicans nominated former DEA Administrator, former U.S. representative and 2006 Arkansas gubernatorial nominee Asa Hutchinson.

Hutchinson won the general election by the largest margin recorded for a Republican in an open-seat gubernatorial race since Reconstruction.

The race was called for Hutchinson roughly half an hour after the polls closed; his victory gave Republicans complete control of state government for the first time since 1874.

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