Governor primary win keeps the streak alive -not since 1954
Governor Asa Hutchinson defeated Jan Morgan in the Republican Primary. This keeps the long streak alive.
Gov. Francis Cherry
No incumbent Arkansas Governor has been defeated in his party primary in sixty-three years. The last incumbent Arkansas Governor to lose in the primary was Governor Francis Cherry in 1954. Cherry was forced into a runoff and then defeated by Orville Faubus.
Incumbent governors ran for re-election in 1994, 1998, 2002, and 2010. In two of those years, (1994 and 2010) the incumbent governor escaped without any primary election opponent. In the other two primaries the incumbent governor received at least 85.44% of the vote in his primary.
One of the last two Governors to lose in the November election was Governor Bill Clinton in 1980 who lost to Republican Frank White. In 1984, Clinton took back the governor’s office from Frank White.
In reports filed last week Hutchinson had outspent Morgan $1.56 to $116,031.36. In other words Morgan had only spent 7% of what Hutchinson spent.
Photo of Governor Cherry from encyclopediaofarkansas.net.