Even solidly red Saline County saw a shift toward Democrats in Arkansas’ midterm election

Located a short drive from Democrat-leaning Little Rock, Saline County has been a Republican stronghold of central Arkansas for years. The county hasn’t voted for a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection, and has been the epicenter of fights over book restrictions. But an unexpected thing happened in the county that Donald Trump won with 69% of the vote just two years ago. The county’s voters swung 17 percentage points in favor of Democrats. The GOP nominees for U.S. House and Senate saw their numbers drop from two years ago, and a Republican state lawmaker in the county barely survived a bid to oust him. And a Republican-led effort to cut the county’s library funding failed. The results don’t amount to a blue wave in a county where Republicans still control county offices. But last week’s midterms in Saline County highlight how even the reddest of counties were touched by an election where Republicans suffered major losses around the country.

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