The following is a list of the Governors of the State of Arkansas and Arkansas Territory. The governor is the head of the executive branch of Arkansas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Arkansas Legislature, to convene the legislature, and to grant pardons, except in cases of treason and impeachment.

The first state constitution, ratified in 1836, established four-year terms for governors. Term lengths changed several times: the second, secessionist constitution of 1860 lowered them to two years; the third, Reconstruction-era constitution of 1868 raised them back to four years, and the fifth constitution in 1874 lowered them again to two years. Amendment 63 to the Arkansas Constitution, passed in 1984, increased the terms of both governor and lieutenant governor to four years. A referendum in 1992 limited the governor to two terms.

Until 1925, should the office of governor be rendered empty through death, resignation, removal, or other disability, the president of the senate would serve as acting governor, until such time as a new governor were elected or the disability removed, or the acting governor's senate term expired. This led to some situations where the governorship changed hands in quick succession, due to senate terms ending or new presidents of the senate being elected. For example, William Kavanaugh Oldham served only six days in 1913 before he was replaced as president of the senate. Should the president of the senate be similarly incapacitated, the next in line for the governorship was the speaker of the state house of representatives.

Amendment 6 to the state constitution, passed in 1914 but not recognized until 1925, created the office of lieutenant governor, to be elected at the same time as governor for the same term. In case of death, resignation, removal, or other vacancy of the governor's office, the lieutenant governor now becomes governor.

The current governor is Mike Beebe, who took office on January 9, 2007; his first term will expire in January 2011.

Governors

Arkansas was part of the Louisiana Purchase, bought by the United States from France in 1803. The initial military district was commanded by Amos Stoddard. The purchase was split in 1804 into Orleans Territory and the District of Louisiana, which was placed under the jurisdiction of Indiana Territory. In 1805, the district was organized into Louisiana Territory, and renamed Missouri Territory in 1812, to avoid confusion with the new state of Louisiana. Arkansas Territory (named Arkansaw Territory until around 1822) was formed in 1819 and changed twice, both times losing land to be unorganized territory, and was admitted as a state in 1836. See the lists of governors of Indiana (1804-1805) and Missouri (1805-1819) for these periods.

Governors of Arkansas Territory

Arkansaw Territory was split from Missouri Territory on July 4, 1819.

As secretary of the territory from 1819 to 1829, Robert Crittenden served as acting governor whenever the appointed governor was not in the state. This meant he was in fact the first person to be governor of Arkansas Territory, since James Miller did not arrive in the territory until nine months after his appointment. Similarly, after George Izard was appointed governor, he did not arrive in the territory for nearly two months, during which Crittenden was again acting governor. He also acted as governor during the times when the territory had no appointed governor.

#	Picture	Name	Took office	Left office	Party	Appointed by	Notes
1		James Miller	March 3, 1819	December 27, 1824	None	James Monroe
2		George Izard	March 4, 1825	November 22, 1828	None	James Monroe
						John Quincy Adams
3		John Pope	March 9, 1829	March 9, 1835	Democratic	Andrew Jackson
4		William Savin Fulton	March 9, 1835	June 15, 1836	Democratic	Andrew Jackson

Governors of Arkansas

Arkansas was admitted to the union on June 15, 1836. Since then, it has had 45 elected governors, as well as 10 acting governors who took office following the resignation or death of the governor. It seceded from the Union on May 6, 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America on May 18, 1861; there was no Union government in exile, so there was a single line of governors, though as the state fell to Union forces there was a loyalist government put in place with an insignificant Confederate government in exile. Following the end of the American Civil War, it was part of the Fourth Military District. Arkansas was readmitted to the Union on June 22, 1868.

#	Name	Took office	Left office	Party	Lt. Governor	Terms
1	James Sevier Conway	September 13, 1836	November 4, 1840	Democratic	None	1
2	Archibald Yell	November 4, 1840	April 29, 1844	Democratic	None	½
—	Samuel Adams	April 29, 1844	November 5, 1844	Democratic	None	½
3	Thomas Stevenson Drew	November 5, 1844	January 10, 1849	Democratic	None	1⅓
—	Richard C. Byrd	January 10, 1849	April 19, 1849	Democratic	None	⅓
4	John Selden Roane	April 19, 1849	November 15, 1852	Democratic	None	⅓
5	Elias Nelson Conway	November 15, 1852	November 16, 1860	Democratic	None	2
6	Henry Massey Rector	November 16, 1860	November 4, 1862	Democratic	None	1
7	Harris Flanagin	November 4, 1862	April 18, 1864	Democratic	None	1
8	Isaac Murphy	April 18, 1864	July 2, 1868	Republican	None	2
9	Powell Clayton	July 2, 1868	March 17, 1871	Republican	None	½
—	Ozra Amander Hadley	March 17, 1871	January 6, 1873	Republican	None	½
10	Elisha Baxter	January 6, 1873	November 12, 1874	Republican	None	1
11	Augustus Hill Garland	November 12, 1874	January 11, 1877	Democratic	None	2
12	William Read Miller	January 11, 1877	January 11, 1881	Democratic	None	2
13	Thomas James Churchill	January 11, 1881	January 13, 1883	Democratic	None	1
14	James Henderson Berry	January 13, 1883	January 17, 1885	Democratic	None	1
15	Simon Pollard Hughes, Jr.	January 17, 1885	January 8, 1889	Democratic	None	2
16	James Philip Eagle	January 8, 1889	January 10, 1893	Democratic	None	2
17	William Meade Fishback	January 10, 1893	January 8, 1895	Democratic	None	1
18	James Paul Clarke	January 8, 1895	January 12, 1897	Democratic	None	1
19	Daniel Webster Jones	January 12, 1897	January 8, 1901	Democratic	None	2
20	Jeff Davis	January 8, 1901	January 8, 1907	Democratic	None	3
21	John Sebastian Little	January 8, 1907	February 15, 1907	Democratic	None	¼
—	John Isaac Moore	February 15, 1907	May 14, 1907	Democratic	None	¼
—	Xenophon Overton Pindall	May 14, 1907	January 11, 1909	Democratic	None	¼
—	Jesse M. Martin	January 11, 1909	January 14, 1909	Democratic	None	¼
22	George Washington Donaghey	January 14, 1909	January 16, 1913	Democratic	None	2
23	Joseph Taylor Robinson	January 16, 1913	March 8, 1913	Democratic	None	¼
—	William Kavanaugh Oldham	March 8, 1913	March 13, 1913	Democratic	None	¼
—	Junius Marion Futrell	March 13, 1913	July 23, 1913	Democratic	None	¼
24	George Washington Hays	July 23, 1913	January 10, 1917	Democratic	vacant	¼
25	Charles Hillman Brough	January 10, 1917	January 11, 1921	Democratic	vacant	2
26	Thomas Chipman McRae	January 11, 1921	January 13, 1925	Democratic	vacant	2
27	Tom Jefferson Terral	January 13, 1925	January 11, 1927	Democratic	vacant	1
28	John Ellis Martineau	January 11, 1927	March 4, 1928	Democratic	Harvey Parnell	½
29	Harvey Parnell	March 4, 1928	January 10, 1933	Democratic	William Lee Cazort	½
					Lawrence Elery Wilson
30	Junius Marion Futrell	January 10, 1933	January 12, 1937	Democratic	William Lee Cazort	2
31	Carl Edward Bailey	January 12, 1937	January 14, 1941	Democratic	Robert L. Bailey	2
32	Homer Martin Adkins	January 14, 1941	January 9, 1945	Democratic	Robert L. Bailey	2
					James L. Shaver
33	Benjamin Travis Laney	January 9, 1945	January 11, 1949	Democratic	James L. Shaver	2
					Nathan Green Gordon
34	Sid McMath	January 11, 1949	January 13, 1953	Democratic	Nathan Green Gordon	2
35	Francis Cherry	January 13, 1953	January 11, 1955	Democratic	Nathan Green Gordon	1
36	Orval Faubus	January 11, 1955	January 10, 1967	Democratic	Nathan Green Gordon	6
37	Winthrop Rockefeller	January 10, 1967	January 12, 1971	Republican	Maurice Britt	2
38	Dale Bumpers	January 12, 1971	January 3, 1975	Democratic	Bob C. Riley	1½
—	Bob C. Riley	January 3, 1975	January 14, 1975	Democratic	acting as governor	½
39	David Pryor	January 14, 1975	January 3, 1979	Democratic	Joe Purcell	1½
—	Joe Purcell	January 3, 1979	January 9, 1979	Democratic	acting as governor	½
40	Bill Clinton	January 9, 1979	January 19, 1981	Democratic	Joe Purcell	1
41	Frank D. White	January 19, 1981	January 11, 1983	Republican	Winston Bryant	1
42	Bill Clinton	January 11, 1983	December 12, 1992	Democratic	Winston Bryant	3½
					Jim Guy Tucker
43	Jim Guy Tucker	December 12, 1992	July 15, 1996	Democratic	Mike Huckabee	¾
44	Mike Huckabee	July 15, 1996	January 9, 2007	Republican	Winthrop P. Rockefeller	2¾
45	Mike Beebe	January 9, 2007	incumbent	Democratic	Bill Halter	1

Notes

Other high offices held

This is a table of congressional, confederate and other federal offices held by governors. All representatives and senators mentioned represented Arkansas except where noted. * denotes those offices which the governor resigned to take.

Name	Gubernatorial term	U.S. Congress		Other offices held
		House	Senate
James Miller	1819–1825 (territorial)			Elected U.S. Representative from New Hampshire but did not take his seat.
John Pope	1829–1835 (territorial)			U.S. Representative and Senator from Kentucky (including President pro tempore of the Senate)
William Savin Fulton	1835–1836 (territorial)		S
Archibald Yell	1840–1844	H
Powell Clayton	1868–1871		S*	U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Augustus Hill Garland	1874–1877		S	Confederate Representative, Confederate Senator, U.S. Attorney General
James Henderson Berry	1883–1885		S
William Meade Fishback	1893–1895			Elected to the U.S. Senate but was refused his seat
James Paul Clarke	1895–1897		S	President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate
Jefferson Davis	1901–1907		S
John Sebastian Little	1907	H
Joseph Taylor Robinson	1913	H	S*	Majority Leader and Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate
Thomas Chipman McRae	1921–1925	H
Dale Bumpers	1971–1975		S*
David Pryor	1975–1979	H	S*
Bill Clinton	1979–1981, 1983–1992			President of the United States*
Jim Guy Tucker	1992–1996	H

Living former governors

, five former governors were alive, the oldest being Dale Bumpers (born ). The most recent governor to die was Sid McMath (1949–1953), on October 4, 2003. The most recently-serving governor to die was Frank D. White (1981–1983), on May 21, 2003.

Name	Gubernatorial term	Date of birth
Dale Bumpers	1971–1975
David Pryor	1975–1979
Bill Clinton	1979–1981, 1983–1992
Jim Guy Tucker	1992–1996
Mike Huckabee	1996–2007

References

General

• Governors of Arkansas. National Governors Association. Retrieved on 2007-08-31..
• The Road from Conway to Clinton: Biographies of Arkansas's Governors. Old State House Museum. Retrieved on 2007-08-31..
• The Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Category: Politics and Government. Retrieved on 2007-08-31..
• About The Office - Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas. Retrieved on 2007-08-31..Constitutions
• Constitution Of The State Of Arkansas Of 1874. Retrieved on 2007-08-31..
• Specific

External links

• Office of the Governor of Arkansas