By Georgia Almaguer

Reporter

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, was elected Tuesday to serve an eighth term representing Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District, according to projections from The Associated Press.

Northwest Arkansas is considered Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District, which includes Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Madison, Sebastian and Washington counties. 

Much focus in 2024 was on the presidential race and the issues of tax cuts, inflation, abortion, war. While the presidential election is clearly important, some would argue it’s those who are representing you in Congress that are making policies. 

The seat for Arkansas’ 3rd Congressional District is held by Womack, who was elected to Congress for the first time in 2010. He faced challengers  Caitlin Draper, a social worker from Fayetteville, and Libertarian Bobby Wilson. 

Arkansas PBS held a debate for the three candidates on Oct. 8 where each candidate tackled issues ranging from Israel and abortion to the Electoral College reform. During the debate, independent journalist Steve Brawner asked Womack about tax cuts and the Jobs Act to which Womack responded with “that’s going to be the question of the year for Congress.”

John C. Davis, executive director of  the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History and a political science professor at the University of Arkansas, has written a book titled, From Blue to Red: The Rise of the GOP in Arkansas, exploring Arkansas’ partisan shift from a primarily blue state to a red one within the past two decades. He was interviewed recently by Matthew Moore of KUAF.

Arkansas once was a strictly Democratic state across the board – House, Senate, and in state government. In 1966, the 3rd District seat went to a Republican for the first time since 1872. Arkansas in the 1960s began to see a shift in political parties, and the state began to see a rise in Republican candidates in office. In the past two decades, the state shifted with Republicans controlling state and federal elected offices.

This year’s Democratic candidate, Caitlin Draper, had hoped to change that. In her closing statement on Arkansas PBS, Draper said that “[She is] here because [she] cares and [she] will listen to you”. Although she had never run for any office before, Draper said she just hoped to raise awareness to issues concerning women’s healthcare.

Womack was elected to represent Arkansas’s 3rd District in 2010. Prior to his election to Congress, Womack served as the mayor of Rogers, for 12 years and in the Arkansas Army National Guard for over thirty years, retiring at the rank of Colonel.