Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas: Old Confederacy metro. In 2024, voted R+48%. Republican peak: R+59 in 1972.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+48MIT Election Lab
- Political archetype
- Old ConfederacyAkashic typology
- Population
- 229,8992024 5-year
- Median household income
- $58,3152024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 70.5%2024 5-year
- Black
- 3.6%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 12.1%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+52 in 1932MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+59 in 1972MIT Election Lab
Constituent county margins for Fort Smith, AR-OK, AROne cell per constituent county, colored by 2024 presidential margin from deep red (Republican) through neutral to deep blue (Democratic), ordered bluest first.
R+60D+60
One cell per constituent county. Ordered by 2024 D-vs-R margin (bluest first). Hover for county-level numbers.
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 21,312 | 61,825 | 84,869 | ||
| R | 22,481 | 61,918 | 86,617 | ||
| R | 19,849 | 56,701 | 79,249 | ||
| R | 22,166 | 53,892 | 77,724 | ||
| R | 23,365 | 52,791 | 77,664 | ||
| R | 29,153 | 49,559 | 79,387 | ||
| R | 27,268 | 40,901 | 70,038 | ||
| R | 27,928 | 28,397 | 63,284 | ||
| D | 29,318 | 28,624 | 69,380 | ||
| R | 18,217 | 39,228 | 57,993 | ||
| R | 15,961 | 44,188 | 60,818 | ||
| R | 19,072 | 37,932 | 61,024 | ||
| D | 27,587 | 26,373 | 54,067 | ||
| R | 9,809 | 39,035 | 49,164 | ||
| R | 10,516 | 17,593 | 41,833 | ||
| R | 18,140 | 19,250 | 37,495 | ||
| R | 14,098 | 18,979 | 33,407 | ||
| R | 13,772 | 16,654 | 30,574 | ||
| R | 14,351 | 16,184 | 30,573 | ||
| D | 11,254 | 6,007 | 18,326 | ||
| D | 11,281 | 7,486 | 18,801 | ||
| D | 11,299 | 6,462 | 17,845 | ||
| D | 10,783 | 4,467 | 15,282 | ||
| D | 12,603 | 3,910 | 16,621 | ||
| R | 7,621 | 8,320 | 15,974 | ||
| D | 8,022 | 5,856 | 15,276 | ||
| D | 8,218 | 8,184 | 16,797 | ||
| D | 6,973 | 3,740 | 11,240 | ||
| D | 4,781 | 2,036 | 8,719 | ||
| D | 6,344 | 5,426 | 12,632 | ||
| D | 2,520 | 2,195 | 5,169 | ||
| D | 3,543 | 2,024 | 5,626 | ||
| D | 4,492 | 2,320 | 6,859 | ||
| D | 4,237 | 2,657 | 7,481 | ||
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Demographics
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
English
11.3%
German
10.8%
Irish
10.7%
American
8.5%
Scottish
1.8%
Italian
1.6%
French
1.6%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 38.8 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Median household income
2024 inflation-adjusted dollars
$58,315
Fort Smith, AR-OK ranks near the middle of US counties.
Fort Smith, AR-OK$58,315
Arkansas$60,773
United States$80,734
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
16.4%
Children face moderate poverty.
Children under 1821.7%
Working age (18–64)15.0%
Seniors (65+)11.1%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
88.2%
speak English only
Spanish8.6%
Asian & Pacific Islander2.2%
Other Indo-European0.5%
Other languages0.4%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 43.1% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Fort Smith's metro spans the Arkansas-Oklahoma border, anchoring a manufacturing and logistics corridor where cross-state commuting patterns complicate standard district-level turnout analysis.
The shift began with civil rights. 1996 marked the realignment in Fort Smith, AR-OK, by a one points margin. The Republican margin reached its widest at fifty-nine points in 1972. The 2024 margin was forty-eight points.
The political shift has tracked, in Fort Smith, AR-OK, the political shift of the South more broadly. A 71% non-Hispanic-white share, a median household income of $58,315, and a 16% poverty rate describe the demographic context.
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas — The Long Memory. Akashic Intelligence — The Long Memory. https://tiers.akashic.app/cbsa/22900/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
Frequently asked questions
How did Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas vote in 2024?
In 2024, Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas voted Republican by 47.7 points (R+48), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 84,869 votes cast, 21,312 went Democratic and 61,825 went Republican.
What is Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas's political archetype?
Akashic classifies Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas as a "Old Confederacy" metro based on its long-arc presidential voting pattern. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the metro has voted Democratic 16 times, Republican 18 times, and other 0 times.
When did Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas voted Democratic was 1992.
How many people live in Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas?
Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas has a population of 229,899 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas?
Median household income in Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas is $58,315 — below the national median of $80,734. The Arkansas state median is $60,773.
What is the political history of Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Fort Smith, AR-OK, Arkansas from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 16 went Democratic and 18 went Republican. The metro's archetype — "Old Confederacy" — captures the overall trajectory of that voting record.