Union County, Arkansas: Black Belt county. In 2024, voted R+34%. Democratic peak: D+90 in 1932.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+34MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Black BeltAkashic typology
- Population
- 37,9002024 5-year
- Median household income
- $55,2592024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 61.6%2024 5-year
- Black
- 32.3%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 4.7%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+90 in 1932MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+54 in 1972MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Columbia County, AR · similarity 0.99
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Union CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Union County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
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Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | +78.2% |
| 1896 | +81.8% |
| 1900 | +56.5% |
| 1904 | +52.2% |
| 1908 | +44.4% |
| 1912 | +63.3% |
| 1916 | +72.2% |
| 1920 | +58.5% |
| 1924 | +56.8% |
| 1928 | +31.9% |
| 1932 | +90.3% |
| 1936 | +88.2% |
| 1940 | +81.4% |
| 1944 | +69.4% |
| 1948 | +54.6% |
| 1952 | +17.6% |
| 1956 | +15.7% |
| 1960 | +6.4% |
| 1964 | −9.8% |
| 1968 | −2.9% |
| 1972 | −54.0% |
| 1976 | +2.1% |
| 1980 | −14.9% |
| 1984 | −32.7% |
| 1988 | −26.9% |
| 1992 | +8.0% |
| 1996 | +14.6% |
| 2000 | −15.3% |
| 2004 | −19.2% |
| 2008 | −26.1% |
| 2012 | −26.2% |
| 2016 | −27.7% |
| 2020 | −29.5% |
| 2024 | −33.5% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 5,019 | 10,196 | 15,448 | ||
| R | 5,584 | 10,478 | 16,607 | ||
| R | 5,855 | 10,456 | 16,586 | ||
| R | 6,196 | 10,699 | 17,177 | ||
| R | 6,190 | 10,677 | 17,179 | ||
| R | 7,071 | 10,502 | 17,832 | ||
| R | 6,261 | 8,647 | 15,609 | ||
| D | 8,373 | 6,053 | 15,940 | ||
| D | 8,786 | 7,305 | 18,580 | ||
| R | 5,931 | 10,581 | 17,256 | ||
| R | 6,208 | 12,333 | 18,759 | ||
| R | 6,852 | 9,401 | 17,063 | ||
| D | 8,257 | 7,918 | 16,182 | ||
| R | 3,531 | 11,925 | 15,543 | ||
| O | 4,426 | 4,919 | 17,198 | ||
| R | 6,948 | 8,472 | 15,580 | ||
| D | 6,500 | 5,631 | 13,565 | ||
| D | 7,055 | 5,059 | 12,726 | ||
| D | 7,515 | 5,266 | 12,810 | ||
| D | 5,588 | 1,039 | 8,339 | ||
| D | 4,624 | 833 | 5,459 | ||
| D | 4,842 | 489 | 5,345 | ||
| D | 4,141 | 254 | 4,408 | ||
| D | 5,429 | 245 | 5,738 | ||
| D | 3,128 | 1,612 | 4,748 | ||
| D | 1,967 | 450 | 2,673 | ||
| D | 1,967 | 493 | 2,520 | ||
| D | 1,691 | 273 | 1,964 | ||
| D | 1,090 | 152 | 1,483 | ||
| D | 1,407 | 535 | 1,965 | ||
| D | 955 | 297 | 1,260 | ||
| D | 1,238 | 336 | 1,596 | ||
| D | 1,749 | 148 | 1,957 | ||
| D | 1,431 | 106 | 1,694 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
English
9.7%
American
8.6%
German
4.6%
Irish
4.5%
French
1.0%
Scottish
0.7%
African American
25.8%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
Sample size too small to break out by ancestry reliably.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
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.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 41.4 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.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$55,259
Union County ranks in the bottom 25% of US counties.
Union County$55,259
Arkansas$60,773
United States$80,734
Union County ranks in the bottom 25% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
19.5%
Children face moderate poverty.
Children under 1824.5%
Working age (18–64)18.3%
Seniors (65+)15.1%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
95.8%
speak English only
Spanish3.4%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.7%
Other Indo-European0.2%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 17.8% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Union County anchored Arkansas's oil boom from the 1920s onward, and El Dorado remains its economic center. That extractive-industry heritage tracks closely with the county's strong Republican lean in recent cycles, with 2024 margins exceeding 33 points.
The Democratic margin here reached ninety points in 1932. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved four points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was thirty-four points. The recent movement, modest against a deep Democratic baseline, mirrors a broader rightward drift across the Black Belt.
The economic context is part of the story: a median household income of $55,259 and a 20% poverty rate. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Columbia County and Johnson County.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Union County, Arkansas. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/05139/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More black belt counties
Frequently asked questions
How did Union County, Arkansas vote in 2024?
In 2024, Union County, Arkansas voted Republican by 33.5 points (R+34), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 15,448 votes cast, 5,019 went Democratic and 10,196 went Republican.
What is Union County, Arkansas's political typology?
Akashic places Union County, Arkansas in the "Black Belt" typology — Black-majority counties of the rural South — long the most Democratic ground in the region, now trending Republican at the margins. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 21 times, Republican 12 times, and other 1 times.
When did Union County, Arkansas last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Union County, Arkansas voted Democratic was 1996.
How many people live in Union County, Arkansas?
Union County, Arkansas has a population of 37,900 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Union County, Arkansas?
Median household income in Union County, Arkansas is $55,259 — below the national median of $80,734. The Arkansas state median is $60,773.
What is the political history of Union County, Arkansas?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Union County, Arkansas from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 21 went Democratic and 12 went Republican. The county's typology — "Black Belt" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.