The Democratic Party of Arkansas is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Arkansas. The current party chair is Grant Tennille. History Early statehood Arkansas began its statehood with a strong Democratic dominance in politics. Before Arkansas became a state on June 15, 1836, its politics was dominated by a small group commonly called "The Family" or "The Dynasty" until the American Civil War. The founder of this party was James Conway, who was inspired by the death of his older brother, Henry Conway. On October 27, 1827, Henry Conway was killed in a duel by Robert Crittenden, a former friend that soon became his political opposition. In an act to avenge his brother's death, he formed the first political party of Arkansas, "The Dynasty". Many of the members in this group were related by either blood or marriage, and thus it received the name "The Family". This group was closely allied with former President Andrew Jackson. One of the former major factions of the party is known as the Swamp Democrats, around during the New South period of Democratic dominance in the state, along with their rivals, the Hill Democrats. The area of strength for the Swamp Democrats was the flooded timber and marshy areas of eastern Arkansas and the Grand Prairie section of the state. This was the region of the slaveholding plantations, and swamp Democrats generally voted in the interests of Arkansas planters and merchants. Reconstruction through the Gilded Age Following the Civil War, Arkansas was under Republican governance for the first time during the Reconstruction era. Republicans such as Governor Powell Clayton were appointed to state office, to the chagrin of Confederate veterans and sympathizers. The economic hardships of Reconstruction, and the political vengeance of Republicans during Radical Reconstruction, engendered strong support for the Democratic Party in Arkansas and across the South, known as the Solid South. Following the removal of the Radical Republicans in Arkansas in the late 1870s, the state entered an "unbroken tenure" of Democratic hegemony until 1966, when Republican Winthrop Rockefeller won the Governorship. After Reconstruction, Democrats in Arkansas were known as Redeemers. This coalition was the Southern version of the Bourbon Democrat, and both factions were comparatively conservative and classically liberal. Redeemer politicians in Arkansas were typically prominent, landowning, white men of the former planter class, who retained control of soft and hard power through Jim Crow laws,