The Green Party of Arkansas is the state party organization for Arkansas of the Green Party of the United States. With the November 2008 election of Richard Carroll as representative for the 39th District in the Arkansas House of Representatives, the Arkansas Green Party gained its first state representative in the state's history for a time was the only elected state representative of any U. S. Green Party chapter. Greens achieved their first electoral victory in Arkansas in 1992 when Stephan Miller was elected Alderman for Fayetteville, Ward 1, he was joined on the City Council in 1996 by Randy Zurcher when he was elected to represent Fayetteville, Ward 2. In 2006 the party ran candidates for statewide offices for the first time. Jim Lendall, their candidate for governor, was an Arkansas legislator for eight years as both an independent and Democrat, before joining the party in the spring of 2005. All of the Green candidates were denied ballot access when the party turned in petitions containing 10,000 signatures.

The party went to court with the help of the state ACLU. The state required 10,000 petition signatures for independent candidates, but signatures from 3% of those who voted in the previous gubernatorial or presidential election for Third Party candidates. On 23 August 2006 a federal judge in Little Rock agreed and declared the Third Party rule unconstitutional, ordering the state to place Green Party candidates on the ballot. Governor - Jim Lendall - 12,774 1.65% Attorney General - Rebekah Kennedy - 33,386 4.40% Secretary of State - Ralph'Marty' Scully - 22,773 2.99% State Treasurer - Brock Carpenter - 28,861 3.82% Auditor of State - Michael Bolzenius - 106,515 15.13% Commissioner of State Lands - Robert David Lewis - 126,135 18.08% The party began its party petition for 2008 on July 28, 2007. Under a law passed earlier this year, party petitions require 10,000 valid signatures and must be completed in any 60-day period that the group chooses. In 2006 the law permitted four months. On September 26, 2007 the Green Party of Arkansas submitted 17,197 signatures to the secretary of state's office.

Assuming there are at least 10,000 valid signatures, the Green Party would be a qualified party in Arkansas for 2008, able to nominate for all partisan office in the state, by convention. The secretary of state's office had 30 days to check and verify the signatures, on October 17, the Arkansas Green Party was notified that its petition has been certified.2008 was the first time the Green Party had a separate primary ballot in Arkansas. There were four candidates filed to run in the presidential primary Cynthia McKinney, Kent Mesplay, Kat Swift, Jared A. Ball. In January 2008, Ball withdrew from the campaign and endorsed McKinney, but his name was not removed from the ballot; the presidential primary was held on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008. The results of the primary were as follows:Jared A. Ball 81 10.34% Cynthia McKinney 157 20.05% Kent Mesplay 61 7.79% Kat Swift 46 5.87% Uncommitted 438 55.94% Over half of the Green primary voters choose to an uncommitted slate of delegates. The large number of uncommitted votes may indicate support for Ralph Nader, dissatisfaction or unfamiliarity with the candidates on the ballot.

Nader subsequently announced. The Green Party of Arkansas nominated a record number of candidates for the 2008 state and local elections, exceeding the endorsements of the People's Party in 1892; the 2008 campaign was remarkable for the number of Green candidates facing otherwise unopposed incumbents. Rebekah Kennedy who in 2006 ran for Attorney General ran for the United States Senate versus incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor without Republican opposition. Kennedy received 206,504 votes for 20.54% of the vote, her percentage was the best for a Green candidate for Senate and the vote total was the second best. Abel Tomlinson, a University of Arkansas graduate student, was the sole challenger to Republican John Boozman for the 3rd Congressional district seat. Tomlinson received 58,850 votes. Green Deb McFarland opposed Democrat Vic Snyder in the 2nd Congressional district, received the best percentage for a green candidate for US house. Joshua Drake sought the 4th Congressional district seat against Democrat Mike Ross.

U. S. Senate - Rebekah Kennedy U. S. Congress Second District - Deb McFarland U. S. Congress Third District - Abel Tomlinson U. S. Congress Fourth District - Joshua Drake State Rep. District 33 - Conrad Harvin State Rep. District 39 - Richard Carroll State Rep. District 42 - Gene Mason State Rep. District 50 - Brian Barnett State Rep. District 68 - Mary Boley State Rep. District 90 - Wendy CrowChicot County Assessor - Elizabeth McCoyPulaski County JP District 6 - Wainnette CopassSebastian County JP District 4 - Richard Suits Fayetteville City Council - Bernard Sulliban U. S. Senate - John L. Gray Attorney General - Rebekah Kennedy Saline County County Collector - Joy Ballard List of State Green Parties Arkansas Libertarian Party Political party strength in Arkansas Politics of Arkansas Government of Arkansas Elections in Arkansas Law of Arkansas List of politics by U. S. state Green Party of Arkansas official website

Randy J. Dunn was most the president of Southern Illinois University, he served as president of Youngstown State University and Murray State University. Both of his previous presidential terms ended in controversy. Dunn submitted his resignation as the president of Southern Illinois University on July 13, 2018 amidst controversial actions within the university's system. Randy Dunn graduated from Westmer High School in Mercer County, Illinois in 1976, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in teacher education from Illinois State University in 1980. He completed his master's degree in educational administration and foundations from Illinois State in 1983. Dunn received his doctorate in educational administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1991. Randy Dunn began his career as a fourth-grade elementary teacher at Gibson City, Illinois Grade School, where he worked from 1980 to 1983, he moved into educational administration when he took the position of principal at Paw Paw, Illinois Grade School for the 1983-84 school year.

He moved on to Roanoke-Benson Middle School in Benson, where he served as principal from 1984 to 1989. Dunn worked as superintendent of schools in Argenta, Illinois from 1989 to 1991, he served as superintendent of schools in Chester, Illinois from 1991 to 1994. After leaving Chester, Dunn worked as an assistant professor at Memphis State University for one year before taking a position as an associate professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1995. Dunn became a department chair at SIU in 2000. In 2004, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich handpicked Randy Dunn be the interim Illinois State Superintendent of Education. Soon after his appointment to the position, Dunn affirmed his allegiance to Blagojevich, stating "I am a member of the governor's leadership team, I didn't come on board to take a position, at odds with the governor's stated positions." In Dunn's first move as superintendent, he hired two high level employees, a new budget director and a new general counsel, pre-selected for the positions by the Blagojevich administration.

In August 2005, the Illinois State Board of Education made Dunn's appointment permanent, by removing "interim" from his title and extending his contract through January 2007. In May 2006, Dunn was selected to become president of Murray State University; the Murray State board of regents approved Dunn's hiring by a 7-4 vote during a special meeting in May 2006. Dunn told the board that he would not accept the Murray State presidency without a near-unanimous vote from the board of regents, but he changed his mind and accepted the position after talking with his supporters on the board. Dunn was selected to replace King Alexander, who left Murray State in 2005 to take a job as the president of California State University, Long Beach. At the time of his selection, Dunn was on leave as chairman of the Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Randy Dunn took office at Murray State on December 1, 2006. During Dunn's tenure as president, the Hold Thy Banner High campaign came to a close.

The fundraising campaign, which began in 2005 prior to Dunn's presidency, ended in October 2012. The campaign raised $71.73 million to benefit student scholarship endowments, support athletics, purchase new research and laboratory equipment, advance campus improvements. The campaign was the largest fundraising effort in the history of the university, it included a $3.3 million donation to the athletic department that resulted in renaming the Regional Special Events Center as the CFSB Center along with construction of a new basketball practice facility. In 2008, Dunn had announced a publicized goal of increasing enrollment to 12,000 students at Murray State by 2012; when Dunn took office at Murray State in 2006, total enrollment was at 10,304. In the next two years, enrollment fell to 10,156 in 2007 and 10,022 in 2008. Following the enrollment campaign, the university did experience marginal growth. 2012 total enrollment was 10,832. In 2010, Dunn applied for the position of president of the University of Tennessee.

In October of that year, the UT presidential search panel announced that Randy Dunn was not among the finalists for the position. Dunn applied for the vacant president position at Missouri State University, he was announced as one of the finalist for that position in September 2012. After visiting the campus during final interviews in October, Dunn stated that the Missouri State position would be his capstone presidency and that it was the kind of place where his background would be beneficial, he announced on October 15 that he was withdrawing his candidacy for the position. In his statement regarding the decision, he stated that "it has become clear to me in the past few days from various statements and editorial commentary that the Springfield community has wanted “one of their own” to provide the next era of leadership for Missouri State; as such, I have come to the conclusion that—even if I were to be chosen to be Missouri State’s next president—the level of support necessary as an external candidate to guide that institution into a bold and dynamic future would be lacking."

He expressed his intent to remain at Murray State. Dunn was passed over for the position in Florida. On March 15, 2013, the Murray State board of regents voted 7-4 to let Randy Dunn's contract expire, rather than extending it beyond its June 30