LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Gov. Mike Beebe got his start in Arkansas politics the way most candidates here do, at the Gillett Coon Supper, an annual feast on an animal that is plentiful in the state’s marshes, and not all that flavorful. Any savvy politician knows to grab the boniest chunk of raccoon on the table since it will make for the best photo and have the least amount of meat.

It is one of many folkways that Mr. Beebe embraced. In his 1982 State Senate race, a friend and fellow Democrat, Representative Marion Berry, hosted a party for the political elite in Gillett and kept out anyone who would not wear a Beebe button. When Mr. Beebe’s opponent walked in, he took one look at the crowd and dropped out of the race shortly thereafter.

Most people in Arkansas agree that few politicians have played so well for so long to so many, perhaps not even Bill Clinton. Mr. Beebe’s skills are such that he has been able to ward off the extinction of Democrats in this increasingly conservative state. But the governor must leave office in January because of term limits, with a Senate race in Arkansas that could determine control of the chamber.

Mr. Beebe has won votes among the Walmart millionaires in the northwest part of the state around Bentonville and among the poor row-crop farmers in the southeast corner. He has won among those who hunt elk or alligator, and Arkansans like to brag that they can do both thanks to the state’s biodiversity. And he has won among those for whom President Obama’s name is an epithet.

In 2010, the year the Tea Party pummeled the Democrats in congressional elections and the state legislature in Arkansas, Mr. Beebe won re-election, taking all 75 counties. While Mr. Obama’s approval rating here is 29 percent, Mr. Beebe’s at 72 percent makes him the most popular Democratic governor in the country, according to an NBC News/Marist poll conducted in September.

How is he regarded? As one female political operative here put it, “He talks like molasses, and I want to have his babies.” What is his philosophy? Centrist. “You could fall on your sword, but if it kills you, what good are you going to do?” Mr. Beebe often says.

His considerable footprint has allowed Democrats here to cling to legitimacy. Yet his throwback style of personal politicking is under assault as Arkansans feel the crush of modern political campaigns. Independent groups with almost no ties to the state are spending millions of dollars in a race that may determine control of the United States Senate, between the incumbent, Senator Mark Pryor, a Democrat, and his challenger, Representative Tom Cotton, a Republican.