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Bill Clinton: I might not win in Arkansas today

Former President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that Arkansas has slid so far into the Republican column that he might not be able to win if he were on the ballot again there.

"I was governor a long time," Clinton said during a question-and-answer session after a speech at Georgetown University. "The people of my native state were good enough to elect me five times. Based on recent events, I don't know if I could win again down there."

Clinton appeared to be alluding to last November's election, in which the GOP swept all the state's constitutional offices, all the U.S. House seats and turned out two-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor.

The outcome of the governor's race was seen as a particular blow to Clinton, as his former driver and protege Mike Ross was trounced by one of the House managers of Clinton's impeachment, Asa Hutchinson. Hutchinson swatted down Ross, 55 percent to 42 percent.

The lopsided tallies left many questioning the Democratic Party's future in Arkansas.

Bill Clinton won 53 percent of the vote in Arkansas in the 1992 presidential election and 54 percent in 1996. Republicans won the state in 2000 and each presidential election since, garnering a greater percentage of the vote each time, reaching 61 percent in 2012.

Some Democrats in the state expressed hope as recently as last year that Hillary Clinton, who announced her second bid for the White House last week, might try to contest Arkansas in a general election.

However, her ties to the state are more limited than his. She spent 12 years as Arkansas's first lady and also worked as a lawyer in Little Rock. However, she was born in Illinois and had a rocky time adapting to some of Arkansas's Southern ways after she moved there in 1974 to join her future husband.

Read more here at POLITICO's daily election newsletter, the 2016 Blast.