Four presidential candidates will descend on Arkansas starting Saturday to battle for votes in advance of next Tuesday's elections.

Former Secretary of State and Arkansas first lady Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and real estate mogul Donald Trump of New York scheduled weekend campaign visits just before Arkansas' primaries, which fall on the same day as primaries and caucuses in 11 other states.

Tuesday's elections across the nation offer nearly half the delegates needed by presidential candidates seeking either the Democratic or Republican nominations.

Clinton, a Democrat, will visit Pine Bluff, while Republicans Cruz, Rubio and Trump will go to Northwest Arkansas, their campaigns announced. Cruz also will go to Little Rock, and Rubio is to return Monday to an unspecified location. Details of some visits were still pending late Wednesday evening.

Lawmakers who voted to move the primary date from to March 1 from its usual spot in late May had said that if they passed the bill, the presidential candidates would come.

Regardless of their reasons for visiting at this time, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the candidates are poised to increase voter turnout and prove that Arkansas is important in presidential primaries.

"It looks like to me that Arkansas ... could be a swing state even next Tuesday," he said in a telephone interview.

Janine Parry, a professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, said the so-called SEC primary is just one reason why presidential campaigns have made Arkansas stops.

"We've got an impending deadline and we've got a three-way race" among Republicans, she said. "It's been decades since there's been this much action this late in the season."

The SEC primary nickname stems from the fact many Southern states are holding elections next Tuesday, but so are a handful of other states.

On Wednesday, state Rep. Andy Davis, R-Little Rock, said he sponsored the primary-date legislation not to attract big-name candidates to the likes of Bentonville and Little Rock but to increase voter turnout and enthusiasm.

"I don't think anyone would refute the statement that if our primary was still in May, these candidates would not be coming here," Davis said. "The positive effect of moving the primary up is Arkansans have the chance to see the candidates in person and locally prior to the election."

Clinton will return to Arkansas for a campaign event in Pine Bluff on Sunday. A campaign email said further details will be released in the coming days.

"Clinton will encourage Arkansans to take advantage of early voting, which ends the following day, and lay out the case for why she is the only candidate who has the experience to get the job done and break down the barriers that hold Arkansans back," according to a news release from her campaign

Most of the Republicans' last-minute stops are in Northwest Arkansas.

As previously reported, Trump will be in Bentonville on Saturday. Trump, who currently has the delegate lead and was in Little Rock in early February, will campaign at noon at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. Doors will open at 10 a.m.

Rubio will speak at Immanuel Baptist Church's Global Outreach Center, 2555 S. 26th St. in Rogers, at 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Rubio also will return to Arkansas on Monday, his campaign said, but further details were not on his campaign schedule.

Cruz, who has made several campaign trips to Arkansas, will attend church services Sunday morning at Cross Church in Springdale. The night before, he will hold a rally in Little Rock.

"He's speaking directly to where he should do well, which is conservative Christian evangelicals," Parry said of Cruz's visit to a church. "That's where they're to be found on any given Sunday in Northwest Arkansas."

Parry said the Northwest Arkansas focus isn't surprising.

"You have this rapid growth in population up here and then those folks tend to be of higher socioeconomic status, so turnout tends to be stronger," Parry said. "Our influence is exaggerated because of who's moving here and their propensity to vote."

Because of population growth, "I think it's slowly pulling up to even treatment in terms of state legislative power and national power."

Trump is looking to maximize the number of states that he wins and Rubio and Cruz are looking to beat Trump in Arkansas, Hutchinson said.

The governor, who has endorsed Rubio, said he will be campaigning with the senator "at any rally I can." Rubio is "the most conservative candidate who can win in November."

Trump's "explosive rhetoric" is entertaining in the Republican primary, but that's "not a winning message," Hutchinson said.

Rubio is focused on "how to keep us safe" and how to move the economy forward" and has good plans to improve national security and cut taxes, the governor said.

Led by state Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, at least 27 Republican legislators and one independent representative have thrown their support behind Rubio, in addition to Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, U.S. Rep. Steve Womack and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford.

On Wednesday, Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, the Cruz campaign's Arkansas state co-chairman, said he was a Cruz backer "because he is an individual who has been bold." He announced that more than 17 lawmakers, including Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow; Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs; Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron were endorsing Cruz, and that went for Secretary of State Mark Martin, as well.

Martin said of Cruz: "He shares my values. He shares my family's values. He shares my state's values and most importantly, he shares my country's values. I support Ted Cruz because he will always protect our Second Amendment rights. He will always secure our borders, enforce our immigration laws, and oppose amnesty."

Meanwhile, Clinton received public support Monday from more than 150 people with connections to government and local communities across the state.

Names on the list of Clinton's Arkansas Leadership Council include former Govs. Mike Beebe and Jim Guy Tucker and a father and son who are former U.S. senators, David and Mark Pryor.

Regardless of the candidate, Davis, the legislator from Little Rock, said, seeing them in person matters because voters can learn more about them in person than from TV ads or clips of candidates on the news.

"A person can make better judgments about a candidate when they get to the person. ... You get to see how they interact with people, how they respect people," he said.

The fact that the state's delegates aren't winner-take-all, Davis said, also gives candidates trailing the polls incentive to put time and resources toward Arkansas voters.

Although officials from the Martin's office have said they expect voter turnout to mirror past primaries, many Arkansas political operatives, including the state Republican Party's chairman, Doyle Webb, think Tuesday's primary will bring in more voters.

"Arkansas' participation in the SEC primary has made the state relevant on a national stage. It is unprecedented to see three presidential candidates visit within the same week to talk to Arkansas voters in person," Webb wrote in a statement."We look forward to one of the largest Republican primary voter turnouts the state has seen."

A Section on 02/25/2016