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Hallie Shoffner

DemocratArkansas Senate Race

Campaign Website →

Summary

Sixth-generation farmer Hallie Shoffner officially launched her campaign against U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton on Tuesday. The Democrat and Newport native is challenging the incumbent Republican who's seeking his third six-year term in the U.S. Senate during the 2026 election. Shoffner is a graduate of Newport High School, Vanderbilt University and the Clinton School of Public Service. In addition to running her family farm, she is also the founder and CEO of Delta Harvest, which builds local food infrastructure, supports farmers and brings opportunities back to struggling communities, according to the release. Hallie Shoffner defeated Ethan Dunbar in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Arkansas on March 3, 2026.

Background

Hallie Shoffner is a 6th generation farmer and small-business owner running for the U.S. Senate to fight for working families. Hallie grew up in Shoffner, a small farming community in the Arkansas Delta, raised in the fields alongside her farmer parents - learning to grow soybeans, rice, corn, cotton, and wheat. For the past nine years, she operated the family farm - making payroll, working with lenders and insurers, and balancing the realities of farming while raising a family. Like so many working parents, she knows the strain of long days and the hope of building a better future for her young son. After a devastating year of rising costs, bad markets, new tariffs and no meaningful Farm Bill relief, Hallie made the hardest decision of her life: closing the farm to protect her parents' land and retirement.

Campaign Platform

Economy

Agriculture and Farm Support

Noting that Cotton has twice voted against the Farm Bill, Shoffner said she'll fight for a Farm Bill that gives farmers "room to breathe." That means raising the minimum wage, expanding workforce training, cutting taxes for working families, giving local businesses the resources they need to thrive, cutting red tape, and modernizing infrastructure so people can live near where they work and build real futures here.

Social Security and Medicare Protection

"I'll cut taxes for blue-collar workers, fight to restore Medicaid, save Social Security, cut the deficit, and be radically focused on bringing costs down for regular people," Shoffner said.

Worker Protection and Union Rights

When workers have a voice on the job, wages rise, benefits improve, and workplaces are safer. I will stand with workers to protect the right to organize, bargain collectively, and be treated with dignity.

Healthcare

Healthcare Access

I will fight to protect our hospitals, lower prescription drug prices, strengthen the Affordable Care Act, protect Medicare and Medicaid, cut red tape, and hold insurance companies accountable.

Key Issue Positions

Farm Policy

Strong supporter of comprehensive Farm Bill reform

After deciding to close the family farm in February 2025 due to financial reasons, Hallie Shoffner, a nearly decade-long Arkansas farmer, made the pivot to a Senate campaign to change the way the state approaches agriculture.

Cost of Living and Economic Justice

Frames the race as economic rather than political

Shoffner is running on the idea that the true divide in Arkansas is not political, but economic. "Right now Arkansas families are really struggling to afford basic things like food and medical care. Families are holding it together with sheer force of will and grit and faith."

Healthcare and Prescription Drug Costs

Supports strengthening ACA and protecting Medicare/Medicaid

Job 1 for Ms. Shoffner, she says, would be the Farm Bill, which hasn't seen much movement in Congress in recent years. Beyond agriculture, she says the biggest issue Arkansans care about, based on her discussions, is the cost of health care.

Voting Record

As a first-time candidate with no prior electoral office, Hallie Shoffner has no voting record in Congress or state legislature.

Social Media Activity

Shoffner's social media strategy emphasizes personal storytelling and direct appeals to economic hardship, contrasting her lived experience with Cotton's perceived detachment from ordinary Arkansans.

Recurring Themes

Farm bill and agricultural policyHealthcare affordabilityCost of living crisisCotton's absence from ArkansasEconomic fairness for working families

Contradictions

Claim: Shoffner campaigns as a non-political "regular farmer" focused solely on agriculture

Reality: She spent years as a left-wing activist and worked for social justice nonprofits before returning to farming

Source: Shoffner grew up on her family's farm in eastern Arkansas but did not always work as a farmer, instead spending years as a left-wing activist. As a master's student at the University of Arkansas's Clinton School of Public Service, the Washington Free Beacon reported, Shoffner developed fundraising strategies for PROMSEX, a Soros-funded social justice nonprofit in Peru. She went on to serve as executive director of Seis Puentes, an Arkansas nonprofit that helps illegal immigrants "engage" in the U.S. government "process," as Shoffner put it in a 2012 interview.

Claim: Shoffner campaigns on 'fairness for everyone' with minimal mention of DEI

Reality: She previously championed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and testified to support race-based hiring policies

Source: Months before launching her campaign in July of last year, Shoffner testified before a state panel in February 2025 to argue that the state of Arkansas should keep race-based hiring and admissions policies. Shoffner appeared before Arkansas's House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee to testify on Senate Bill 3, which called to "prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment" based on race by state agencies, public school districts, colleges, and universities.

What Opponents Say

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC)

Shoffner is a 'far-left fraud' with 25 donations to Kamala Harris

Hallie Shoffner poured money into Kamala Harris' campaign 25 separate times between 2020 and 2024, backing her bids for vice president and president. Now, she's suddenly claiming she won't even show up to a Harris campaign event in Arkansas.

Republican Party of Arkansas and NRSC

Shoffner is out of touch with Arkansas values

The Republican Party of Arkansas and the National Republican Senatorial Committee each congratulated Cotton and called Shoffner a "far-left fraud" in statements issued Tuesday night.

Major Donors & PACs

Small Individual Donors (average $50)Small Donor

Grassroots fundraising with thousands of donors

$1.3 million total (as of March 2026)

Endorsements

Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Editorial BoardmediaThere are a couple of candidates on the Democratic side who want to take on Tom Cotton. Former farmer Hallie Shoffner is running against Lewisville Mayor Ethan Dunbar for the honor. The editorial endorsed Shoffner in the primary.

Hallie Shoffner — Candidate Profile