By Antoinette Grajeda
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 aims to unseat Cotton and “take on the corrupt political system he’s spent the past ten years rigging against regular people,” according to a press release.
“As a sixth-generation family farmer, I know what it’s like to have to fight tooth and nail for everything you have, and still get crushed by an economy that’s rigged against you,” Shoffner said.
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.” She also argued that Cotton’s tax cuts are for “land barons,” and said the Republican “just blew a massive hole in our national debt.”
All six members of Arkansas’ federal delegation, including Cotton, voted in favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will make permanent 2017 tax cuts and provide billions to carry out the president’s plans to crack down on immigration and increase defense spending. The bill could add $3.4 trillion to deficits over the next decade, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
“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. “I’ll fight this rigged system every day—Tom Cotton’s the guy who did the rigging.”
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