‘FarmHerHallie’ Harvests Defeat: Arkansas Picks Cotton
Arkansas voters rejected Democrat Hallie Shoffner in Tuesday’s Senate contest, handing incumbent Republican Tom Cotton a third term.The race was called about two hours after polls closed, with Shoffner trailing Cotton by roughly 10 points.
Shoffner ran as a “lifelong” working-class farmer under the “FarmHerHallie” brand, but reporting shows she is worth more than $3 million and hired a marketing firm in 2016 to craft that image. Even though she grew up on her family’s farm, much of her career was in left-leaning activism, including work for a Soros-funded nonprofit in Peru and for an Arkansas group assisting undocumented Hispanic residents.
Immigration became a flashpoint in the campaign. Shoffner drew criticism for saying she would “trade five Americans for just one” undocumented worker as of how hard immigrants work, and for asserting that “every farmer” employs undocumented labor. She later said she was speaking generally and denied employing undocumented workers herself, but a former senior employee told reporters Shoffner had actually employed at least three undocumented workers on the farm and used thier children’s names and Social Security numbers on tax forms. Cotton accused her of breaking the law and lying, saying she had no place in the Senate.
Before running,shoffner supported several progressive positions that were at odds with Arkansas’s strong conservative lean-President Trump won the state by about 30 percentage points in 2024. She testified in favor of race-based hiring and admissions policies, donated to and raised funds for a racial-justice bail fund whose founder was later convicted in connection with firebombing police vehicles, and said she would shift taxpayer money from punishment to treatment. She also said she would vote to defund ICE and argued that requiring proof of citizenship to vote would disenfranchise millions and would not improve safety.
Arkansas voters put Democrat Hallie Shoffner out to pasture in Tuesday’s Senate race in favor of incumbent Republican Tom Cotton, a Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year who was elected to a third term in the upper chamber.
Shoffner, the “prairie populist” who billed herself as a working-class farmer but is worth more than $3 million, trailed Cotton by nearly 10 points when the election was called two hours after the polls closed. Shoffner’s defeat stands in contrast to other Democratic gains this election cycle.
Shoffner built her campaign around her identity as a “lifelong” farmer in a state full of them. But the Free Beacon reported that she hired a marketing firm in 2016 to build her “brand” as “FarmHerHallie.” While Shoffner did grow up on her family’s farm, she spent much of her life as a left-wing activist, including working for the George Soros-funded social justice nonprofit “PROMSEX” in Peru. Back in the United States, Shoffner worked as the executive director of Seis Puentes, an Arkansas nonprofit for undocumented Hispanics meant to “engage them in the process” of navigating U.S. government systems.
On the campaign trail, Shoffner and Cotton clashed on immigration issues.
The Democrat generated headlines when she said she would “trade five Americans for just one” illegal immigrant “because of how hard they work.” She also conceded that “every farmer” employs illegal aliens. Pressed on the claim, Shoffner said she was speaking generally and did not employ illegal immigrants on her family farm. But a former senior employee of Shoffner’s told the Free Beacon Shoffner did in fact employ at least three illegal immigrants at the farm and used the names and Social Security numbers of their children on tax forms.
Cotton said Shoffner “broke the law and lied about it” and had “no business being in the U.S. Senate” as a result.
Shoffner was not shy in advocating for left-wing positions before running against Cotton in a state that backed President Donald Trump by a 30-point margin in 2024. Last year, Shoffner testified before Arkansas’s House State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee in favor of race-based hiring and admissions practices. In the summer of 2020, Shoffner donated to and fundraised for a “racial and social justice” bail fund. That fund’s founder was later convicted for her role in firebombing police vehicles in Little Rock.
More recently, Shoffner vowed to “redirect” taxpayer dollars away from “punishment” for criminals and instead toward “treatment and compassion.” She also said she would vote to defund ICE, saying that it “is not making us safer.”
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