Democratic candidate Hallie Shoffner challenges Sen. Tom Cotton
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Democratic candidate Hallie Shoffner. Photo: Courtesy of the Shoffner campaign
U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Hallie Shoffner is focusing on the cost of living and agriculture, stating the decision to close her family farm last year came after a "devastating year of rising costs, bad markets, new tariffs and no meaningful Farm Bill relief."
State of play: We sat down with Shoffner ahead of the election and asked her stances on several issues.
Context: Shoffner, 39, grew up south of Newport in northeast Arkansas, earned a master's degree in public service from the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock and later ran her family farm. She lives in Little Rock.
- She won the Democratic nomination in March with about 78% of the vote.
Zoom in: She's campaigned as an advocate for the state and rural areas, saying Cotton doesn't spend enough time in Arkansas. She told Axios she wants rural parts of Arkansas that lack industry and have high poverty rates to know "that their vote matters to me in a way that it just won't ever to Tom Cotton."
🧑🌾 Agriculture: Shoffner wants to write farm policy that incentivizes a diverse crop industry, she said.
Federal policy has for decades incentivized farmers to get larger, at the expense of quality and diversification, Shoffner said. Arkansas is growing a few things like cotton and soybeans in high volume, but should grow a variety of fruits, vegetables, beans and grains to feed people in and around Arkansas.
- She also wants to incentivize public-private partnerships to build processing facilities on farms or near farm communities in Arkansas, providing high-tech jobs in areas that need the industry.
Zoom in: Too much land consolidation among corporations, private equity firms and wealthy individuals should be treated as an antitrust violation because it eventually constitutes a market manipulation where the system is rigged against small farmers, she said.
- Land can be protected through farmland trusts, putting tax burdens on landowners who want to mass consolidate, ensuring right of first refusal for those with legacy farmland, and offering low-interest loans for young people pursuing farming.
🤖 AI and data centers: Federal policy should regulate AI to make sure these new products that haven't been fully vetted for consumer safety don't enter the domestic market before they're ready, Shoffner said.
- Data centers should have community development agreements with local governments to make sure questions are answered ahead of time, she said.
🩺 Health care: Shoffner wants to make investments in health care that she says will save money over time and improve health.
Zoom in: Some of those investments include expanding what Medicare covers; investing in telehealth and federally qualified health centers; increasing medical residencies; forgiving student loans for doctors, nurses and social workers; holistic care like mental health with Medicaid; and increasing Medicaid reimbursements.
Context: Low Medicaid reimbursement rates have contributed to hospitals' financial strain and closures.
- "What our politicians don't understand is that Medicaid — when it comes to rural health care — I mean, that's not just health care. That's economic infrastructure because that's the revenue structure for many rural hospitals, many clinics, many health care workers," Shoffner said.
🇮🇷 Iran: Shoffner would support ending the war in Iran if elected, she said.
- She has criticized how much the war is costing Americans.
🌎 Immigration: Shoffner has a "serious problem" with the funding ICE has received and instead supports putting resources toward working on the backlog of immigration cases, noting the firing of immigration judges.
- People should not be deported solely because they are undocumented, Shoffner said, adding that undocumented immigrants should be deported if they commit a crime that has a victim.
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