Hallie Shoffner

Professional background

Sixth-generation farmer; small-business owner. Operated family farm for nine years. Focused on conservation, sustainable farming, and regional food production.

Public service

Presidential Leadership Scholar; board member of the Arkansas Foodbank.

Military service

None

In this race

• Tom Cotton (Republican)

Issue positions

Healthcare (Policy)

Hallie Shoffner does not campaign on instituting Medicare for All. Instead, Shoffner campaigns on strengthening the ACA and protecting Medicare and Medicaid. She also supports affordable childcare, paid leave, maternal care, and rural addiction treatment. CBO estimates that permanently restoring the expanded premium-tax-credit structure would increase deficits by $350 billion from 2026 through 2035. But the subsidies could also weaken price discipline by insulating enrollees from premium increases and channeling more federal money through insurers. The most immediate effect of Shoffner’s policies would be opposition to the Medicaid and marketplace restrictions enacted in the 2025 reconciliation law. The Congressional Research Service reports that the law’s Medicaid provisions could reduce federal outlays by about $990 billion over fiscal years 2025–2034; KFF estimates the law will leave about 10 million more Americans uninsured by 2034 when Medicaid and marketplace effects are combined. Reversing those changes would preserve or restore coverage and federal dollars, but would also forgo much of those federal savings. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Shoffner favors expanding ACA subsidies, protecting Medicare and Medicaid, lowering drug costs, and increasing federal support for hospitals, childcare, maternal care, and addiction treatment. Her approach could preserve insurance coverage for millions but would also reverse substantial federal savings and add hundreds of billions of dollars to projected deficits."

Taxes (Policy)

Shoffner says her tax and budget agenda would reduce taxes for blue-collar workers and working families, simplify the tax code for small businesses, and lower the federal deficit. She also supports lifting the Social Security payroll-tax cap for the “ultra wealthy,” but she has not specified the income thresholds, tax rates, credit amounts, spending reductions, or revenue estimates that would make up a complete fiscal plan. As a result, the proposed payroll-tax change is the clearest and most concrete revenue provision she has offered. Removing the Social Security payroll tax cap would expose all wage income above $184,500 (the 2026 cap) to the 12.4% OASDI payroll tax, split between employer and employee, meaning the policy could represent both a significant tax increase and a benefit windfall for high earners. Shoffner has opposed the Working Families Tax Cuts, which provided historic tax cuts to working Americans. Her opposition to the policy means opposing tax cuts for those earning tips and overtime wages. Tax relief for working families could increase take-home pay and help households manage elevated food, housing, and childcare expenses. However, Shoffner has not explained how those reductions would be financed or reconciled with her promises to expand federal spending on healthcare, paid leave, education, and infrastructure. Without defined offsets or a detailed budget framework, her commitment to reducing the deficit remains difficult to evaluate. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Shoffner identifies real family pressures but has not offered a definite plan for how to resolve the issues. Ultimately, voters need specific tax rates, income thresholds, spending offsets, and revenue estimates to evaluate whether her plan would reduce the deficit."

Environment & Energy (Policy)

Shoffner treats climate change primarily as a farm-risk and conservation problem. She has described hotter nights, erratic rain, floods, drought, and irrigation costs as threats to rice quality and farm profitability. On her farm, she used intermittent flooding to conserve water, and third-party profiles describe her as supporting small-scale solar and a practical energy mix rather than an immediate fossil-fuel ban. She has not published a national emissions target, carbon tax, drilling position, or permitting plan. Reliability and affordability still require realism. In 2024, natural gas supplied 38% of Arkansas electricity and nuclear power 25%. The state’s average retail price was among the lowest in the nation. Rapid mandates that disregard that mix could raise transition costs. Shoffner’s pragmatic rhetoric avoids that mistake, but her thin legislative agenda makes it impossible to know how she would balance emissions, land use, transmission, nuclear power, and ratepayer protection. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Her conservation-first approach is credible for Arkansas agriculture, but she has not detailed her platform, leaving it an adaptation philosophy rather than a complete national energy policy."

Immigration (Policy)

Shoffner has said she would vote to defund ICE “as it exists right now” and would not provide more money until the system addressed what she called corruption, cruelty, and misplaced priorities. She says ICE agents have “terrorized” American citizens. Her campaign website does not provide border-security, asylum, legal-status, visa, detention, or agency-replacement plans, but Shoffner has said she does not care if people “have documents or not.” Shoffner says she wants to build an “immigration system that works,” but does not explain what that alternative would entail. Under Biden, nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants attempted to cross the border in a single month, with millions in total entering the United States. CBO estimates the immigration surge under Biden’s watch imposed a direct $9.2 billion net cost on state and local governments in 2023, chiefly for schools, shelter, and border security. New reporting shows it also increased home prices in the United States. Defunding or restricting ICE without a detailed transfer of authorities, personnel, databases, detention capacity, and congressional oversight invites a costly reorganization and potential enforcement gaps. Additionally, it would continue to allow illegal immigrants to benefit from American taxpayer dollars. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Shoffner has called for withholding additional funding from ICE in its current form but has not provided a detailed alternative for enforcing immigration laws or managing border security. Her position could create enforcement gaps and additional taxpayer costs at a time when high levels of illegal immigration have already strained state and local services and increased pressure on housing."

Public Safety (Policy)

Shoffner supports soft-on-crime policies, including community-based prevention focused on domestic violence, trafficking, crimes against children, and reentry. But she campaigns on supporting local police and first responders, including staffing, training, mental-health support, and collective-bargaining rights. This is not a conventional “defund the police” platform; it would direct federal support both to enforcement capacity and social interventions. However, evaluations of community violence programs show mixed or difficult-to-attribute results, making local design and measurement essential. Shoffner gives no funding level, grant formula, sentencing position, or performance standard. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Shoffner emphasizes community-based prevention, reentry, and criminal-justice reform while also campaigning on support for local police and first responders. She provides few details on costs, sentencing, or how effectiveness would be measured."

Economy & Labor (Policy)

Shoffner’s economic platform includes raising the minimum wage, strengthening workers’ bargaining rights, expanding job training and apprenticeships, partnering with community colleges, investing in infrastructure, helping small businesses, reducing regulations, and passing a farm bill focused on agriculture. She also opposes tariffs that raise production costs or trigger retaliation against American exporters. Shoffner supports passing the PRO Act and has said “I think right-to-work is a violation of the First Amendment.” Heritage notes that the bill would preempt state right-to-work protections and broaden employee classification, changes with particular significance in right-to-work Arkansas. Agriculture is especially important in Arkansas, where it accounts for a significant share of the state economy. Shoffner’s proposals for better risk-management tools, regional food processing, and more predictable trade policies could help farmers and rural communities keep more of the value generated by agricultural production. However, federal grant and subsidy programs can favor politically connected industries or fund inefficient projects unless awards are competitive and results are closely measured. Her labor policies involve similar tradeoffs. Stronger union protections and a higher minimum wage could increase pay and benefits for workers, but they could also raise labor and compliance costs for employers. Shoffner has not said what minimum wage she supports. CBO found that a $15 federal minimum wage could reduce poverty and raise earnings for many workers, while also reducing employment and increasing prices. A uniform national wage could place a greater burden on small businesses in lower-cost rural areas. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Shoffner supports a higher minimum wage, stronger union rights, workforce development, infrastructure investment, and expanded assistance for farmers and small businesses. Her proposals could raise wages and support rural industries, but they may also increase costs for employers and create inefficient subsidy programs without clear limits or performance standards."

Foreign Policy (Policy)

Shoffner’s published foreign-policy record is limited. She has supported Ukraine’s sovereignty and Israel’s right to self-defense, while arguing that the United States should avoid expensive, prolonged wars. She has been vocal about her opposition to the Iran war, emphasizing its effects on Arkansas fuel and fertilizer costs and questioning open-ended military involvement. This restraint could reduce fiscal exposure and force clearer congressional authorization. It also connects national security to agriculture and household prices. But a senator must vote on defense budgets, alliances, arms transfers, sanctions, intelligence authorities, China, NATO, and the conditions for using force. Shoffner has not provided those thresholds, nor a plan for reconciling support for allies with her aversion to prolonged conflict. — "𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: Shoffner offers a cautious, Arkansas-focused, cost-conscious approach, but her foreign-policy doctrine is too sparse to assess readiness for the Senate’s national-security responsibilities."

Sources (Reference)

◆ Healthcare
• Hallie Shoffner Campaign — Priorities
• Congressional Budget Office — ACA Premium Tax Credit Estimates
• Heritage Foundation — Temporary Obamacare Subsidies
• Congressional Research Service — Medicaid Provisions of the 2025 Reconciliation Law

◆ Taxes
• Social Security Administration — Contribution and Benefit Base

◆ Environment & Energy
• Yale Climate Connections — Arkansas Farmer Adapting to Climate Change

◆ Immigration
• Washington Free Beacon — Shoffner on Defunding ICE
• Hallie Shoffner — Statement on ICE
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Border Release Statistics
• Congressional Budget Office — Immigration Surge Effects
• Congressional Budget Office — Immigration Policy Estimate
• New York Post — Immigration and Housing Prices

◆ Economy & Labor
• Arkansas Times — Hallie Shoffner Senate Campaign Profile
• Heritage Foundation — PRO Act Analysis
• USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service — Arkansas Agriculture Overview
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Union Membership in Arkansas
• Congressional Budget Office — Federal Minimum-Wage Estimate

◆ Foreign Policy
• Hallie Shoffner — Statement on Iran War