Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) secured another six-year term in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Hallie Shoffner in Arkansas.
The Associated Press (AP) declared Cotton the winner at 9:40 p.m. Tuesday. With an estimated 82 percent of votes counted, Cotton had received 54.3 percent of the vote, or 383,679 votes, compared with Shoffner’s 42.6 percent, or 301,362 votes. Libertarian Jeff Wadlin received 3.1 percent, or 22,013 votes.
Cotton, who received endorsements from President Donald Trump, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), and Arkansas’ entire congressional delegation, faced Shoffner in a state Trump carried by more than 30 percentage points in 2024. Shoffner, a rice and soybean farmer whose operation closed in 2025, had previously donated to Democrats including Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren.
Before entering the race, Shoffner served as executive director of Seis Puentes, a Little Rock nonprofit that assists “undocumented Hispanics” in navigating American systems and partnered with North Little Rock to help illegal immigrants obtain photo identification to access public services.
In June, Shoffner said she would vote to “defund ICE as it exists right now” and “would not spend one more dime on ICE,” while describing immigrants “whether they have documents or not” as essential to America’s “social, cultural, and economic fabric.” She also criticized the government’s treatment of immigrants, saying it should “enforce good laws,” “treat human beings like human beings,” and “don’t be an asshole.” Shoffner later denied wanting to defund the agency, writing, “I don’t want to defund ICE. I want to reform it.”
During a September 9 appearance on the Free Arkansas podcast, Shoffner defended illegal aliens, saying, “They’re some of the best people we know, and honestly, we’d trade five Americans for just one of them because of how hard they work.” She also questioned why such workers lacked a legal pathway to employment and described ICE agents’ use of bulletproof vests as seemingly “performative.” Her campaign manager, Anna-Lee Pittman, maintained that Shoffner was recounting another farmer’s concerns about labor shortages and accused Cotton of taking her remarks out of context.
In October, a former senior employee of Shoffner’s family farming business, SFR Seed, told the Washington Free Beacon that Shoffner knowingly employed three illegal immigrants and alleged that the workers received W-2 tax forms bearing their children’s names. Shoffner had previously maintained that she hired immigrant workers exclusively through the H-2A program. Her campaign demanded “credible evidence” of the allegations, while Cotton’s campaign accused her of knowingly employing illegal immigrants and using false tax documents.
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