Vice President Kamala Harris gave Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R., Ark.) a major assist in his Senate race by visiting Arkansas at the invitation of his Democratic opponent.
Hallie Shoffner, Cotton’s Democratic opponent, recently confirmed that she voted for Harris in 2024, giving the veteran Arkansas lawmaker a gift ahead of the midterm elections.
Shoffner and the Arkansas Democrats inviting Harris comes as the former vice president works to position herself ahead of a potential run for president in 2028; her visit to Arkansas, where she delivered the keynote at the Fisher Shackelford Dinner, marked one of her highest-profile political speeches since President Donald Trump defeated her in 2024.
However, Arkansas political veterans told the Washington Reporter that her speech was a dud. Senate Senator Jim Dotson told the Reporter that he “can’t say I paid much attention to it, just like the other two-thirds of the state that didn’t vote for her. It was a non-event in my opinion.”
“I’m just super glad she’s not president and we have secure borders,” Dotson added. “Girls are safe in women’s sports and taxes are lower than they otherwise would’ve been.”
While Democrats ran Arkansas for generations, their electoral fortunes have taken a turn for the worse in recent years; Cotton himself ousted Sen. Mark Pryor (D., Ark.) six years after Republicans failed to even file a candidate against him.
Unsurprisingly, Cotton’s fellow Arkansas Republicans criticized Shoffner for inviting Harris. “Hallie Shoffner, who donated to Harris, [rolled] out the red carpet for one of America’s most far-left and radical politicians,” the state GOP noted. “This move reveals how Hallie Shoffner is a far-left fraud. She pretends to be a moderate but is aligned with the far-left. Kamala Harris delivered record inflation, an open border, and radical policies forcing schools to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports. Hallie Shoffner supports every one of these policies and wants Kamala Harris back in the White House.”