Category Archives: Elections

Outsider King faces Sanders-backed challenger – another Ballinger

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

The most intriguing Arkansas political race in next March’s primary is the one in state Senate District 28. For the third straight election, a King faces a Ballinger, albeit a different one this time.

Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, faces a challenge from Bobby Ballinger Jr. of St. Paul to represent the northwest Arkansas district. It includes all of Carroll and Madison Counties and parts of Boone, Newton, Johnson and Franklin Counties. Harrison and Eureka Springs are among the district’s biggest cities.

The two families have a political history.  Continue reading →

Don’t neglect the second thing

By Steve Brawner , © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Lawmakers mainly do two things. Both they and voters should not focus so much on the first that they ignore the second.

The first thing lawmakers do is enact policies. That’s what Americans tend to care about, whether it’s the economy, foreign policy, or hot-button culture-war issues such as immigration, abortion, or guns.

These issues are divisive. The passions they arise have created an us-versus-them dynamic, both in Congress and in communities.

The more those flames get fanned, the less likely elected officials will do the second thing well: protecting, preserving and strengthening the democratic process itself. 

While many issues come and go, that one’s been constant since the country’s founding. How do we govern ourselves in a way that honors the people’s will while also tempering public passions? That question will continue to be asked until the day America’s constitutional republic ceases to exist. Continue reading →

Loss of family farm leads Shoffner to challenge Sen. Cotton

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Hallie Shoffner, a sixth generation farmer, quit farming this year after she created six different spreadsheets and realized that, in this agriculture economy, there was no scenario where she could turn a profit. Faced with that prospect, she sold the operation and instead is campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Tom Cotton.

Shoffner officially launched her campaign as a Democrat for the 2026 election Tuesday. Dan Whitfield, who unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination in 2022, has also said he is running.

Shoffner, 37, grew up on her family farm near Newport and spent the last nine years running the operation. She raised rice, soybeans, cotton, corn and grain sorghum. The married mother of a six-year-old also is the founder and owner of Delta Harvest. That’s a business that connects small- and midsize farmers such as specialty rice growers with food buyers. Her experience losing her farm is a big part of her campaign.

“We are living in a time in which hard work does not mean a good life anymore because we live in an economy that’s rigged against real people,” she said. “We live in an economy that helps corporations and politicians, and that does not work for real Arkansans. And as a sixth-generation farmer who knows what that’s like, if I can’t farm, I’m going to fight for the people of Arkansas.” Continue reading →

Ruling keeps Republican primary open

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Should Arkansas voters be required to declare they are Republicans in order to vote in Republican Party primaries? They won’t be after a court decision May 5. 

The case stems from a vote by rank-and-file Republicans at last year’s state convention to close the primaries. Members did not want non-Republicans, particularly Democrats, voting in their primary. The Executive Committee leadership did not agree. Eighteen of its 24 members voted to rescinded the vote in July. In response, 22 party delegates sued the party chairman, the secretary of state, and the state Board of Election Commissioners.

This is a good, old-fashioned intraparty conflict, in the middle of which U.S. District Judge Brian Miller said he could not get. In his seven-page decision May 5, he wrote that a federal courtroom was not the place to settle the dispute. 

First, he wrote that it’s not a constitutional case. It was not about freedom of speech because the Republican Party of Arkansas is not a government entity. It was not about freedom of association because the RPA can decide its own rules. 

If state laws governed the process, then state officials could regulate. However, the law merely says that parties must prescribe qualifications for voting in primaries and must create rules and procedures. It’s up to the party. Regardless, he wrote that the U.S. Constitution’s 11th Amendment states that federal courts cannot compel state officials to obey state law.  Continue reading →

Questions awaiting answers Tuesday

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Many questions await answers after Election Day. Let’s consider a few of them, starting with …

Which party will control the Senate and the House of Representatives? The answer, or answers, will largely determine the next president’s agenda. If everything is controlled by one party, then the president will have an easier time accomplishing some of his or her goals – or at least he or she won’t be investigated by congressional committees. If one party controls the White House and the Senate, then more of the president’s judicial appointments will be confirmed. Otherwise, we’ll generally have gridlock, which may be the best scenario given the alternatives.

Gridlock basically is what we have now. Democrats control the Senate, 51-49, while Republicans control the House, 220-212 with three vacancies. 

After the election, Republicans likely will control the Senate because Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 contested seats, including some in states where they are vulnerable. Those include an open West Virginia seat that Republicans will win, and a Montana seat where the Republican is leading the Democratic incumbent. If Republicans gain control, Arkansas’ Sen. John Boozman is in line to chair the Agriculture Committee.  Continue reading →