Category Archives: Politics

Arkansas TV cuts ties with PBS, Big Bird; more local shows coming

By Steve Brawner, © 2026 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Big Bird of “Sesame Street” fame will not be appearing on Arkansas public television broadcasts starting next July. Instead, the station will be offering a lot more local programming, such as a new show that will help families prepare healthy meals on a budget. 

The changes are coming because President Trump and Congress have cut all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB was granting $2.5 million to Arkansas TV – formerly Arkansas PBS – which was 20% of its budget. 

Arkansas TV then used that $2.5 million to pay its yearly dues to the Public Broadcasting System. PBS is the distributor of “Sesame Street,” Ken Burns’ historical documentaries, and other programming. 

Carlton Wing, Arkansas TV’s new executive director and CEO, explained the situation during a speech at the Rotary Club of Little Rock Jan. 13. His first day on the job was Sept. 30.

Continue reading →

Prediction game: Prison stays stuck, Dems win U.S. House

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

What might happen in Arkansas in 2026? Let’s play the prediction game.

– The March 3 primaries will produce no big surprises and generate a voter turnout of about 20%. Sen. Tom Cotton and Rep. French Hill easily will win their contests. State Sen. Fred Love, D-Mablevale, will be the Democratic nominee for governor, while Hallie Shoffner will be the Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee. Chris Jones will be the nominee to face Hill in the 2nd District.

State Sens. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, and Ronald Caldwell, R-Wynne, both will win their primary races. Those are the two Republican state senators who voted against Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ $800 million prison last year and who face primary opponents. Continue reading →

Jones’ mission: Rebuild state’s Democratic Party

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

Retired Col. Marcus Jones took on some challenging missions during his 29 years in the Army. Now he faces an uphill battle as a civilian: reversing the fortunes of the Democratic Party of Arkansas.

The party’s State Committee elected the Jonesboro native as its unpaid state chair Aug. 16.

Jones challenged U.S. Rep. French Hill last year to represent the 2nd District in Congress, winning 41% of the vote. He considered various options after that defeat, including running for governor this year. After the party’s previous chair, Grant Tennille, announced he was resigning, party activists began contacting Jones about running for the position. His term ends in December 2026. 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 →

Green Party’s Stein: End corporate control, ‘endless war’

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

Arkansans’ ballots will have four independent presidential candidates who are still in the race. Today, let’s meet the Green Party’s Dr. Jill Stein, the one Democrats don’t want to be there.

They fear Stein, the most liberal candidate on Arkansans’ ballots, will siphon votes from Vice President Kamala Harris. Some people believe her 1.4 million votes in 2016 cost Hillary Clinton the election.

Stein doesn’t see it that way. 

“That’s the nature of democracy,” she told me by phone from her home outside Boston. “I’m sorry. Do we say that Republicans are stealing votes from Democrats? No, they have different agendas and different points of view.”

Indeed, Stein’s agenda is very different than those of Democrats and Republicans, both of which she described as beholden to corporations. Continue reading →