Hallie Shoffner, the Arkansas Democrat challenging Sen. Tom Cotton, is standing by her statement that farmers would trade five Americans for a single undocumented immigrant worker. Her campaign refused to clarify, however, whether Shoffner herself has employed undocumented workers on her own farm.
Shoffner made the original remarks on September 9. “Every farmer will tell you at one point, we did, or still do, employ undocumented immigrants, and it’s absolutely ridiculous that these folks are being rounded up because they’re hardworking people,” she said. “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.”
Cotton Campaign Demands Answers on Shoffner’s Farm Workers
Cotton’s campaign moved quickly to press Shoffner on whether the remarks were personal. “Shoffner’s campaign isn’t denying that Hallie Shoffner employed illegal immigrants. Nor did Hallie Shoffner’s campaign even try to walk back her claim that a single illegal immigrant is more valuable than five American citizens, in fact, they’re doubling down,” said Cotton campaign spokesman James Arnold. “Arkansans deserve to know how many illegal aliens Hallie Shoffner employed, how ‘well’ she paid them, and how long they worked for her.”
Shoffner had also said during the same remarks, “We pay them well. They spend money here. They have family here,” though her campaign did not address whether that “we” referred to her own farming operation. Hallie Shoffner immigrant labor comments, the campaign’s response focused instead on attacking Cotton’s record rather than answering the question directly.
Shoffner Camp Accuses Cotton of Distorting the Conversation
Campaign manager Anna-Lee Pittman accused Cotton of stripping Shoffner’s words out of context, arguing the candidate was relaying a conversation with another farmer about agricultural labor shortages. “So he spends his days combing through video clips of Hallie Shoffner to find any possible inelegant phrase or line that he can chop up to misrepresent an hour long conversation and present it with no context,” Pittman said.
Pittman also went on offense against Cotton’s tenure in Washington. “If he had anything to be proud of about how he’s spent 14 years in Washington, you can bet he wouldn’t shut up about it. But he can’t point to one thing he’s done to improve the lives of Arkansans,” she said. Pittman added that Shoffner believes the border should be secure and laws enforced, while also calling for a legal immigration system that serves farmers and businesses.
What Shoffner Has Said Before, and What Comes Next
This is not the first time Shoffner’s immigration positions have drawn scrutiny. In June, she said immigrants “whether they have documents or not” are vital to the country’s social and economic fabric, and said she would “not spend one more dime on ICE.” She later reversed course, saying, “I don’t want to defund ICE. I want to reform it.”
With the Arkansas Senate race intensifying, Cotton’s campaign is expected to keep the pressure on Shoffner to answer whether she personally employed undocumented workers. Shoffner, for her part, has framed her position as a call for a functional, legal agricultural labor system, though her campaign’s silence on the direct question of her own hiring practices is likely to remain a central line of attack heading into the fall campaign.
