It the feds ! A look at the primaries for Arkansas U . S . Congressional delegation

arktimes.com · Feb 17, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Whatever one thinks about the Arkansas state government, the current United States Congress is, by most measures, objectively worse. Thankfully, there is a small handful of Arkansans who want to change that, and they’re willing to take on incumbents in an effort to do so. For voters in Central Arkansas especially, that means you’ll have a U.S. Senate primary on your ballot regardless of which party’s primary you’re voting in. If you live in Arkansas’s 2nd Congressional District, you’ll also have a U.S. House primary, regardless of party, while Democratic voters in the 4th Congressional District will have a House race on their ballot as well. Enough with the preamble, Campbell! Early voting is underway! Let’s look at the federal races you might see on your primary ballots: U.S. Senate Democratic primary: Hallie Shoffner v. Lewisville Mayor Ethan Dunbar. For as inevitable and omnipresent as he’s seemed over the past decade-plus, a dirty little secret about Tom Cotton is that we have no idea how well he might (or might not) do running as an incumbent against a good Democratic candidate. In 2014, he was the plucky, loud-mouthed, one-term representative running against Sen. Mark Pryor. In 2020, through some shady dealings that have still never fully been explained, Democratic candidate Joshua Mahony withdrew from the race shortly after the filing period closed, leaving Democrats without a candidate. (Libertarian candidate Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. took 33.5% of the vote that year, just for context.) Throw in that Cotton is, even by the standards of today’s Republican party, a particularly detestable lout who is constantly on the wrong side of history and would push America into war with Iran tomorrow if it were left up to him, and it’s entirely possible that Cotton is more vulnerable in a general election against a good Democratic candidate than it might appear at first blush. And, this time around, two strong Democrats are going head to head in the primary in the hopes of testing Cotton in November. Hallie Shoffner is a sixth-generation Arkansas farmer who was forced to sell her family farm due to tariffs, poor market conditions and “no meaningful Farm Bill relief.” She holds a degree from Vanderbilt and a master’s degree in public service from the Clinton School. Her platform is focused on lowering the cost of living for families, keeping jobs in Arkansas, supporting workers and strengthening labor unions, investing in teachers and education, fighting for farmers and rural communities, making health care affordable and protecting Medicare and Social Security. Ethan Dunbar is the mayor of Lewisville, a small town in Lafayette County with a population around 900. He spent more than 30 years in the Army and is a retired command sergeant major. Dunbar says he “is running for the U.S. Senate to promote servant leadership, accountability, and return civility to our political process, putting people first in politics.” He lists respect, civility, health care, education, jobs, rural growth and faith as his priorities if elected. Republican primary: Sen. Tom Cotton, Micah Ashby and Jeb Little. Did you know Tom Cotton has not one, but two, primary challengers this year? I didn’t until I sat down to write this! While neither has a prayer of winning, we already know enough about Cotton that there’s no sense in wasting ink on him, so let’s take a quick look at both contenders just to see what’s going on in Republican circles these days. Micah Ashby, a self-described pastor and evangelist from Bradford, says on her weird website with animated satin sheets flowing in the background, “I’m not just America First, I’m America ONLY.” She says “Tom Cotton has let Arkansans down” by promoting “political agendas that don’t reflect who we are.” She supports limited government, school safety (which she says is not a gun issue), fiscal responsibility, defending the Second Amendment, strong national security and religious freedom of expression in schools and workplaces. She also supports school vouchers, says Arkansas’s workforce is second to none (which is objectively false), wants to bring “market-driven solutions” to health care and will stand up for farmers by fighting regulations. She’s raised $81.18 for her campaign, while loaning her campaign over $40,000. For context, Cotton reports having raised $11.5 million, with zero dollars in loans. Jeb Little is a seventh-generation Arkansan and former National Guard member who says the problem with Washington, D.C., is that we have collectively abandoned the idea of “In God We Trust,” which is (ironically) a saying with its roots in the Union Army during the Civil War. He also says he became an Arkansas State Police trooper in 2020 “when chaos and lawlessness gripped our nation,” and that’s just the kind of dogwhistling that makes me not care to write anything else about him. He’s raised less than $7,500, while loaning himself over $47,000. U.S. House of Representatives AR-02 Democratic primary: Chris Jones v. Zack Huffman. The Democratic race to take on French Hill (assuming he survives his primary challenge!) pits Little Rockers Chris Jones and Zack Huffman against each other. In a year when Arkansas Democrats seemingly struggled to find good candidates for a number of races, this one stands out as having two very good options for voters. Jones is well known at this point. In 2022, he was the Democratic gubernatorial candidate against Gov. Sarah Sanders, taking 35 percent of the vote to her 63%. A native of Pine Bluff, Jones attended Morehouse College and graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 2003 with a Masters of Science in Nuclear Engineering and a Masters of Science in Technology and Policy. Following the 2022 election, he launched Vortex PAC, which focuses on Arkansas’ four federal congressional districts, and has served as national co-chair of Dirt Road Democrats, a different PAC prioritizing Democratic outreach in rural areas. He also dropped this absolute banger of an ad when he announced he was running for Congress in 2026. Huffman, on the other hand, is a political newcomer. He’s a former elementary math teacher who launched his congressional campaign while balancing his work for Teach for America and online doctoral classes at Southern Arkansas University. During his campaign, he has voiced support for such progressive policies as free health care, increasing federal education funding, combating hunger and ensuring affordable housing for all. He says he would work in D.C. to “build an economy for the common good.” He’s raised only about $9,400, compared to over $466,000 for Jones, so he’s definitely a longshot this time around. AR-02 Republican primary: Rep. French Hill v. Chase McDowell. It’s 2026. By now, you know absolutely everything you could ever care to know about James French Hill. You even know that he will likely be the Republican nominee for Arkansas’s 2nd Congressional District. But did you know that’s not entirely a given at this point? Challenging Hill is 32-year-old Chase McDowell, who lists his occupation as chairman of U.S. Term Limits, a nonprofit organization that (unsurprisingly) pushes for term limits in Congress. Originally from Stamps, McDowell says he moved to Little Rock during the final months of the 2024 election cycle. He ran against then-Rep. David Fielding of Magnolia in the 2020 general election and lost. He says his work in other states as a political consultant, seeing how elected officials in those places advocate for their constituents, is what motivated him to run for Congress. He advocates for capping interest rates on student loans at 1%, but is explicitly against student loan forgiveness. Thanks to Republican gerrymandering, the 2nd District now includes most of Pulaski County, as well as Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Perry, Saline, Van Buren and White counties. It appears to be more Republican friendly than in the past, though recent trends of Republican Congressional candidates losing in areas Trump won big two years ago make predictions difficult at best. AR-04 Democratic primary: James “Rus” Russell v. Steven O’Donnell. Arkansas’s 4th Congressional District is the state’s largest district geographically, stretching from Little Rock to Texarkana and from Jasper to Hamburg. Two Democrats from the central part of the state are competing to take on incumbent Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Hot Springs). James “Rus” Russell of Little Rock previously ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2022, finishing fourth in a five-way primary that year. He has lived in the Little Rock area for more than two decades and, since 2014, has owned and operated an outpatient mental-health clinic. He served in the Arkansas National Guard and graduated from the University of Central Arkansas. Russell says he’s “unapologetically progressive while also being a fiscal realist,” and he is committed to fighting the influence of money in politics. He supports economic fairness, fighting government corruption, improving health care and lower prescription costs, improving education and job training, making housing affordable and protecting the environment. Steven O’Donell lives in Hot Springs National Park. He’s a businessman and former Navy Seabee. He hasn’t filed any financial contribution reports with the Federal Election Commission, so it’s impossible to say how much money he’s raised for his campaign. He says his priorities in Congress would be standing up for farmers, providing education and vocational training to foster job growth, and being transparent and accountable. *** Arkansas’s preferential primary and non-partisan judicial elections are on March 3. Early voting begins today. Check with your local county clerk for early voting locations and times.