Tom Cotton Backs Citizens Only Voting Amendment; Draws Sharp Contrast With Democrat Hallie Shoffner On Illegal Immigration

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton today announced his support for Arkansas’s Citizens Only Voting Amendment, which will appear on the November ballot and would amend the Arkansas Constitution to make clear that only U.S. citizens may vote in state and local elections.

“Arkansas’s elections should be decided by Arkansans, not by illegal immigrants,” Sen. Tom Cotton said. “I have fought to secure the border to make Arkansas safer, and I strongly support the Citizens Only Voting Amendment. I encourage every Arkansan to vote yes this November.”

The amendment states that “only a citizen of the United States” who meets Arkansas’s qualifications for voting may vote in an election in the state and explicitly bars anyone who does not meet those qualifications from voting in state or local elections.

Cotton’s Democratic opponent, Hallie Shoffner, has a dramatically different view of illegal immigration.

• Democrat Hallie Shoffner promised to defund ICE and that she would “not spend one more dime” on the immigration enforcement agency.
• Democrat Hallie Shoffner said “I do not care whether these are folks that have documents or not,” while discussing illegal immigrants in Arkansas and across the country.
• Democrat Shoffner previously served as executive director of Seis Puentes, an organization that worked to help illegal immigrants obtain access to taxpayer-funded public benefits and services.
• Democrat Hallie Shoffner donated to Kamala Harris 25 times. She also donated to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and numerous other Democrats who support open borders.

“Democrat Hallie Shoffner said she wants to defund ICE, which would make Arkansas more dangerous,” Cotton spokesperson James Arnold said. “Shoffner’s plan to end immigration enforcement would mean that gang members—including a known terrorist and murderer who was just arrested in Carroll County—would get to stay in Arkansas. Not only does she support ending immigration enforcement, but Shoffner has also worked to get illegal aliens on Arkansas taxpayer benefits—she’s far too liberal for Arkansas.”