US Midterms 2026
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Tom Cotton, a Republican, has represented Arkansas in the U.S. Senate since 2015 and is seeking a third term in the November 3, 2026 election.
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Tom Cotton.
Recent media coverage for Tom Cotton.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.: Polling released Thursday evening shows Sen. Tom Cotton making some gains against opponent Hallie Shoffner in the race to represent Arkansas in the U.S. Senate.
ShoffnerSenator Tom Cotton is in a solid position to win re-election on November 3rd. He leads Democrat Hallie Shoffner by 9 percentage points, with only 5 percent of voters remaining as undecided.
ShoffnerCotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, was first elected in 2014 and won reelection in 2020 against Libertarian challenger Ricky Dale Harrington Jr., who won a third of the vote.
Sen. Tom Cotton (left) is running for a third term in the U.S. Senate against Libertarian Jeff Wadlin (middle) and Democrat Hallie Shoffner (right).
CONWAY: Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton was not in the room as his Democratic and Libertarian challengers debated Monday, but criticism of the Arkansas lawmaker’s record and his absence from the debate took center…
ShoffnerTom Cotton and his Democratic challenger Hallie Shoffner will not debate before the November election.
Tom Cotton’s Arkansas Senate race: Salem Media Group canceled the U.S. Senate debate between Cotton (R) and Hallie Shoffner (D) after both campaigns confirmed participation.
Nonpartisan raters call the race safely Republican, but Shoffner argues farm stress could loosen the GOP’s hold on rural voters.
ShoffnerTom Cotton, the incumbent U.S. Senator from Arkansas, did not participate in the scheduled Senate debate. The article notes his absence from the debate for Arkansas' U.S. Senate seat.
A planned debate between U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Democratic nominee Hallie Shoffner was canceled.
No story this week names this candidate.
Born in Dardanelle, Arkansas, on May 13, 1977, Thomas Bryant Cotton is the son of Thomas Leonard "Len" Cotton, a district supervisor in the Arkansas Department of Health, and Avis (née Bryant) Cotton, a schoolteacher who later became principal of the district's middle school.
He grew up on the family cattle farm, finished at Dardanelle High School in 1995 and went on to Harvard College, where he majored in government, sat on The Harvard Crimson's editorial board and graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in 1998, after three years.
He enrolled for a year in Claremont Graduate University's master's program, then moved to Harvard Law School, earning his J.D. there in 2002.
After law school, Cotton clerked for a year for Judge Jerry Edwin Smith of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and then practiced as an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C. He received his Army commission in 2005, completed Ranger School and Airborne School, deployed to Baghdad in 2006 as a platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division and served in eastern Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009 with a Provincial Reconstruction Team; his decorations include the Bronze Star.
He left active duty in September 2009, joined McKinsey & Company and was in the Army Reserve from 2010 to 2013.
Cotton won the 2012 election for Arkansas's 4th congressional district, defeating Gene Jeffress, a state senator, by 59.5% to 36.7%, and sat in the House from 2013 to 2015. In 2014 he unseated Democratic senator Mark Pryor, 56.5% to 39.4%, and he took his Senate seat in January 2015. He won a second term in 2020 against Libertarian Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. Cotton chairs both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Republican Conference.
Cotton announced in February 2025 that he would run for reelection. In the Republican primary on March 3, 2026, he secured the nomination with 81.6% of the vote against limited opposition. His opponent in the November 3 general election is Democrat Hallie Shoffner, a farmer who took 78.3% in the Democratic primary over Lewisville mayor Ethan Dunbar.
