Candidates

Platform Analysis: Senator Cotton emphasizes defense appropriations to create high-wage manufacturing jobs in Arkansas. He advocates for federal deregulation, expanding domestic energy production, and judicial originalism while opposing federal spending expansions.

Local Impact: Prioritizes defense contracts, federal tax reductions, and federal border enforcement.

Platform Analysis: Shoffner opposes foreign and corporate monopolies buying domestic farmland. She advocates for lowering prescription drug costs, investing in rural health clinics, and shifting federal priorities toward working family safety nets.

Local Impact: Shifts federal investments toward healthcare access, public schools, and family farm protections.

Platform Analysis: Senator Love argues that voucher spending reduces the funding available to traditional public schools. He calls for restoring prior Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements, regulating water and power usage by commercial data centers, and increased infrastructure investment.

Local Impact: Redirects voucher funding to traditional public schools, expands state government transparency requirements, and shifts corrections funding from new prison construction toward county jails and diversion programs.

Platform Analysis: Governor Sanders describes voucher accounts as giving parents school choice regardless of income. Her economic policy centers on gradually eliminating the state income tax to attract corporate investment, alongside expanded state prison capacity as part of her criminal justice approach.

Local Impact: Redirects public education funding toward private and homeschool options, reduces state income tax revenue over time, and increases state prison capacity.

Platform Analysis: Shelby says voucher expansion pulls money from rural public schools and would prioritize teacher pay, school facilities and rural funding formulas. He calls for disclosing major state contracts and incentive deals before they are final, independent audits of large contracts, and public comment on utility rate changes.

Local Impact: Shifts state spending toward public schools and rural infrastructure, opens state contracts and incentive deals to public review, and makes large data centers cover their own grid and water costs.

Platform Analysis: Kalagias would cut spending to fund tax cuts, remove local sales tax on food, diapers and feminine hygiene products, and publicly post all actions taken by the office. The campaign also states that a child should have the same rights from conception and that the National Guard should not deploy beyond state borders without a declaration of war.

Local Impact: Lowers state tax rates, ends the mega-prison project, and moves state law toward fewer gun and victimless-offense penalties and more public records disclosure.

Platform Analysis: Rutledge presides over the state Senate and casts tie-breaking votes. Her campaign points to her record as attorney general, including a Public Integrity Division, a Metal Theft Prevention Unit and a Digital You online-safety program, and to tax cuts and education freedom delivered with Governor Sanders.

Local Impact: Continues the current administration's tax-cut and education-freedom agenda, with the Lieutenant Governor presiding over the Senate and breaking tie votes.

Platform Analysis: Grappe's campaign cites a career leading teams and managing complex systems. Priorities include restoring trust in elections, keeping election administration with Arkansas officials, county listening sessions and office days, a review of voter registration and absentee processes, and simpler business-filing services.

Local Impact: Adds public explainers and dashboards on elections, clarifies how initiative petitions move through review, and expands county support and online services such as business filings.

Platform Analysis: Senator Hammer cites election-integrity bills he sponsored: canvassers must verify signers' photo ID, warn that petition fraud is a crime and file compliance affidavits, and signatures from violating canvassers are disqualified. Other bills set rules for hand-marked paper ballots and created legislative review of election procedures.

Local Impact: Applies stricter rules to initiative petition drives, moves the in-person absentee deadline earlier, and has the office follow election laws and executive orders as issued.

Platform Analysis: Pakko argues the Secretary of State should not come from the two major parties and would hire by merit rather than party. His election proposals, which would need legislative action, include ranked-choice voting (banned in 2025), later candidate filing deadlines, and fewer early-filing and signature-window limits for independents.

Local Impact: Would push the office to seek changes that widen ballot access and party recognition, end state-funded party primaries, and move redistricting to a nonpartisan commission, all dependent on the Legislature.