The Democratic nominee for a Senate seat in Arkansas is trying to distance herself from messaging tied to the mainstream Democratic Party, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, as she wages an uphill bid to flip a Republican Senate seat.
"Arkansas is a very independent state. In fact, if you look at our voting history, we are often split-ticket voters," Hallie Shoffner told Fox News Digital.
"I feel that both of the parties just walked away from rural America - Democrats included," added Shoffner, who is pushing back on claims that she invited Harris to campaign with her.
Her comments come as Harris plans to deliver keynote remarks at the Arkansas Shackelford Dinner in Little Rock later this month - the first campaign event she has headlined since she lost the 2024 presidential election.
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Shoffner strongly denied she had any intention of campaigning with Harris at her upcoming appearance.
"We had nothing to do with bringing the former vice president here. She's speaking at a Democratic Party of Arkansas event, an event I will not be attending," Shoffner said.
"This woman is coming, and she's going to be here for all of two hours," she said.
Shoffner believes the party should focus on its future, rather than highlighting high-profile names of the past. She blasted Republican attempts to link Harris' appearance to her Senate bid.
"The Republican Party of Arkansas is talking like I'm the one who's responsible. Why? Tom Cotton and the Republican Party, why are we relitigating the 2024 election right now?" Shoffner said, referring to her political opponent, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Instead, Shoffner said she is trying to emulate different Democrats who have used middle-of-the-road platforms to attract rural voters.
"If I were Hallie Shoffner, I'd pretend like I didn't know Kamala Harris either," Joseph Wood, the chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, said in a fiery response to her comments. "But Shoffner can't hide two very important things: her 25 donations to Harris, or that Harris is coming to Arkansas to raise money that will be used to try and help her failing campaign."
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Shoffner mentioned former Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who was defeated in 2024, as an example of a different Democrat.
"One of the things I really like about Sen. Tester is he takes the same approach when he's going into diverse political communities in Montana," Shoffner said.
"We're all Arkansans. We're all Montanans. You know, we want to be able to buy our groceries. We want to put gas in our car. We want to know that our job is going to be there the next day," Shoffner said.
Tester represented Montana as a senator from 2007 to 2025. He lost his re-election bid to newcomer Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont.
Despite asserting confidence in charting her own course, Shoffner faces an uphill race against Cotton, the current chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Cotton, who was handpicked by former Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to run for the Senate in 2014, has come to the defense of President Donald Trump's military engagement against Iran.
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Shoffner believes that's a weakness she can exploit.
"Does it work for the people of Arkansas? That's the point of Congress. That there should have been an Arkansan up there in D.C. who said, 'Now, wait a minute, they need diesel and fertilizer prices to be low.' That is when a senator or a representative from a state is supposed to step in and say, 'My people at home will be affected,'" Shoffner said.
Shoffner will face off against Cotton in the state's general election on Nov. 3.
