Hallie Shoffner, the Democratic Senate nominee in Arkansas, has repeatedly blasted her opponent, Sen. Tom Cotton (R.), for supporting the war in Iran, which she says has caused gas prices to spike in recent weeks. [some emphasis, links added]
But Shoffner previously joined a left-wing climate group for its explicit support of a carbon tax that experts said would cause price hikes for Americans.
Shoffner said in 2020 that she joined Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a nonprofit based in Coronado, Calif., because it had advocated for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, a bill she argued provides a solution “as real and immediate as climate change itself.”
The bill—first introduced in the House in 2018 but has not received a floor vote—taxes fossil fuels, charging companies $15 per metric ton of carbon emissions at its onset, with the fee increasing by $10 or $15 each year based on emission levels.
The Washington Free Beacon previously reported that the legislation, if passed, would have a particularly acute impact on farmers, including those in Arkansas whom Shoffner has claimed during her campaign to “fight for” as a lifelong farmer herself.
The cost of corn, for example, would increase 16 percent after 10 years, and corn exports would decrease 5 percent under the bill, according to an Iowa State University analysis.
The export decline alone could cost American farmers roughly $700 million a year.
“It would squeeze already thin margins, reduce competitiveness against foreign producers who face no similar tax, and hit rural communities first and hardest,” American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac told the Free Beacon in February.
That hasn’t stopped her from repeatedly attacking Cotton over high prices at the pump.
Shoffner argued that, because Cotton has supported the war in Iran while serving on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, he is responsible for the higher gas prices that have come during the war.
Tom Cotton is responsible for $4/gal gas. We don’t buy his BS. And we’d like him to go home to Virginia. pic.twitter.com/Y8HHNtg96i
— Hallie Shoffner (@hallieshoffner) May 17, 2026
“Arkansan families were already struggling before the war in Iran because of inflation and because nobody has good health care,” Shoffner said in a recent video posted on social media.
“Tom Cotton has everything to do with $4 per gallon gas. No, the people of Arkansas do not buy that we had to go to war with Iran. Tom, you cannot blame anyone else for these high gas prices. Just because you can afford to buy gas right now does not mean that your constituents can.”
Read rest at Free Beacon
