Libertarian Party Nominates Jeff Wadlin for Arkansas U.S. Senate
The businessman and political independent enters the 2026 race as a third-party challenger to incumbent Tom Cotton
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — February 21, 2026
The Arkansas Libertarian Party has nominated Jeff Wadlin as its candidate for U.S. Senate, setting up a three-way general election contest against Republican incumbent Tom Cotton and Democratic challenger Hallie Shoffner.
Wadlin, a businessman and political independent, accepted the nomination on Saturday, positioning himself as a candidate unbeholden to either major party and critical of both.
"Both parties are failing Arkansas," Wadlin said in remarks following the nomination. "Somewhere along the way, actual governing became a radical idea. I'm running to fix that."
The nomination makes Wadlin the only third-party candidate in the 2026 Arkansas race for U.S. Senate, which has drawn national attention as Cotton, a two-term Republican and Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, faces erosion in his home-state approval ratings. A 2023 University of Arkansas poll found Cotton's approval had gone underwater for the first time, with 44 percent of Arkansans disapproving of his performance.
Wadlin's platform defies easy categorization. He is concerned about how polarized America has become and wants to be the centrist option to bring Arkansans together, noting that having only two choices does not make for real democracy. He is also passionate about personal liberties, emphasizing that adults should be free to live as they please, and raise their children according to their own values. And he’s in this race to solve the affordability crisis created by the “big two” parties. Ending tariffs and wars will be his focus among other policies like immigration, fiscal discipline, and health care to help struggling farmers, small businesses and families.
"I don't fit neatly into either party's playbook," Wadlin said. "That's the whole point."
The Libertarian nomination gives Wadlin automatic ballot access in Arkansas, bypassing the signature-gathering process required of unaffiliated independents. He is expected to compete most aggressively for the state's roughly 34 percent of voters who identify as Independent, a bloc that has grown substantially over the past decade as Arkansas completed its transformation from a competitive state to a firmly Republican one.
Cotton, seeking his third Senate term, has maintained a commanding fundraising advantage and strong support among the Republican base. Shoffner, a Democrat and former farmer, has centered her campaign almost entirely on kitchen-table issues, framing Cotton's trade and tax record as a direct cause of hardship for working Arkansas families.
Wadlin acknowledged the structural challenge facing any third-party candidate in Arkansas but argued that the political moment creates an unusual opening.
"One-third of Arkansans don't belong to either party," he said. "They've been told for years that their only choice is the lesser of two evils. My guess is that in this election they'll vote based on their principles and not based on blind party loyalty. The crucial truth is that independents have the most power in Congress to be the deciding vote and truly represent Arkansans' wishes, whereas Republicans and Democrats are merely pawns of their party bosses and almost always vote along party lines."
The general election is scheduled for November 3, 2026.
