Arkansas Governor 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them

Has our children’s education become a political scheme? I’ve heard the same story again and again: schools are concerned about grades, they report it, and the state changes the letter grades. At what point is this going to be enough for everyone to realize our children are not pawns? LEARNS is not working. Jacob Oliva is not the one that needs to lead Arkansas education, and that is true of too many of Governor Sanders’ appointments. It is sickening to hear “LEARNS works” while our kids spend week after week practicing the ATLAS test. That test was created by the state. It is not a nationally recognized assessment. Valuable classroom time is being used to cram for a political metric instead of teaching children. Private schools, charter schools, and homeschools often do better for a simple reason: they are not forced to waste instructional time on irrelevant state tests designed to serve political ambitions. Arkansas owes its children a general, suitable, and efficient system of free public schools. That is the standard. We are not meeting it. As governor, I will Appoint a qualified public-school professional from Arkansas to lead education, put two working public educators at the table to help pass bills that actually help schools, and repeal the policies holding them back return to nationally recognized testing so we can honestly measure how Arkansas students compare to other states. We will eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the public schools with accountability all while finding better solutions for each area to give them the true tools they need. We have more troubled kids now than in history and we are not solving the problem by just letting them pass by and letting them fall behind. Our kids deserve education, not political theater.

Loaded Language: The word 'scheme' carries a strongly negative connotation implying deception or manipulation, framing education policy as inherently sinister — for example: 'political scheme'

Appeal to Prejudice: The phrase 'our children' invokes in-group identity and parental protectiveness to emotionally prime the reader before any evidence is presented — for example: 'our children's education'

Card Stacking: The sentence selectively highlights that the test lacks national recognition to discredit it, omitting any context about whether state-level assessments can still be valid or useful — for example: 'It is not a nationally recognized assessment'

Black-and-White Fallacy: The sentence presents a binary choice between 'cramming for a political metric' and 'teaching children,' ignoring the possibility that assessment preparation and genuine learning can coexist — for example: 'cram for a political metric instead of teaching children'

Conspiracy Appeal: The claim that state tests are 'designed to serve political ambitions' implies a hidden, self-serving motive behind educational policy rather than legitimate educational goals — for example: 'designed to serve political ambitions'

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If you remember where you came from, it will always inform where you wanna go. I love this state and this way of life and that is what I am fighting for in this race for Governor. I hope you will join me.

Flag-Waving: Patriotic, religious, or in-group identity invoked to validate a position.

Slogans: Catchy phrase used to compress a complex position into an emotionally loaded shorthand.

Glittering Generalities: The phrase 'this way of life' is vague and emotionally positive, invoking a sense of shared values without specifying what those values are — for example: 'this way of life'

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I kicked off my campaign for Arkansas on the Fourth of July, because freedom is fundamental to our way of life. Arkansans deserve a life of freedom to pursue his or her own happiness. That's why I'm running for Governor. I'm a sixth-generation farmer from Franklin County, and everything I know about hard work, honesty, and taking care of your neighbors, I learned right here on this land. That's the same set of values I'm bringing to this race. This campaign is about the people who feel like Arkansas politics has stopped listening to them. It's about stopping outside interests from cutting sweetheart deals that raise our utility rates while we foot the bill. It's about standing up for our public schools. And it's about protecting all of our communities I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch, and I hope you'll join me in building an Arkansas that works for the folks who built it. — Colt Shelby

Glittering Generalities: The word 'freedom' is invoked as a vague, emotionally positive concept to lend noble appeal to a campaign launch, without specifying what freedoms are at stake — for example: 'freedom is fundamental to our way of life'

Transfer: Launching the campaign on the Fourth of July borrows symbolic legitimacy from a patriotic national holiday to validate the political campaign — for example: 'I kicked off my campaign for Arkansas on the Fourth of July'

Appeal to Prejudice: The speaker invokes their rural farming heritage and local roots to establish in-group identity and authenticity, implying that this background makes them more trustworthy or relatable than outsiders — for example: 'sixth-generation farmer from Franklin County'

Loaded Language: Uses emotionally charged phrases to trigger resentment toward unnamed outside actors cutting secret deals at the public's expense — for example: 'sweetheart deals', 'foot the bill'

Conspiracy Appeal: Implies shadowy 'outside interests' are secretly manipulating utility rates for their own benefit at the expense of ordinary citizens — for example: 'outside interests from cutting sweetheart deals'

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Who would appoint a yes man to the Parole board to back up inmates then stop posting online the county backup? FYI it is around 2300 currently. Who would think they are going to ship off inmates to out of state Core Civic soon? Private Prison Payment Potential. Hunting for Donations. Damon Hininger is the CEO of CoreCivic, one of the largest private prison companies in the world (formerly Corrections Corporation of America—understandably, they did a PR name change in 2016). A few things have put CoreCivic on our radar, the first being a quick Google search while researching potential ties between the Governor, the first gentleman, and private prison companies. In mid-January of this year, a search for “Sanders” and “CoreCivic” returned this result: We have long heard rumors about Bryan Sanders’ consulting connections to the private prison industry so, naturally, this piqued our curiosity and led us to dig further. Specifically, we started looking at campaign finance reports, where we found that CoreCivic is the single largest donor to the Governor’s Team SHS PAC. Notably, the $10,000 payment comes immediately after the Board of Corrections fired Joe Profiri and the $5,000 payment follows the State’s first introduction to California contractor, Vanir Construction Management (this introduction is rife with its own strange circumstances and potential for malfeasance, but we’ve covered that previously).A Picture Worth a Thousand Words $40k+ Dollars. Back to the duck hunting photo. What does the Governor, the first gentleman, and Damon Hiniger posing in their squeaky clean “hunting” vests have anything to do with this? Well let’s take a closer look at those brand-new vests: The Stan Jones Mallard Lodge is a “luxury hunting lodge” in Alicia, AR. It also just so happens to be the largest Payee of the Governor’s PAC—the same PAC to which CoreCivic is the largest donor: This $41,770.10 Team SHS PAC expense is dated January 9, 2025 and categorized as an “itemized administrative expense” for the purpose of “fundraising event venue rental”: Which we might buy if this was some kind of public event that actually raised money. However, the PAC raised exactly $0 on January 9th: Look, we know we get into the weeds trying to spell out some complicated numbers as we work through all of these issues, but this one is pretty straightforward: A “fundraiser” that costs over $40,000 and raises $0 it’s a party, an event, a retreat, a meeting, gladhanding, etc.—the one thing it’s not, is a fundraiser. If you’ll notice from the post accompanying the picture, LA’s Governor, Jeff Landry also tagged along for this “fundraiser.” Louisiana has, historically, been a huge proponent of private prisons and, were our Governor looking to curry favor with or advice from the industry, we’d argue he’d be an excellent facilitator. Either way, what we think is crystal clear is that this wasn’t merely a social outing. An Opportunity for Collusion. We’ve made a pretty big deal about the timeline of the purchase of the intended prison site—which we think is justified given that it went from first being identified to being under contract in just 3 weeks. Let’s break down what happened in July of 2024, the speed of acquisition, and look at how CoreCivic fits into the picture: July 3rd - Property listing first found by state. July 8th - Division of Building Authority Director Anne Laidlaw sends email noting that the site is not viable for this project. July 10th - Laidlaw sends another email noting again that the site is not viable. July 15th-18th - Gov. Sanders and Hininger (CoreCivic CEO) attend the Republican National Convention. July 22nd - Geographic Information Services Director Shelby Johnson proclaims: “site selection done.” July 25th - Property under contract. All further property searches stop immediately, and the state begins full steam ahead with the Franklin County site. Not only is this timeline shockingly and irresponsibly quick (not exactly supporting the Governor’s assertion that the experts did a tremendous amount of research to determine this is the best location in the state) but their time together at the Republican National Convention could have provided just the right opportunity for Sanders and Hininger to come up with a plan. Pay for Play. The State recently selected HDR (in conjunction with Cromwell) as the Architecture & Engineering firms for the prison project. Their selection was based, ostensibly, on their response to the State’s Request for Qualifications, published February 13, 2025. However, HDR also made a donation to the Governor’s reelection campaign just a month earlier: Similarly, J.E. Dunn and Nabholz were selected as the contractors for the project on May 15, 2025, and, like HDR, Nabholz donated to the Governor’s reelection campaign on January 7, 2025: All of this and we aren’t even getting into the issue of the other PAC’s these companies donate to who then turn around and donate to either the Governor or her PAC—it’s a grimy, dark money, impossible to fully track system that is designed to be murky. Qui Bono? This brings us back to the beginning, to everyone that tells us to “follow the money.” We’d love nothing more than to be able to track down every pocket paid a penny from this project; to truly answer the question: Who benefits? However, as we hope you can see, it’s an exceedingly difficult task when current campaign finance regulations give us limited tools to work with and the only FOIA enforcement mechanism is private litigation. While none of the above is unequivocal, indisputable evidence of foul play here, the reality is that there’s ample room for kickbacks, corruption, and malfeasance in any project that costs anywhere near the amounts of money we’re discussing with this project. As such, these kinds of projects require the highest levels of transparency and accountability by the government—and if Step 1 is to admittedly operate behind the backs of the public and other government officials, we are already way off track. This was all discovered last year by Gravel and Grit when we were fighting the prison in Franklin County. As your Governor I will not make bad deals as you see here and shipping our inmates out of state will never be the answer for rehabilitation.

Loaded Language: The phrase 'rife with its own strange circumstances and potential for malfeasance' uses emotionally charged language to imply wrongdoing without providing direct evidence — for example: rife with its own strange circumstances and potential for malfeasance and squeaky clean "hunting" vests.

Conspiracy Appeal: The sentence implies hidden sinister coordination between payments and government events, suggesting a shadowy pattern of corruption without direct proof — for example: the $10,000 payment comes immediately after the Board of Corrections fired Joe Profiri.

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