Major funding for election 2026 Arkansas TV debates is provided by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce from the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in the studios of Arkansas TV.

It's a 2026 Arkansas TV debates by Jim in five four, three, two, one.

And hello, everyone, and welcome to Debate Week here on Arkansas TV.

At this hour, the candidates for governor.

And they are in alphabetical order.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Republican Party nominee, and the incumbent, Frederick Love, the Democratic candidate.

And Colt Shelby, the Libertarian Party nominee.

Questioning the candidates at this hour.

Steve Bronner, an independent journalist.

Diana Davis of KAIT Jonesboro.

And George Jared of talk business and politics the rules.

Each nominee will have one minute to respond to questions.

The candidates will have 30s for rebuttal if they choose and have the conclusion of questioning.

Each candidate will have one minute for a closing statement.

Now, the Order of Canada appearances was determined prior to our broadcast, with a number drawing which was observed by the candidates or their representatives.

And with that bit of housekeeping, time to get started.

Our first question is from Steve Bronner, and it goes first to Mr.

Shelby.

The Trump administration is rejecting the state's request to renew the federal Medicaid waiver, allowing it to operate the Our Home program.

The program uses government dollars to purchase private insurance for the Medicaid expansion population.

What should the state do now?

But nope, I better not do that.

I hear these are pretty expensive these days.

So what I would like to do with that is first introduce myself.

I'm Colt Shelby from Cecil, Arkansas.

I'm a sixth generation, took my community, and this is one of the many questions of why I'm here today to work for you.

What I want is I want a better Arkansas.

I want better Medicaid programs.

What we've done is we've done nothing for planning for this in the last four years.

All we did, we waited until time's up, and now we're hoping for an extension.

So what I want to do with this is one I want to talk about the SES waiver program.

That's something that's been hitting in my heart really heavy lately.

And what we should do is we should have an answer.

These families are going in and talking in front of communities and there's nobody with an answer.

So DHS DFCs should be on top of this.

We should be waiting until now.

For the last eight months, we've been struggling to get anything, and I've got four different answers and I can't get one.

So, Steve, the reason I'm here today is to fix these problems.

Thank you.

All right, Mr.

Love, you have one minute.

Steve, first of all, thank you for the question.

The first thing I want to do is I want to say happy birthday to my daughter.

She's seven years old.

And so I want to say happy birthday, Millicent.

Now, to the to the answer of your question.

You know, I was there when Arkansas first adopted the Affordable Care Act, and we did it because our hospitals were going out of business.

They were shuttering.

We had uncompensated care.

What we must do is we must be prepared to actually invest.

I would work with the Trump administration to see if we could get that covered, but if not, it is imperative that Arkansas actually invest in their hospitals so that we can ensure that our hospitals stay open.

We cannot have a good quality of life for Arkansans if we do not have our hospitals open.

That's what I would be doing for the people of Arkansas.

Miss Sanders, one minute.

First, thank you so much for having us, Fred.

Happy birthday to your daughter.

Be careful because you'll blink and they'll be teenagers.

So my second.

Turns 13 on Friday.

So big birthday week for everybody.

Steve, thank you so much for your question.

This is an important issue.

It's one of the biggest things, I think that we are going to spend time on the next legislative session.

We have to make sure we have accessibility.

We also have to ensure that we have affordability.

It's why I've fought so hard to make sure that Arkansas has a work requirement.

I think it is outrageous that somebody should be able to confiscate your hard earned tax dollars, simply because they choose not to work.

That's not how the system is designed to be.

We also want to make sure we're not trapping people on a lifetime of dependency.

The goal of welfare shouldn't be that you stay there forever.

The goal should be to help move people off of that program, provide assistance while they need it, and get them back on their own two feet.

Mr.

Shelby, we go back to you for 30s.

Yeah.

So this this did come from the Trump administration for the work requirements of the one big, beautiful bill.

And we do have to manage that appropriately to keep our hospitals open.

But we've also given about $149 million from Trump for our rural communities.

And we need to be maximizing the effort to keep that in our rural communities and get these hospitals and get these people the help that they need.

Thank you, Mister Love.

You have 30.

Thank you.

I want to tell the people of Arkansas this right now.

We have to invest in Medicaid as of right now.

In 2018, we had 2.2 infants not covered.

Now we have 7.6% of our infants not covered in Arkansas.

We have to make the investment.

We are investing in real lives right now.

We've actually received over $209 million from the Trump administration because of the work of my team working to get that money into our state and deliver it to all 75 counties, investing in programs that actually support rural health care.

But that's just the beginning because of the work of our team.

Arkansas is actually getting more funding than other states like Michigan, Ohio and Virginia that are much bigger than us over $1 billion.

Over the course of the next five years, we will be able to inject and make sure every Arkansan has access to the health care that they need.

Diana Davis has the next question that goes first to Mr.

Love.

The Learns act allows for public taxpayer dollars to fund private school tuition, but private schools are not required to use the same standardized tests or meet the same public reporting requirements as public schools.

So how is there accountability for these tax dollars, and how is this fair for children who have no private school nearby, such as in many parts of rural Arkansas?

Well, I will tell you, Danny, I don't think it's fair.

And I think I've been on record of saying that if I'm elected, I will issue an executive order to end the Learns act.

That's what it's fair because we need to be focused on investing in all kids, not just a few.

And at that same time, when we were investing these private dollars, I mean, we were taking public funds and investing in private institutions.

At the same time, 45000 kids were losing Snap benefits.

That means we're taking and given to the most affluent families, and we're taking from those who need it the most, who cannot feed their families.

This is a real issue and we need to solve it.

But I will be on record as saying that I will end the the EFA accounts and ensure that the investment is going to all schools, not just a few.

Miss Anders, one minute.

What's not fair is trapping kids in failing schools.

What's not fair is being satisfied with Arkansas being 48, 49th, 50th in education.

Learns is not just about educational freedom.

While that is a key part of the legislation.

It's only a small part.

We also invested in 120 literacy coaches that have been deployed to every failing school, and provided more than 45,000 hours in specialized instruction for our students.

We also, through the Lawrence Act, took our teacher pay from being at the very bottom of the country to top five overnight.

We've given out over $50 million in bonuses to more than 12,000 educators across the state.

And guess what?

The best news about it all.

We made the largest investment in public education and opened up education freedom accounts.

And it's working.

The people who are winning the most when it comes to the Lawrence Act are Arkansas students.

Scores went up last year alone in every single grade, for every single subject by 20%.

I have to call time.

Mr.

Shelby, you have one minute.

Yeah.

It's probably the biggest failure of this administration.

You know, Arkansas is made up of rural counties, rural areas.

It's not all like Pulaski County in Washington County, in Benton County.

And what we've done, we've lost focus on the main part of Arkansas.

Our teachers are unhappy.

We talk about how the education has gotten 20% better.

That's off based off of an Atlas test that the state made that's not nationally recognized.

And then we got two grades.

We don't know which scores to believe.

She said legislation what legislation is not what it is, why it failed.

Because we're not going to the teachers to figure out why it is failing.

We're just legislating in the legislature.

I think there was over 200 bills went through session two years ago, and only ten of them went to private schools.

We have failed our kids and we're going to continue failing our kids.

Our teachers are going to fall behind.

Our children are going to fall behind.

If we don't get a head count on this, we need to scale it back, get it where we can afford it, and make this and make the schools accountable for what's going on.

Thank you, Mr.

Love.

30s.

Thank you.

I have not I've crisscrossed this state and been in almost every county.

I have yet to hear any superintendent, any teacher, any community support the Arkansas Learns Act.

They are supporting their public schools.

That's where we need to invest public dollars into our public education facility so that all our kids will have a shot, not just a few.

Miss Sanders 30s.

Well, I've actually been in every county, all 75, met with hundreds of teachers, a number of superintendents who support the investment.

Democrats and libertarians want the go back to the failed status quo.

I think that's unacceptable.

I think of a student named Jack who was in a great public school.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the right school for him.

Relentlessly bullied.

Fast forward.

After the act was passed, I got to go see Jack in his new school and he was not only thriving, he was the student who led me on the tour through his school hallways.

Thank you very much.

30s to Mr.

Shelby.

Well, this libertarian happens to be married to a public school teacher right there in the back.

And so I've lived the life of what a public school teacher does every day.

I don't live in that life, but I get to hear about it every day.

The problems are not the students.

The problems aren't the parents.

The problems are what we're making and the curriculum that we're giving them.

We're not providing an adequate education for our children.

Learns isn't just efforts, it's also about education.

And there's more schools out there than just private and charter schools.

And our next question comes from Mr.

Jared.

And it goes first to Miss Sanders, Miss Sanders.

Rural health care is a major problem in the state of Arkansas.

We've had a lot of hospitals closed in rural areas.

The drive to get basic care for many, many residents is getting longer and longer.

And in the in the state of Arkansas right now, we only have about 30 places where you can go to have a baby.

In specific terms, what will you do to improve the rural health care system in the state?

This is one of the big efforts that we've taken on specifically when it comes to maternal health.

As the only mother standing up here, this is personal for me.

I have three kids, Scarlett, Huck and George.

I know how hard it is.

Even when you have access to great resources, how hard it is to be a mom, we have to do a better job providing wraparound services.

It's why I made sure and created the Healthy Moms Healthy Babies initiative to her getting $45 million annually specifically to improve maternal health outcomes, opening up an awareness campaign so that of the 92 county health units that we have across the state, more and more women are getting access to those.

We have 35,000 pregnancies in the state of Arkansas, and unfortunately, of those, 1100 of those women never see a doctor until they're in labor.

That's unacceptable.

And that's exactly why we've worked hard to address that, and will continue to make sure every mom in this state has access to the care that they need.

Shelby, you have one minute.

Yeah, the governor's absolutely right.

We've got a problem.

And this problem has been here for four years, and now we're just now trying to think that it's important we lose eight out of every baby's born.

We want to claim to be a pro-life state, but we're a pro birth date.

Once they're born, you hear the problems from the mothers.

It's hard to make a living.

The electricity is too damn expensive.

The water is too damn expensive, and we can't afford to keep going on like this.

So what we need to do is we need to make sure they are getting the care, whatever program that is, whether it's through Medicaid or whether it's through a workforce that we can get them.

And I like the Montana model, and I like to use that a lot.

I want to put it to where families could get a job and have daycare, and things can, can line up for them so that they have a better life.

And we can take care of these babies after they're born.

Little Rock had a great program where they had a three year checklist.

So after that baby was born, they got three years so they could keep following up and make sure that the parents have everything that they need to be successful for that child.

Mr.

love, one minute we must invest in Medicaid.

That's the only way that we're going to be able to keep our hospitals open.

Our hospitals depend on Medicaid.

You know, I was there when we passed the Affordable Care Act.

And as I said before, it was because our hospitals, especially in our rural communities, were closing.

You know, it's funny, under this administration, we have cut about a half a million people off Medicaid.

Almost 100,000 of those are children.

So for us to be a pro-life state, we're doing a bad job in protecting our moms and protecting our children.

What we need to do is pass 12 month postpartum care, which is a medicaid program.

The governor has refused to refuse to actually pass a 12 month postpartum care.

If we want to care about healthy babies and healthy moms, that is the program that we went in to ensure that our moms are healthy.

This is personal for me because I'm a father as well.

Miss Sanders 30s.

You know, one of the real issues is that Democrats think that the government is the answer to all of our problems.

I actually think it's the other way around.

I want to empower people so that they can live their best lives and do that right here in our state.

You don't do that by forever trapping them on government welfare.

You provide opportunity.

You help them stand on their own two feet.

That's exactly what I've done and what I will continue to do as Arkansas governor.

Mr.

Shelby 30s.

Well, I disagree.

I think that every other state in the nation has got the 12 month postpartum.

I don't know why we don't, as a libertarian, what we are horrible at something.

We need to find ways to make it better.

And that's what we've done a very bad job at in this state.

We are not making anything better.

We just keep on with the same trend.

We want to cut taxes.

We want to cut people.

I get that I've worked my whole life.

I'm the only one on this stage that's never had a government job, that's never fed off the government.

So when we talk about that, I'd love to do that all day long.

Thank you, Mr.

Love.

30s.

As the governor pointed out, it was 1100 moms.

They have not seen a doctor until they were to they were delivering.

That's because moms do not have the care that they need.

12 month postpartum care is an is an issue and we need to solve it.

Day one I will be solving that issue for the state of Arkansas.

Next question for Mr.

Bronner.

And it goes first to Mr.

Love.

Senator, Arkansas ended the fiscal year with a $655 million surplus and $4 billion in reserve funds.

But the state also receives billions of dollars from the federal government, which is $40 trillion in debt, to the possibility of future major funding cuts from the government.

Be part of the spending and tax calculations in Arkansas.

Okay.

Can you can you repeat the end of that?

Should the possibility of future major spending cuts from the federal government, which is deeply in debt, be part of your calculations in Arkansas's budget?

It should.

It should definitely be parts of our calculation.

But but let's go back to let's go back to what you said.

You said that we have $4 billion and then we had a surplus.

I don't consider that a surplus for the for the families in Arkansas.

I consider that in the under investment.

We have the CS waitlist.

We have child care.

We have we are number one in food insecurity.

Yet we have done nothing in the last four years to actually resolve that issue.

So that's not in surplus.

That isn't under investment in the people of Arkansas.

It is time to start investing in the families of Arkansas so that they not only survive, they not only survive, they thrive.

And so this is what I'll be doing.

But that calculation should be figured into our our budget.

Miss Sanders, you have one minute.

I'm proud of the fact that in the last four years, we've been able to cut our income tax four separate times, knocking 25% off of the state income tax, returning a billion and a half dollars back to the people of Arkansas.

Because I believe that you can spend your money better than the government can.

I'm proud of the fact that we've identified and passed on $300 million in savings in the Arkansas Forward program, getting out of the waste and the fraud and the abuse.

But we've also done is invested in key priorities at the same time that we've been able to cut taxes.

We've made the largest investment in public education in our state's history.

We've invested in public safety.

We've invested in the things that matter, that make a difference in the day to day lives of Arkansans.

I'm confident that in the next legislative session, we will be able to do an additional tax cut, letting you keep more of your hard earned money.

Mr.

Shelby, one minute.

Sir, you know, the governor wants to talk about budget cuts and Democrats and how they want to grow government, but we've actually grown our government 7.5% in the last four years.

We've had a hiring freeze on the Board of Corrections with 700 employees short staffed for the past eight months.

Our DHS workers short staffed eight months.

And what we've done is we've cut ourselves to where we can't afford to live in our own government is failing.

We've got the child rape going on where they have the courage to call somebody and there's nobody there, and we've done nothing to improve that.

So I'm for cuts all day long, but we fix the problem first.

We don't just go straight to cutting when we even fix our own problems in Arkansas.

Thank you.

30s for Mr.

Love.

The governor said, I quote, we invested in things that matter.

We're number one in food insecurity.

We're number two in infant mortality, and we're number four in maternal health.

If we invested in the things that matter, we would not be number one.

Number two and number for these categories.

Investing in the families of Arkansas means investing in them.

And that's what I would do is your governor, Miss Sanders 30s.

With all due respect, we didn't start investing in a lot of those things until I showed up, like maternal health.

That's why I directed $45 million dollars annually so that that is no longer the case.

So then Arkansas being at the bottom, we're leading the way.

It's why I let a bipartisan effort to make sure every single student in the state of Arkansas gets a free breakfast every morning at our public schools.

And it's why I will continue to fight for every single Arkansan in every corner of our state.

Mr.

Shelby, one half minute.

Like I said earlier, we keep failing.

I don't know about the success that Governor Sanders.

That must be news, information that just come out today.

Because the last I heard, we're still failing at every single category.

There's nothing that Arkansas is winning at right now except bombarding people with data centers, prisons where they don't want them and nothing good.

Wind turbines, solar panels were destroying our lands.

And that's what I'm going to be.

I'm going to be a steward of the land and a steward of the people.

Thank you.

Next question goes first to Miss Sanders, and it comes from Miss Davis.

It's no secret that Arkansas farmers are struggling right now.

Rifling foods closed nine dryers because farmers planted the smallest amount of rice acreage in 50 years.

What are your immediate and long term plans from a state level to secure sustainable markets for crops grown here?

And in the case of rice farmers, are there any plans to help develop new varieties of rice that will be marketable and resistant to heat and drought?

Absolutely.

There's no question that Arkansas farmers are struggling.

And as Arkansas's number one industry, we have to do all that we can to support our farmers, our ranchers, our producers, our growers.

And it's why I've worked hard to do that and will continue to fight for our farmers.

A state and a country that cannot feed itself, simply cannot be free.

And so we must support them.

It's why, just within the last few weeks, I helped relieve a lot of the burden by signing an executive order on diesel fuel, making it more affordable for our farmers.

It's why I helped invest in the University of Arkansas Department of AG Research, so that we can work together to create those new varieties.

It's why I've worked hard to open up new trade markets that have not existed for Arkansas farmers in the past.

It's why I will continue to make sure we do everything that we can to support Arkansas farmers every single day, because we depend on them and we need to support them every step of the way.

One minute, Mr.

Shelby.

Well, in the words of Reagan, there we go again, governor.

This is something that the diesel come from, Donald Trump, that he set that order down.

So one thing we have to do with the farmers is we need a secretary of agriculture that cares about Arkansas.

That's one of the cabinet positions, and that's one of the most important parts.

We see him off on vacation.

He's having a great time, but our farmers are still in need.

Do we have the right person for the job?

I'm going to say no because I've talked to a lot of farmers in the Mississippi Delta.

They don't think they're getting the care and the passion that they need to be successful farmers.

I'm a farmer myself, so I know what it's like to care about your land and care about your future of your families and what this administration and most of your political folks don't have is that care.

They'll never feel that passion that a farmer does when you have to sell off your land because you can't make your payments.

And that's the situation we're in.

And that's what that's what this state has done the last four years.

Mr.

love, one minute.

I'm glad I'm between these two.

So.

So let's talk about farmers and what we should be doing.

You know, there's a there's some tax relief that we could provide at the state level for farmers and property tax.

There are also, especially when it comes to rice, specialty crops, we can actually invest in manufacturing.

We can invest in refrigeration, making sure that they can take their raw product and take it to the market and actually produce a shelf stable product.

These are the things that Arkansas and Arkansas's governor should be looking at to make sure that we're making farming sustainable for the agricultural community today.

That's what we need to be.

We need to look at things that we can do today so that we can have relief for the farmers tomorrow, because I'm letting you know this right now.

If we keep doing the same thing, we will not have an ag industry.

Most of those farmers will be out of business within the next two years.

Miss Sanders, for 30 hour Secretary of Agriculture, is actually a member of the United States Marine Corps.

So those vocations that you speak of are actually him serving and sacrificing for our country all across the world.

He puts on our nation's uniform so that we can live in freedom.

I am so proud of the incredible work that he does, and we'll continue to stand with him.

The real problem is that we have Democrats and Libertarians that are blocking our farm bill, one that won't let it pass and one that doesn't support it in the first place.

It's an immediate way to provide direct assistance to our farmers and something that we need time to send.

Okay.

Mr.

Shelby, Mr.

Shelby 30s.

Yeah.

So what we need to do, I know a lot of it does come from the federal, but we need we need some federal assistance to help these guys and not just the handouts.

We need to get them to work.

We need to get in the Middle East, and we need to get this product sold.

That's going to be the key to success.

I wish there was more we could do as a state, I do, but but being from the state level, we're very limited on our on our input and what we can do, but we can get across there and we can make deals because that's how business works at the end of the day.

We get over there, we make our own deals, and we get this secured and we get our farmers back on the tractor.

Thank you, Mr.

Love.

30s.

Well, we need to be encouraging our our federal delegation to support a farm bill.

We need a farm bill.

But actually, at the state level, there are things and levers that we can pull to ensure that we are investing in the farmers for today and ensuring that agricultural will be around tomorrow.

As I said, manufacturing, refrigeration, all these things, making sure that farmers can take their raw product and make it a shelf stable product.

These are the things that we need to be investing in.

In these things that I will be investing in is your next governor.

Mr.. Jared has the next question and its first to Mr.

Shelby.

So local jails in the state of Arkansas are overrun with felony criminals who have been convicted.

But we don't have prison space at the state level to house them.

So the question is, are we going to build a new prison in Arkansas?

Where will we build it?

Or do we need to just expand the facilities we've already got?

I'm so glad I got this question first.

We have failed tremendously at this.

This is one of the biggest defeats of any governor in the history of Arkansas.

And we beat that appropriation five times.

It would come down from the top second floor down, and it still failed.

And what happened from that was our governor retaliated on senators and state representatives for doing in the best interest of our Arkansans.

So to answer your question, it's an easy fix.

If you go to the Judiciary Committee, which I suggest the governor tries to attend one of these days and listen to the people up front, they actually have the solutions right there in hand.

Everything that we need, they know because they live that first hand experience.

It's not a top down approach, it's people that live that life.

So I'm going to suggest that the governor attends that next one coming up soon.

Thank you, Mister Love.

One minute.

Can you ask a question again?

Sure.

Jails are overrun.

Local jails are overrun with felony criminals.

We need prison space to house them.

What's the solution?

Are we going to build another prison?

Are we going to expand prison space?

I don't I don't plan on under my administration.

I don't plan on actually building a new jail.

I think that people need more opportunities to turn away.

But let's let's go back to a core thing.

When you look at the prison population and you look at literacy, that's a direct correlation.

What we need to do is ensure that we're covering Chip.

Excuse me, child care, so that we can ensure that kids have a proper foundation so that we can have them reading on the third at the third grade.

There's a direct correlation between literacy and prison population.

And that's the thing that we need to solve in order to provide people with more opportunities so that we can stop the growth of prisons.

Mr.

Anders, one minute.

I believe that public safety is one of the most important responsibilities that we have in government, and we have not done all that we can and need to do to ensure that our communities are safe.

If you meet with any member of law enforcement, they will tell you that one of the biggest challenges that we have is a lack of capacity.

I've opened up 1500 new beds since coming into office.

We still need to expand capacity, and I'll continue to look and work for ways to do that.

At the same time, locking them up and throwing away the key can't be the only answer.

We also have to have rehabilitation and mental health programs, which I've led and invested in running a recidivism reduction pilot plan that is changing lives so that when people come back into their community, they're better prepared to be there.

I want a safer, stronger Arkansas, and I will never stop fighting for that.

30s for Mr.

Shelby.

Well, one thing I won't do is a point to lobbyists, to the Board of Corrections.

That was one of our biggest mistakes.

But to answer the question, the governor is currently backed it up by so many 2300 beds that we will have to extend existing facilities.

But I'd like to see it like a CSI program, like you see in Pulaski County.

And what that does, it's got good rehabilitation systems for first time offenders.

It gets them in there, it gets them rehabilitated, it gives them an opportunity at life.

And that's something that we we we are not doing a very good job at.

She just started that this year.

I think Mr.

Sanders over there was with her.

But thank you, Mr.

Love.

30s you would not be able to jail your way to a safer society.

We have to provide more opportunities so that we could stop people from actually going to jail.

And then you you do have to have good recidivism programs so that when people come out, they stay out.

But I'm letting you know that we have to provide more opportunities so that people will not be in prison in the first place.

And Miss and Miss Sanders, 32nd, Democrats and libertarians, they want open borders.

They want empty prisons.

And they want to release a wave of crime that ravages our cities.

I think that's unacceptable.

We have to be a state in a community that supports law and order.

Under my administration, we've done that, and we will continue to do that because I want my kids to grow up in a safe Arkansas.

I want every single child in our state to grow up in a safe place.

And we will continue to keep fighting for that.

Thank you, ma'am.

And before our next question, we want to let you know at the all at home that the candidates will have the opportunity to participate in individual press conferences directly following this debate.

You can scan the QR code on your screen with your mobile device to watch those broadcasts, those press conferences.

Get your mobiles ready then, and you will see that QR code periodically throughout the balance of our broadcast.

And with that, the next question, Mr.

Bronner, for Miss Sanders, first governor of the state of Tennessee, recently botched an execution, and the inmate is still alive.

The governor has the ultimate life and death responsibility to carry out the execution or commute a sentence first.

How do you feel about this responsibility personally?

And second, does Arkansas need to make any changes to its death penalty laws and practices?

I believe in justice for the victims.

I think it's one of the most difficult, challenging things that any governor can face.

It's the only decision that you make that you can't undo.

And so we have to get it right.

Unfortunately, in the state of Arkansas, we didn't have access for a long time to the drugs that were allowed by law.

That's why I signed a law to change that legislation and open up other means to get that done.

I believe in truth in sentencing.

Whether that's through the death penalty or whether that's through making sure that a criminal who has been committed to 30 years in prison actually serves their time.

I believe we have to be a state of law and order.

And under my leadership, we will continue to do that.

Mr.

Shelby, one minute.

Well, and it was an awful thing that happened there.

So I'm not I'm not for that ever happening again.

I think that's something horrible that, that people had to witness and see.

So I'm not for that.

But I am all for the death penalty leading the nation.

And child rape is not something to be bragging about.

It's not something that spoke about very often.

But for first, the courage gets the kid gets the courage to make that phone call.

The kid makes the phone call.

The family makes a phone call.

Who are they going to talk to?

Well, we signed a contract three years ago with a company called Red Mane and nothing happened.

We lost $12 million.

Waste just wasted it away.

So I think they did pass the death penalty for child rapists a few years ago.

And I backed that up 100%, but not with lethal injection.

Well, Mr.

Love, one minute I believe that the death penalty is something that you really need to take seriously.

In the past, I have actually leaned to not being for the death penalty.

But as governor, I will take each case by case and in actually judge each case because I know that justice needs to be served.

But there is something that I take very seriously because the the power of life and death are in your hands.

And so a governor really needs to actually be judicious, but they also need to make sure that justice is carried out.

And so each case by case I will actually be looking at these cases.

Back to Miss Sanders for 30s.

I agree with the senator.

You have to look at each case one by one.

I've read through thousands of files on individual cases, and I look at each page and make a decision to do what I can to uphold the law.

And we'll continue to do that.

I believe in justice for the victims.

I believe in law and order.

I believe in truth and sentencing and holding people accountable.

And I will continue to do that as our state's governor.

Mr.

Shelby 30s.

Well, I think our governor, government officials forgot of how that's supposed to work.

The judge makes that decision.

And if the judge makes that decision and he's proven guilty amongst his peers, and that man's guilty without reasonable doubt.

So I'm for the death penalty, and I'm for the firing squad.

And hopefully we can get some things solved around here in Arkansas.

Thank you, Mr.

Love.

30s.

As I said, I would be judicious.

I would ensure that each case would be looked at thoroughly.

And that's how I would judge, you know, as as the governor, this is something that you need to really enter into seriously.

And so that's what I would do.

Miss Davis has our next question.

That goes first to Mr.

Shelby.

Arkansas is a state filled with natural beauty, from the Ozark Mountains to the flatland of the Delta, to the clear rivers and streams that we have.

Data centers threaten the future of Arkansas's natural resources.

President Trump says U.S.. Areas rejecting data centers are, quote, backwards and poor.

So what is your stance on data centers?

Do they have a place in Arkansas?

Well, I guess I'm backwards and poor.

And the problem with data centers is, is where we choose to put them.

Community input is viable in these.

The governor signed a bill where one man could now pass that.

It's not up to the people.

It's up to one man.

And that's that county judge.

And what do we do?

We give them a tax abatement for that.

So we're going to give them a discount.

We're not going to worry about the farmers or the small businesses, but we're going to give this big corporation that's going to hire 50 people to tear up 300 acres of beautiful farmland to destroy it.

When people are sitting there riding and having a fit about it.

And I think that it needs to come from the people first, because that's what this administration has completely lost.

The concept of is the motto for Arkansas.

Thank you.

One minute.

I'll be the first one to say this is that we made a mistake when we passed the legislation.

We made that mistake.

And it's a course correction.

As you all know, I entered into an inner resolution to actually put a halt on data centers and actually say we need to have a framework that makes sure that Arkansas lands are protected.

You know, it's sad that the president says that Arkansas is backwards and poor.

Now, I may be poor, but I'm sure the heck not backwards.

And I know for a fact that when there are questions that are unanswered, when there are actually viable resources at stake, our Arkansans need to make the decision.

And that's why I have the inner resolution that I had to actually put a moratorium on all data centers, because Arkansans need answers, and we need to be the ones that make the decisions.

One minute for Miss Sanders.

I led the fight to make sure states maintain their right to protect against Big Tech.

Across the country, one big, beautiful bill, which is a piece of legislation I supported, had a provision that members of Congress tried to sneak in at the final minute that would eliminate states ability to put any type of regulations or guardrails on big tech, specifically AI.

For more than a decade.

I led the bipartisan effort of governors and got that provision removed.

No one has been more outspoken or more critical, and more against allowing Big Tech to take over.

At the same time, you have to look at every single economic development project independently.

You have to make a determination what will this do to the utility cost?

How many jobs does this bring?

What type investment does it bring into the community?

I'm proud of the fact that under my leadership, we've brought in 75,000 new jobs to the state and billions of dollars in investment.

We will continue to lead in that effort.

Time the senators, Mr.

Shelby 30s.

Well, here we go again.

You know, we're talking about the upper executive branch making all these decisions for the people down below that.

Fred did vote P on this on this bill.

He also voted P on the prison bill.

So I guess to be a senator, you don't even have to vote.

All you could do is put president.

Every time.

I have an issue with that.

I think that needs to be out of the picture.

What we need to do is we need to be getting in the home front of these families and finding out, do you want a data center, yes or no?

If they do want one, let's put one there.

If they don't get rid of it, it should be that simple.

The people rule 30s Mr.

Love, as I stated before, we made a mistake when we actually voted for the bill and we did make a course correction.

As I stated before, Mr.

Shelby, that here's what we have to do.

We need to make sure that our Kansas are making the decisions for the data centers, not anyone else.

Miss Sanders 30.

We have to make sure that Arkansans have unlimited opportunity.

We want them to be able to create a great life and do that right here in our state.

It's why I have fought to remove regulation, remove barriers and open up new opportunity for thousands of Arkansans.

Bringing in 75,000 new jobs to our state lets people write their own story.

That's what I want us to continue to do.

The way I've led over the last four years, and the way I will lead over the next four.

George Jarrett, again with a question first for Mr.

Love, Mr.

Love.

That's no surprise to anybody here that fuel prices have been high for a while.

One of the few levers that can be used at the state level is possibly suspending, you know, state sales, fuel taxes.

Do you think that that is a viable option?

And if it is an option, how will we fund road projects?

Well, first of all, let me let me go and say this.

It's the field policies of the Trump administration that got us in this mess, that got us into the war, that got us into higher fuel prices for our Kansas.

And what I would do is this I would definitely think about suspending the fuel tax because Arkansans as I travel, they want relief now.

And so it was a good executive order that we had to actually for the farmers and the truckers.

But now Arkansans every day trying to get back and forth to work, they need relief.

They need relief now.

And I would definitely consider suspending the gas tax in order to provide that relief.

Miss Sanders, one minute.

One of the reasons that I fought so hard and will continue to responsibly phase out our state income tax, is so that life is more affordable here in the state of Arkansas.

Not only did I cut taxes four times and knocked 25% off of the state income tax, we also got rid of one of the most regressive taxes in our state, the grocery tax.

We also doubled the homestead tax credit so that people are paying less in property taxes.

Arkansas, under my leadership, is the number one state in the country for lowest cost of living.

We're going to continue to ensure that Arkansans not only have opportunity, but that they can afford the things that they need here in our state.

I will keep working until we get our income tax to zero, so that individuals get to keep more of their hard earned money and that they can live their best life right here in our state.

To Mr.

Shelby for one minute.

Oh, this beats the heck out of me here.

So what we've got right now is fuel prices aren't going to help a farmer.

You can tell they're not farmers because the fuel price, it's not going to help the farmers.

And if you drove the roads in Arkansas traveling the state.

We don't need to cut the highway department either.

So we need to just keep that the same.

But for affordability purposes, let's talk about the grocery tax.

That was an eighth of a cent.

You spend $200 at the grocery store.

It saves you $0.25.

That did not save the average Arkansan anything.

You take the 1.2%.

If you make $50,000 a year, it saves you 50 bucks a month.

Then they jack up your electric bill.

So then they put $57 here, then they pull out $200 here.

And the governor actually signed that to make your electric bill go up, because now we're paying the electric company for infrastructure.

So we need to work on true affordability.

And there's a lot better alternatives than a $0.25 at the grocery store.

Mr.. Love 30s I'm not sure who Mr.

Chauvin's been talking to, but I had truckers, I had loggers, I had farmers called me in regards to actually pulling the lever on the fuel tax.

And I'm telling you right now that is relief today.

That is relief that they're asking for.

And that is the relief that I will provide you as your next governor of the great state of Arkansas.

Mr.

Andrews, 32nd, you know, $25 here in $100.

They may not seem like a lot to some people up here, but it does to the people that I talked to, the single mom that I met at the grocery store, the lady who was putting gas into her car.

Any extra dollar is making a big difference for their family, and their ability to put food on their table and provide for their kids.

I'm proud that we have worked hard to put money back in those people's pockets and let them spend it how they see fit.

We will never apologize for helping support the people of our for 30s.

I think the governor is right on this.

I have to agree with their 100% the people that she talks to, which is the corporations, not the people.

And it's $0.25 at the grocery store, not $25.

What we need to do is work on real affordability for our Kansans, and we need to beat down the insurance price.

People can't afford their insurance.

They can't afford their electric bill, they can't afford their rent.

And we're doing nothing on our end to start beating these prices down the grocery store.

We could do things in our power to help these people out, and we're doing a very horrible job of it.

But we want to help the corporations get their 1.2%.

Thank you again, Steve Brunner for Mr.

Shelby.

First, the past four years have seen major changes to Arkansas education through the Learns act of 2023 and the Access Act of 2025, the educational freedom accounts we've already discussed.

But that's just one of the many changes.

What does Arkansas need to change now to improve students educational outcomes?

The Secretary of Education needs changed out.

We hired a secretary from Florida to make $270,000 a year.

Why are we looking outside our state to find people?

Arkansas has the right people.

Arkansas has people that know this state that know what it needs.

We don't need to be venturing out, putting our staff, putting our secretaries, putting our cabinets in charge when they don't know what we need.

That is one of the biggest issues I have with this administration.

So what I would like to see is a good Secretary of Education come down and get to the front line of these teachers, get rid of the Atlas test and start going back to a national recognized test so we can compare ourselves to our peers and know where Arkansas education stands.

And another thing we don't send out two separate test scores so we don't know which ones right?

Which ones are wrong.

Then we say, oh, we made a mistake.

Thank you, Mr.

Love.

One minute.

First thing we need to do is we need to actually invest in childcare.

Childcare is one of the things that, number one, gets our families to working, but also quality childcare ensures the foundation that our children are going to be able to read.

I would be investing not only in child care, I would be investing in literacy.

Literacy is the key.

A child that can read can succeed.

This is what we need to work on.

Also, we are number one.

We are number one in food insecurity.

Now that's a cute way of saying that kids are starving.

We need to ensure that we finish the job that we started in the legislature, which is breakfast at the bill.

Now we need to make sure that all kids have a paid for lunch.

And then last but not least, we need to actually ensure that our kids are receiving the mental health services that they need.

Our kids are suffering silently, and while we are doing nothing, that will stop under my watch.

Miss Sanders, one minute.

I made no secret coming in as governor that education was going to be a top priority, because I know the difference that a good education can make.

It's a make or break for so many kids across our state.

It's why we had to transform the system.

We weren't going to see the type of change we want just by tinkering on the edges.

And we delivered on that through the Arkansas Learns Act, we made the largest investment in public education in our state's history.

Rewarding recognizing our top teachers.

I know that keeping the best teachers in the front of the classroom makes a difference for our students.

It's why we fought to make sure every single teacher in the state got a pay raise.

It's why we implemented the Merit Incentive Fund, delivering over $50 million in merit based bonuses to over 12,000 teachers.

It's why we are one of only two states in the country that has paid maternity leave, and it's working.

Our kids are doing better today than they were when I started, and I don't want to see us go back.

I want to see Arkansas continue to move forward.

And under my leadership, we will.

I have to call time.

Governor.

Mr.

Shelby, back to you for 30s.

Well, the last I read, we wasn't going to our teachers were not going to have insurance in three more years because we tabled it and we just kept it from the committees.

Don't know how true that is, but that come from a legislator.

So what I'd like to do is we need to invest in our teachers, invest in our students, but we need people from Arkansas to make those decisions.

We don't need somebody in legislation thinking that they know how to educate our kids best.

There's nobody better than the teachers of Arkansas, and we have some of the best teachers in the nation.

I have no doubt we could get back up in those numbers with the right people.

Over to Mr.

Love for 30s, the governor continues to say that we have made the largest investment in public education.

But let's be, let's be honest, that $400 million that we just did.

We wrote a check to private schools.

Let's be clear, that is not to our public education system.

We need to have that money back so that we can invest in all kids in Arkansas, not just some.

And Miss Sanders 30.

The difference between Democrats and Libertarians and myself is that I want to invest in students, not systems.

Education freedom opens up endless opportunity for every single child growing up in Arkansas.

This isn't a decision between public schools or private schools, or charter schools or home schools.

It's making sure that every kid has opportunity.

As a mom of three, I know that just in my household, all three kids learn differently.

We cannot expect a one size fits all system to work for every student.

And under my leadership, every child in Arkansas will have the opportunity to succeed.

Calling time.

I have to thank you, Miss Sanders.

And that concludes the question and answer portion of our debate.

And we turn now to closing statements.

Once again, the order of closing statements was determined prior to the broadcast by random selection.

Our first close is by Mr.

Shelby.

Well, Arkansas.

My name is Colt Shelby, and I'm from Cecil, Arkansas.

What I'd like to say today is I'm not like these two.

I'm not a politician.

I'm not polished.

But what I do have that they don't, and they never will.

As the care and compassion as a sixth generation farmer from this great state.

What I'd like to see is a better Arkansas.

And the only way you're going to get it, the whole United States of America right now is looking for a common person to lead their state.

And I'm that common person that you need.

Give me the opportunity and I will not let you down.

It's time for a change.

And that change can be made November 3rd.

Look me up.

Give me an opportunity.

Thank you for your time, Mr.

Love.

You have one minute for a close.

Arkansas.

I love you all.

And I want to make sure that you have what you need.

You know, we talk about surpluses and we talk about these different things, but what we're truly talking about is people.

We're talking about investing in the lives of our Kansas.

You know, my campaign from the beginning was all about investing in the people of Arkansas so that we can have families that are not just surviving, that are thriving.

We've been talking about child care.

We've been talking about investing in serious waitlists.

We talk about all the investments so that the average everyday Arkansan can actually thrive and not just survive.

So that's why I talk about investing in public education.

That's why I talk about investing in child care.

That's why I'm talking about economic development.

That happens not just in a few places, but everywhere in the state of Arkansas.

I am free of love, and I want to be your next governor.

Thank you, Miss Sanders.

One minute.

I love Arkansas.

This is my home.

This is where I grew up.

This is where my husband and I are raising our kids.

And I want the Arkansas that I love to be the one that my kids inherit.

The one that they will one day raise their own families.

I want us to have unlimited, endless opportunity for every single kid.

My youngest loves the outdoors.

He loves to be in God's epic creation, and I love to see him come alive in those moments.

Not too long ago, he was going hunting with my husband.

They were driving out in the night and could see the stars, and he made a great observation that you should always live somewhere where you can see the stars.

He said, I've made my decision.

When I grow up, I want to live here.

It has everything you need.

You can hunt, you can farm, you can fish and you can always see the stars.

That's the Arkansas I'm going to fight for.

That's the Arkansas I'm proud to be the governor of.

And we'll continue to serve over the next four years.

Thank you for the opportunity of a lifetime.

And Miss Sanders is thanked.

And with that, our time has simply expired.

Again, our thanks to our candidates and to our panelists.

A reminder you can watch this and all Arkansas TV debates on demand at the Arkansas TV YouTube channel and on our website.

The candidates have been invited to participate in individual press conferences immediately following this broadcast.

You can continue to watch our live stream@youtube.com slash at Arkansas TV, or by scanning the QR code again, the QR code on your screen now.

Again, thanks to our candidates and our panelists for participating.

And to you, of course, for watching.

A reminder, Election Day, Tuesday, November 3rd.

So you can make your voice heard.

It's your government.

Thanks again.

Major funding for election 2026 Arkansas TV debates is provided by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.