2026 Midterms; Important Dates and Information to Remember

As we ease into the final month before Election Day(Nov. 3rd) this fall, we on the Mod Team expect a significant increase in posts about all candidates. We thought it best to explain what you might see as well as remind everyone of our expectations as we moderate these posts and subreddit.

We will not ban you because of your opinion.

• We are not, nor will we ever be, the arbiters of what is true and false. If you believe something to be misinformation, challenge it. But do so within the rules of this subreddit and Reddit's Sitewide Rules.
• If you have a controversial opinion, be prepared to be asked to defend it.
• The subreddit will decide whether they like your opinion or not. This will be very apparent from the upvote/downvote counter.
• We don't care how many downvotes a comment has. So long as it is within our rules, the comment stays.

Personal attacks, harassment, or content that targets individuals or groups are not permitted. This includes the use of any slurs. Critique ideas and actions, not people or their identity.

• There is no excuse to attack anyone for any reason in this subreddit. We promise you, your comment can be posted without the attack.
• If your comment uses words like(but not limited to) the following: libtard, MAGAT, bootlicker, fascist, etc. against another user it will be removed.
• If you think you can be sly by changing the capitalization of the letters within the word, put spaces in between the letters, etc.. We will still see it. It's going to be removed.
• Attack the comment/opinion, NOT the user.
• If you're criticizing an elected official or candidate, please know we typically give this a wide berth. But we do have limits.
• Using a derivative of a candidate's name(regardless of political party) will result in a comment removal. Just use their real name, please.

DON'T FEED THE TROLLS

• Please, please, please, just report them. We have bots that help us do our job and are pretty good at flagging comments we need to review, but some stuff still gets through.
• Anyone who replies to the troll, please know, your comment will most likely be removed with theirs. At this point, the entire comment thread has most likely derailed and serves no purpose for the original topic of the post.
• If your comment breaks a rule responding to said troll, you will be banned. Regardless of what the troll said. No one is forcing you to reply. Report, don't reply, and move on.
• If you no longer see any of their comments at all in the post, there is a strong chance that they blocked you. Open the post without being logged in to Reddit and if you see their comments, that will tell you.
• If they all of a sudden stop replying to you, there is a strong chance they have been banned.

Reddit Admins will take action on comments quicker than we can if they go against Reddit's Sitewide Rules.

• "Remember the human. Reddit is a place for creating community and belonging, not for attacking marginalized or vulnerable groups of people. Everyone has a right to use Reddit free of harassment, bullying, and threats of violence. Communities and users that incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability will be banned."
• This applies to everyone for everything. This includes agencies like Arkansas State Police and ICE. If you make a comment that incites violence or promotes hate, regardless if you attach a "/s" or a "just joking", it will be removed and a ban will be handed down. DON'T DO IT.

Lookout for Megathreads that we will have for each of the Debates hosted by Arkansas TV throughout October. We will try to make them as well for the ones being hosted at Arkansas State University by ASU-TV.

Schedule for Arkansas TV

• U.S. Senate (Oct. 12 at 1:30 p.m.): Democrat Hallie Shoffner and Libertarian Jeff Wadlin will debate. Incumbent Republican Tom Cotton declined.
• 4th Congressional District (Oct. 12 at 10:30 a.m.): Republican incumbent Bruce Westerman and Democrat James Russell III.
• Gubernatorial Race (Oct. 13 at 10:00 a.m.): Republican incumbent Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Democratic state Sen. Fred Love, and Libertarian Colt Shelby.
• 1st Congressional District (Oct. 14 at 11:00 a.m.): Republican incumbent Rick Crawford, Democrat Terri Yarbrough Green, and Libertarian Steve Parsons.
• 3rd Congressional District (Oct. 14 at 2:00 p.m.): Republican incumbent Steve Womack, Democrat Robb Ryerse, and Libertarian Bobby Wilson.
• 2nd Congressional District (Oct. 15 at 1:30 p.m.): Republican incumbent French Hill and Democrat Chris Jones.
• Secretary of State (Oct. 15 at 10:00 a.m.): Republican state Sen. Kim Hammer, Democrat Kelly Grappe, and Libertarian Michael Pakko.

Schedule for ASU-TV in Jonesboro, hosting student-involved debates at 6:00pm

• Oct. 1: Arkansas House District 36 (Rep. Johnny Rye and Shamal Carter)
• Oct. 8: 1st Congressional District (Terri Yarbrough Green and Steve Parsons; Rick Crawford not attending)
• Oct. 22: U.S. Senate (Hallie Shoffner and Jeff Wadlin; Tom Cotton not attending)

Senator Tom Cotton has agreed so far only to a debate hosted by Salem Media Group, a national media organization offering conservative and Christian programming. Hallie Shoffner has also accepted an invitation to this debate.

• When we get a date and time for this one(as it has yet to be announced) we will try to schedule a Megathread as well.

• Salem Media Group will no longer be holding a debate between Cotton and Shoffner.

Arkansas TV Youtube Stream

This will be our ONLY live post for this debate.

• All other posts submitted for this debate will be removed until the debate is over.
• This post will remain pinned to the top of the subreddit, until the next debate. At which point the pinned posts will change to the latest debate.
• This Megathread, and all following Debate Megathreads, will be linked to the Announcement Post.
• When the debate is over, we will resume allowing posts on the debate itself. We welcome discussion to continue in the debate thread itself, but if you wish to take a subject and expand on it in a new post, so long as it follows the rules, we salute you. Go forth and conquer.

Comments will be in Contest Mode for the duration of the debate.

Contest Mode means:

• Randomized Sorting: Comments appear in a random order every time you refresh the page, rather than sorting by top, best, or new.
• Hidden Scores: Upvote and downvote counts are hidden from regular users and set to obscured values in the API.
• Collapsed Replies: Replies to top-level comments may be hidden behind buttons to keep the thread clean.
• We are going to test this out as a community together. If you have questions or wish to leave your thoughts about Contest Mode, please send us a modmail. Please keep discussion in here about the debate.
• Depending on how the debate discussion goes, we may choose to turn Contest Mode off after the debate is over.

Please remember to read the Announcement Post pinned at the top of this subreddit as well as to follow all Reddit Sitewide Rules and our own subreddit rules.