Election Eve in Arkansas: Truth vs. Tactics
“Opinion”
Election Day is tomorrow. And if your mailbox and phone look anything like mine, you’ve seen them–the glossy hit pieces, the anonymous texts, the last-minute “alerts” that show up with big accusations and zero sourcing.
Some of this is normal campaign noise. But a lot of what we’re seeing this year is different. It’s not contrast. It’s not policy. It’s people being labeled the opposite of reality, with nothing in the public record to back it up but plenty to prove it a lie (if only unsuspecting voters had the time or knowledge to look).
That’s not politics — that’s lying. And it’s a new “low” for Arkansas!
What’s worse is how casually it’s being done. Truth doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s agenda. The goal isn’t to prove your case anymore. It’s to define your opponent before they can define themselves and hope the damage sticks long enough to get through Election Day.
For those of us who claim to follow Christ, that should stop us cold.
Scripture doesn’t dance around this. While Ephesians tells us to expose the deeds of darkness, Zechariah says to speak truth, not devise evil, not love perjury — those are the things the Lord hates. Lying to gain an advantage over your opponent is not a grey area.
Smearing someone for personal gain isn’t strategy. It’s bearing false witness. It’s also the laziest way to run a campaign because it means you don’t have to show your own record. You just tear someone else down and call it a day.
During this campaign season, a group affiliated with Conduit was accused of lying about an unnamed party simply related to the target candidate. Upon reflection, we could understand that some may consider the wording careless, even though the basis upon which it was made was factual. Because harming others was not the intent, the objectionable language was immediately removed, and a clarification was issued. The language was not removed for fear of legal action, and not because “we are holier than thou,” but because friends said it caused them harm. It was not necessary for them to prove their case for us to make the correction. It was done because the truth speaks well enough for the intended message. And no harm (nor evil intent) was in the heart of those using this ad.
Even though Conduit does not claim to be perfect, for fifteen years we have tried our best to stick to facts and source documents people may read for themselves — i.e. voting records, financial filings, direct quotes to news media–whether candidates or the elected class like them or not.
You may disagree with our conclusions, but the source material is there. That’s the difference between transparency and rumor or worse—a deliberate lie to cover truth.
A lesson learned by us this season is that in the heat of a campaign, it is easy to make statements that may cause unintended harm in the eyes of some. When that happens, fix it. But truly, that is not the point of this article. Today, we see direct and intended lies being used to bring harm to opponents. Today, “truth” has become the intended victim in this 2026 Republican Primary election season.
What’s happening right now is bigger than any single race. It’s a test of whether voters will reward this behavior, whether Arkansas will be the victim of lies. Because if it works, it won’t stop. It will become the model. It will be the basis upon which our government rests.
Zechariah talks about judging with truth at the gates. In a republic, the ballot box is our gate.
So tomorrow, don’t reward deception. If you read something that does not seem quite right, do your homework. Don’t excuse it because it benefits your side. And don’t ignore it because “that’s just politics.”
If a campaign is built on lies, that tells you everything you need to know about the candidate.
Vote like truth matters. It does.
