Buckle up. Tom Cotton is being referred to the IRS for suspicious donor activity.
EXCLUSIVE: Tom Cotton’s former aide runs the dark money group bankrolling his super PAC
A ‘social welfare’ nonprofit called America One Policies gave $650,000 to a super PAC named America One in March 2026, according to the super PAC’s filings with the Federal Election Commission. It was the largest single contribution the super PAC took in — more than its next four donors combined — and the super PAC has spent about $1.5 million on advertising targeting Hallie Shoffner, Sen. Tom Cotton’s Democratic challenger in Arkansas. Because the nonprofit is organized under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code rather than as a political committee, it never has to disclose who gave it that money.
The nonprofit is not an outside group that happened to help. America One Policies was incorporated in 2019 by Jonathan Hiler, Cotton’s former Senate legislative director and a onetime adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, and Hiler serves as its president. Its three directors — Ted Dickey, Peter Scobell, and David Thompson — are Little Rock Republicans. The nonprofit and the super PAC share almost the same name and the same “America One” branding, and they share more than that: the same fundraising firm and the same compliance shop work for both, and the nonprofit lists an Alexandria, Virginia address it shares with two Cotton joint fundraising committees.
The nonprofit’s own tax return shows a group built to move money, not to do much else. Its 2024 filing reports “minimal program activity” for the year, with $200,000 coming in and only about $25,000 going out, leaving the rest banked. The $650,000 it later sent the super PAC will not appear on a tax return until the group files for 2025 and 2026 — well after Arkansas finishes voting.
On the disclosed side of the super PAC, the donor list is dominated by tech and defense money. Palantir chief executive Alexander Karp gave $125,000, the largest contribution from any single person. Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, MP Materials founder James Litinsky, and investor Thomas Tull are among the others. Cotton chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and sits on Armed Services — the two panels with the most sway over the federal contracts and defense-technology work those donors’ companies rely on.
The rest of the disclosed money fills in the picture. Altria, the tobacco company behind Marlboro, contributed $150,000, the largest check from any corporation. ESAFUND, the super PAC founded by TD Ameritrade billionaire Joe Ricketts, added $50,000 — a measure of how much national money is flowing into what is, on paper, an Arkansas race.
America One did not stop at funding its own ads. In January 2026 it gave $200,000 to a second super PAC, Arkansans for Democracy and Justice, which ran its own attacks on Shoffner. That group is registered in Alabama, banks in Virginia, and has no Arkansans on its board. A University of Arkansas political scientist, reviewing its filings, called the group “dubious,” noting that despite its name, no one associated with it appears to be from the state. It did not respond to a reporter’s questions about its activities.
Cotton’s own campaign manager, state Sen. Breanne Davis, has publicly defended the spending, and the structure means the people behind the largest single source of his super PAC’s money may never have to put their names to it. The accountability question — who is paying for the attacks on Cotton’s opponent, and why they would rather not be named — is yet to be settled.
I am filing an IRS Form 13909 referral on America One Policies (c)(4) for failing primary social welfare purpose via super PAC political operations in the Arkansas Senate race. Outcomes are typically undisclosed, but public outrage could apply the necessary pressure needed to get the job done.
File your own Form 13909 with the above evidence. Multiple independent referrals increase visibility. Contact your Congress member via internal web form. Templates below.