{"id":890460,"date":"2026-10-22T06:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T06:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890460\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T06:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T06:38:14","slug":"ashley-hinson-shows-republicans-midterm-balancing-act-as-trump-heads-to-iowa-to-boost-turnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890460\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley Hinson shows Republicans’ midterm balancing act as Trump heads to Iowa to boost turnout"},"content":{"rendered":"

DES MOINES, Iowa \u2013 After Ashley Hinson<\/a> dropped off her boys at school earlier this month, she saw the initials \u201cDJT\u201d flash on her phone.<\/p>\n

\u201c’Ashley, it’s your favorite president,’\u201d Iowa’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate recently recounted to an audience of her supporters. \u201cThat’s how he introduced himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had had a more forceful message<\/a> about communicating with President Donald Trump<\/a> on the debate stage with her Democratic opponent, Josh Turek, as she tried to win over undecided voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be President Trump\u2019s ally when it is important for Iowa, but I will push back on him,\u201d promised Hinson, who currently serves in the U.S. House. \u201cHe knows this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although many Republicans are walking a political tightrope in this year’s midterm elections, Hinson’s balancing act is more challenging than most. Iowans have been hamstrung by manufacturing job losses<\/a>, health care clinic closures and shrunken farm profits<\/a> since Trump returned to the White House, but Hinson also is relying on the president’s loyalists<\/a> to show up for her. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Hinson will join Trump for a rally in Sioux City, which is in Iowa’s conservative northwest corner. The visit to safe territory is geared toward boosting turnout even as it ties her more tightly to an unpopular president. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will be there at the rally to welcome him to Iowa because I think this is a contrast election,” Hinson said on Fox News last week. \u201cThere was never a good time to elect a tax-and-spend liberal to the United States Senate but now would be the worst time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is expected to visit the state again Nov. 1. He is \u201canxious for Iowans to hear his message before they vote,\u201d Iowa Republican Party Chair Jeff Kaufmann said in announcing the president’s schedule.<\/p>\n

Turek, a state lawmaker, was in Sioux City for a campaign event Tuesday and told reporters he was happy for Trump to visit to see how his tariffs and the Iran war have \u201churt Iowa more than any other state.\u201d Although Turek says he’s willing to work with Trump on issues like immigration, he called Hinson a rubber stamp for the president’s bad policies.<\/p>\n

There are more examples of Hinson bucking the president<\/p>\n

When Hinson kicked off her campaign last year, she touted Trump\u2019s endorsement and said she was running to be Trump\u2019s \u201ctop ally\u201d in the Senate. Almost a year later, Hinson instead says she wants to be \u201cIowa\u2019s best bipartisan fighter.”<\/p>\n

The message has crystallized since the summer, with more examples of Hinson vocalizing positions at odds with the president. Recent polling from late September and early October suggests it could work as she carves out about 1 in 10 voters who disapprove of the president even as she continues to secure overwhelming support from those who approve of Trump.<\/p>\n

In August, she said Trump\u2019s plan to increase beef imports<\/a> from foreign countries in an attempt to lower prices was “a bad idea\u201d that would hurt Iowa farmers.<\/p>\n

Last month, two of Hinson’s Iowa colleagues in the House broke with the White House and voted against Trump’s ability<\/a> to continue the war with Iran without congressional approval. <\/p>\n

Hinson didn\u2019t, but she said later the war has gotten too costly for Americans and called for Trump to bring the conflict to a \u201csuccessful and immediate end.\u201d<\/p>\n

More recently, Hinson criticized Trump\u2019s decision<\/a> to ease sanctions on Russia in exchange for diesel fuel<\/a>. She said Tuesday that the U.S. needs to make sure \u201cdictators aren\u2019t allowed to win wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the president and I share the goal of lowering costs for working families and for people who are using diesel,\u201d she told reporters after a campaign event. \u201cI, again, just don\u2019t think we need to be making any deals with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hinson said she hadn\u2019t talked with the president about the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019ll have a chance to come have a conversation with him at the rally,” she added. <\/p>\n

Turek says he’ll work with Trump on immigration<\/p>\n

Hinson isn’t the only one pitching bipartisanship. So is Turek. In fact, he’s the only Iowa candidate seeking federal office who explicitly mentions Trump in general election television advertisements, according to an Associated Press analysis of AdImpact data. <\/p>\n

In one, Turek is behind the wheel speaking directly to a camera about Interstate 35, which \u201cconnects Iowa to the southern border and the broken immigration system that both parties have failed to fix.” He says: \u201cIn the U.S. Senate, I\u2019ll work with anyone to fix it, including President Trump, to secure the border, stop the flow of drugs into Iowa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turek has pushed back on the president\u2019s policies, including tariffs and the war in Iran, as the catalysts of high costs that are hurting Iowans, but his message on working with the president on immigration and other select issues stands out from other Democrats<\/a>. Republicans say he’s just pretending to be a moderate to get elected. <\/p>\n

Mazie Stilwell, executive director of the progressive organization Progress Iowa, said Turek’s message on immigration targets a bloc of voters on an issue that’s particularly important to them but doesn’t overshadow his otherwise disciplined focus on the high costs facing Iowans.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s visit to the state Thursday, she added, is \u201ca terrific reminder of the disaster that he has been and his administration has been for our bottom line, for everyday Iowans who are trying to make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iowa Senate races often draw big spending<\/p>\n

Iowa is no stranger to competitive Senate races even though Trump won the state by double digits in the last presidential election. <\/p>\n

Ad spending on broadcast and cable television has already surpassed $200 million this cycle, AdImpact shows. But in today\u2019s dollars, the total ad spending in the 2020 Senate race was even higher.<\/p>\n

Republicans have spent slightly more for Hinson than Democrats for Turek. That was the opposite in 2020, when Democrats spent nearly $30 million more than the GOP did in their unsuccessful effort to unseat Sen. Joni Ernst.<\/p>\n

Iowa Republican activist Kelley Koch has been concerned that complacency will dampen turnout from conservatives, even those who are loyal to the president.<\/p>\n

“They say, \u2018Why are you all hyped up about the midterms, Kelley, Trump will take care of everything,’\u201d Koch said. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s an assumption she\u2019s working to counteract, and she expects \u201cthe Trump effect\u201d from his visits will help protect Republican majorities in the House and Senate.<\/p>\n

And while Koch supports Hinson, she doesn\u2019t like it when she talks about pushing back on Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now,\u201d Koch said, \u201cwe had better unite around our president.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporter Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DES MOINES, Iowa \u2013 After Ashley Hinson dropped off her boys at school earlier this month, she saw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[81415,4,450,12,1070,451,373314,21485,296184,3,111,452,453,795,800],"class_list":["post-890460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-ashley-hinson","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-headlines","tag-jeff-kaufmann","tag-joni-ernst","tag-josh-turek","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-u-s-news","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}