Turek, Hinson talk legislative track records at US Senate debate

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson and Iowa Rep. Josh Turek spoke about their track records as lawmakers as they met for their first U.S. Senate debate Wednesday, discussing their previous votes — and planned actions if elected — to address rising costs for Iowans.

Hinson, a Republican representing Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, and Turek, a Democrat representing Council Bluffs, are running in the Nov. 3 midterm election to replace U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and serve alongside Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Though Iowa currently has an all-GOP federal delegation, the Senate race — alongside several House races in Iowa — are considered by political forecasters to be among the most competitive in the country in the upcoming midterms, and could play a pivotal role determining control of Congress.

Turek and Hinson will be at the top of Iowa’s ticket on the November ballot. As the two faced off at a debate on “Iowa Press” Wednesday evening, the candidates brought up some of the top criticisms leveled against them in campaign ads in a race that generated more than $90 million in ad spending through the end of September.

Many of the ads targeting Hinson in the campaign have focused on her increase in personal wealth since first taking office in Washington, D.C., in 2021. A progressive news organization, Heartland Signal, published an analysis of federal financial disclosures of Hinson’s finances between 2021 and 2026 that found Hinson increased her wealth by up to 10 times since entering Congress.

Turek and Democrats have also criticized her for retaining private stock in Elliott Hartman Agency, an insurance company founded and sold by her husband, while saying she supports a ban on stock trading by members of Congress.

When Turek brought up her and her family’s personal wealth during the debate, Hinson said her opponent was lying, and said she and her family sold all public stocks shortly after she took office in 2021.

“Look, my husband built a successful business that he sold in 2021,” Hinson said. “I made the decision as well when I got to Congress — because I do think we need to clean up Washington D.C. … We decided to sell our individual stocks right away in 2021. So we made it very clear that I want Iowans to know the decisions that I’m making in Washington, D.C., have nothing to do with the inside information I might be getting as a public servant.”

Turek also criticized Hinson for taking “$50,000 of taxpayer dollars, even though she’s a multimillionaire, to give herself a luxury D.C. apartment.” Hinson responded that this was per diem pay, meant to provide housing for members of Congress, that is only paid when lawmakers are in session.

“That’s the only day you can actually take it, and I use that, you can use it for a hotel or your apartment,” Hinson said. “So I think it’s important to note that my opponent, who did not show up to work, still took the full per diem here in Iowa — the same program that exists for lawmakers here. So you took the per diem, you stole from taxpayers. You should refund that money.”

Hinson and Republicans have repeatedly brought up Turek missing votes as a member of the Iowa House in 2026. According to an analysis of voting records, Turek missed 58% of Iowa House votes this year — but his campaign says he has participated in 81% of votes since first taking office in 2023.

Turek said during his time in the Iowa Legislature, he has been recognized as one of the “most effective” and bipartisan state lawmakers, referencing a Center for Effective Lawmaking report, and said he was willing to work “behind the scenes” to move many measures forward as a member of the minority party in the Iowa Legislature.

“When I joined the Iowa Legislature, I was told, ‘Josh, you’ll never get a subcommittee. You’ll never get a committee. You’ll certainly never get anything signed by the by the governor,'” Turek said. “And I said, ‘No, I refuse.’ We can come up here and have the monkey push the red button over and over. And so, I did the hard work behind the scenes and I built strange bedfellows. I built relationships across the aisle where I would say, ‘Look, maybe we disagree on 90, 95 percent of policy, but we agree on this, and we can do some good things here. Because honestly, I believe more than even Republican versus Democrat, what Iowans want is they want someone that is going to go up and work hard to provide solutions to people’s problems through bipartisan policy.”

The Democratic candidate criticized Hinson for backing policies of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans that he said are making life more unaffordable for Iowans, such as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” and cited her votes against measures to restrict Trump’s powers over tariffs and to continue the war in Iran.

“When she’s been up in D.C., she has voted in favor of cuts to healthcare in a state with a healthcare crisis and a cancer crisis … just to give tax breaks to billionaires,” Turek said. “And additionally, five times in favor of the tariffs that have decimated rural communities and farmers, and seven times voted in favor of this war in Iran, which has led to increase in gas prices, diesel prices at an all-time high, and fertilizer prices. Iowans would have been better off had she not been up there in D.C. voting.”

Turek has said he would support repealing the OBBB, which makes substantial cuts to Medicaid, while adding that he would support keeping some portions of the law such as the cuts to taxes on tips and overtime.

Hinson has argued her support for the 2021 law has led to lower costs for Iowans through tax cuts, and has said the law protects Medicaid funding for those most in need, and also ensures “people who are gaming the system aren’t getting these benefits, and people who are illegal are not getting these benefits.”

She also discussed her September vote against a war powers resolution that would have required congressional approval for Trump to continue his war in Iran — a measure two other Iowa Republicans, U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn voted for — and said, “I don’t think we need another resolution, and I certainly don’t want to see the president not be able to do an orderly end to this war.”

“We do need to bring it to an immediate and successful end, and to me, that means not allowing them to have a nuclear weapon and making sure that we’re working with and protecting our allies in the region,” Hinson said. “My bottom line is protecting the taxpayers’ dollars. Also, as a mom, I think about the men and women who are fighting, right? I have a 15-year-old and 13-year-old boy. I don’t want this to be a forever war. So, I want to make sure we do everything we can. I trust in our U.S. military, the greatest fighting force in the world, to bring this to a close as quickly as possible, because I know people are getting squeezed.”