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press release

Oct 7, 2026

PREVIEW: What to Expect Ahead of Tonight’s IA-SEN Debate

PREVIEW: What to Expect Ahead of Tonight’s IA-SEN Debate

This election is a choice between a corrupt D.C. politician who is only out for herself and a common-sense, bipartisan champion for everyday Iowans

Des Moines, IA – Tonight’s debate will provide a clear picture of the choice in this race: Ashley Hinson is a corrupt D.C. politician who only looks out for herself and her donors, while Josh Turek is a bipartisan champion who will always put Iowans first. 

Hinson is already floundering, and Iowans have yet to hear the entire case against her. Polls continue to show Josh leading Hinson. GOP super PACs are flooding the state with $100 million after leaked memos from both Senate Leadership Fund and the National Republican Senatorial Committee begged donors for millions more in funding to save a flailing Hinson. Hinson allies are sounding the alarm amidst “growing fears that the race is too close for such a red state.”

Tonight’s debate will be a rare opportunity for Iowans to hear directly from Hinson, who has repeatedly refused to answer questions from local press and has not held a single in-person town hall since launching her Senate campaign, despite promising to hold more. 

Tonight’s debate will make clear to Iowans the contrast between Josh Turek and Ashley Hinson. 

Josh Turek knows what so many Iowans are experiencing right now because he’s lived it, and he’ll fight like hell to lower costs.

  • Iowa Independent: Turek was born and raised in Council Bluffs in a big working-class family that shopped at Goodwill for clothes and got meals from free summer lunch programs.
  • The Des Moines Register: Josh Turek says if he’s elected he wants to take on costs, corruption and kitchen table issues.
  • Iowa Independent: A number of the bipartisan bills for which Turek voted were designed to address Iowa’s affordability crisis.
  • Iowa Capital Dispatch: [Turek’s] platform includes policies like raising the minimum wage, implementing a federal ban on price gouging for food, and reversing cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), made through Republicans’ 2025 tax and spending law, which Hinson and other members of Iowa’s all-GOP federal delegation voted to support.

Meanwhile Ashley Hinson is a multi-millionaire who has repeatedly sold out Iowans to enrich herself and her donors. 

  • Daily Mail: [Hinson] paints herself as a working-class mom who understands the struggle at the gas pump, all while sitting on an estimated net worth of up to $8million, living in a luxury DC apartment, and having taken several international trips while in office.
  • MeidasTouch News: Ashley Hinson has repeatedly said in interviews that she feels the financial pain of Americans in this economy because her family struggles to keep food in the fridge, despite the fact that she is a documented millionaire based on recent financial disclosures.
  • Daily Mail: Hinson makes a congressional salary of $174,000 a year, which is nearly three times larger than the average Iowan’s salary of roughly $63,000. Hinson’s considerable wealth raises questions over whether she’s really struggling to fill her fridge as she claims. 
  • MeidasTouch News: Ashley Hinson accepted over a half million dollars in campaign donations from the pharmaceutical industry and then voted for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Budget Bill, which gutted Medicaid, delayed treatments, and skyrocketed the cost of prescription drugs for cancer patients and seniors, at a huge benefit to the companies her donors represented.
  • MeidasTouch News: Ashley Hinson voted against ending the Iran war seven times after taking over $217,000 in donations from oil and gas companies.

Josh Turek will address the corruption in both parties. 

  • The Des Moines Register: Turek said he wants to attack corruption in Washington, D.C., by overhauling the country’s campaign finance laws and passing new ethics rules for members of Congress and the Supreme Court.
  • KTIV: [Josh] has previously called for a constitutional amendment to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, a ban on corporate donations to political action committees, and passage of the federal Disclose Act.
  • The Des Moines Register: [Turek] called for a ban on members of Congress and their families from owning or trading stocks, as well as term limits and a requirement that members of Congress hold annual town halls.
  • The Gazette: Turek said he would not accept corporate political action committee donations and accused Hinson of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporate PACs while growing wealthier during her time in Congress.

While Ashley Hinson is part of the corruption that rigs the system against working Iowans. 

  • The Washington Sun/NOTUS: [Hinson’s husband] held a government affairs post at a leading insurance industry lobbying group … he helped arrange meetings with Hinson and other Iowa congressional delegation members.
  • Iowa Starting Line: Ashley Hinson has said she’d fight the special interests. But a new ethics complaint and her own financial disclosures complicate that pitch […] A complaint filed with the House Office of Congressional Conduct this month asks investigators to examine whether Hinson used her office to benefit her husband, Matt Arenholz, and the insurance trade group where he held a leadership role.
  • Heartland Signal: While Hinson publicly claims that serving in Congress should be “a privilege, not an investment opportunity,” the legislative reforms she champions would not even touch her family’s primary financial asset.
  • Iowa Starting Line: While telling Iowans she didn’t go to Congress to get wealthy, Ashley Hinson spent years championing a tax provision that directly benefits her family’s multimillion-dollar private business holdings.

Josh Turek is a bipartisan champion who will work with anyone to get things done for Iowa.

  • New York Times: In his two terms at the capitol in Des Moines, Mr. Turek was one of the more bipartisan legislators and was lauded for being one of the most effective. 
  • Iowa Independent: Since his election in 2022, Democratic Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek has cast at least 775 votes for legislation that had support from members of both parties, earning him recognition as one of Iowa’s most effective lawmakers and the legislators showing the most bipartisanship.
  • KCRG: Turek’s rate of bipartisanship is higher than most other lawmakers. He voted with at least one Republican 90.4% of the time, the third highest rate in the entire Iowa House.

While Ashley Hinson is the least bipartisan member of the Iowa Congressional delegation. 

  • Iowa Independent: Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson has consistently voted against legislation that would have helped Iowans, including bills with bipartisan support.
  • The Des Moines Register: Bridge Grades, a nonpartisan project that scores federal lawmakers on how often they legislate across party lines, gave Hinson a B grade, ranking her 84th among House members. It was the lowest ranking among Iowa’s congressional delegation.

The worst part: A floundering Ashley Hinson will spend tonight lying about Josh to distract from her record of selling out Iowans to enrich herself and her donors. 

Here are some lies to look out for: 

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