Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, the Iowa Republican Party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate, used her speech at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox yesterday to question her Democratic opponent’s voting record in the Iowa House and his fundraising.
“It’s a pity, but do you know where Josh Turek is tonight? He is actually in Nantucket with the billionaires and millionaires,” Hinson said. “And I would just have one breaking news for Josh: you can get a lobster roll at JR’s.”
JR’s Southpork Ranch at the Iowa State Fair offers a $100 lobster roll with caviar and edible gold. Hinson said Turek, who is a state representative, missed 58% of the votes in the Iowa House this year. “261 votes,” Hinson said, as her supporters booed. “That’s right…Does that matter to you? I certainly think it matters.”
This past weekend, Turek said Hinson missed 193 House votes since 2021 and Turke said he missed votes in the Iowa House during the 2026 legislative session because he was “meeting with Iowans all over the state” in the weeks leading up to the June Primary, where he faced a Democratic opponent.
Hinson began her short State Fair speech with her critiques of Turek, then spent a few minutes touting her work in the U.S. House. “There’s a lot of problems in Washington, D.C., but I can tell you this, that I have delivered in my time as a congresswoman in northeast Iowa,” Hinson said. “I have worked on bipartisan priorities that are Iowans’ priorities.”
Hinson listed the Stillbirth Prevention Act as well as a law designed to help veterans access mental health care services.”And I worked very hard listening to you because I heard one big thing,” Hinson said. “You wanted lower taxes and less government, so we delivered no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, reduced taxes for Social Security — directly targeted at the middle class because it’s not the government’s money. It’s your money.”
Hinson faces Turek and Libertarian Thomas Laehn in the General Election on November 3.