OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
10:31AM – Wednesday, June 3, 2026
U.S. Representative Ashley Elizabeth Hinson won the Republican primary for Iowa’s open Senate seat, which was vacated after Republican Senator Joni Ernst announced she would retire after her second term ends in January.
Hinson (R-Iowa) defeated Army veteran Jim Carlin on Tuesday with 74.2% of the vote to his 25.8%, according to the Associated Press, with 99% of votes counted on Tuesday.
The 42-year-old has represented Iowa in the U.S. House since 2021, serving the 1st Congressional District until 2023 before moving to the 2nd District under the state’s post-2020 redistricting map. She boasted that during her term, she worked to push bipartisan legislation to “improve child care access for working families in Iowa, root out corruption in Washington through federal lobbying bans, and create opportunities for workers in the community.”
The congresswoman is also a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. An Iowa native and mother of two, Hinson previously worked as a reporter for KCRG-TV, where she earned the Midwest regional Emmy award twice.
Hinson now goes head-to-head with state Representative Joshua Turek (D-Iowa), who received 62.7% of the Democrat vote to defeat state Senator Zack Wahls (D-Iowa), who got 37.3% on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
The 47-year-old Democrat nominee, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist for Team USA, characterized himself as an “underdog” after he was born with spina bifida, causing him to rely on a wheelchair.
Turek argued that Hinson’s net worth has quadrupled since getting to Washington, while Iowa’s economy “plummeted.” He called himself “one of the most bipartisan Democrats in the Iowa legislature.” In this role, he passed legislation to strengthen the veterans homestead tax credit and to make it easier for Iowans with disabilities to repair mobility devices.
Turek plans to raise Iowa’s minimum wage, implement a federal ban on food price gouging, restore Medicaid funding, prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks, codify the “protections” established under Roe v. Wade and reverse cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The general election will be on November 3rd.
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