Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson is photographed Sept. 30 at the Mr. Beans café in Marion. The two-term incumbent faces Democratic challenger Sarah Corkery and Jody Puffett, who is unaffiliated with a political party, in the 2nd Congressional District in Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
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As U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson defends her seat in Northeastern Iowa, the Republican incumbent has spent time on the campaign trail linking her candidacy with that of former President Donald Trump’s 2024 run.
Trump has endorsed her re-election campaign.
“Under President Trump we will secure the border. We will deport these dangerous illegals, and we will make America safe again. And that is a promise,” she said to applause in August during her annual “BBQ Bash” fundraiser in Cedar Rapids.
Hinson took aim at the Biden-Harris administration’s gender equality rules in education. She praised Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican state lawmakers for banning transgender athletes competing in girls sports at the high school and college levels, cutting taxes and passing a law — since blocked in federal court — that would allow Iowa law enforcement to arrest and charge noncitizens with a crime if they are in the state but have previously been blocked from entering the country or deported. A judge then would be able to order the person to leave the country or face prison.
The two-term incumbent, who is seeking a third term, faces Democrat Sarah Corkery, 49, a breast cancer survivor, disability rights advocate and Cedar Falls small-business owner, in the Nov. 5 election for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.
Jody Puffett, 59, of Delhi, is running unaffiliated with a political party and also will appear on the ballot alongside Corkery and Hinson.
Democratic congressional candidate Sarah Corkery interjects Monday to get in a rebuttal to Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson during a 2nd Congressional District debate at the Iowa PBS studios in Johnston. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Hinson, 41, of Marion, and her campaign seldom mention her Democratic opponent, focusing her messaging and attacks instead on the Democratic Biden-Harris administration.
“I think it goes without saying, but I believe my opponent would be lockstep with a Harris-Walz administration,” Hinson told The Gazette of the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“… I’m out there telling that story, because this election is about a contrast” between what she described as an unsecured U.S.-Mexico border, weakened U.S. foreign policy and global security, wasteful spending, and supporting a Trump administration focused on lowering taxes, boosting the economy and securing the Southern border.
Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson speaks Aug. 3 about voting during her annual BBQ Bash fundraiser at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
The former state lawmaker and former KCRG-TV news anchor flipped a blue seat red in 2020 by campaigning on kitchen-table issues and pledging to be a taxpayer advocate in Congress. Hinson won re-election in 2022 by 8 percentage points against Democratic former state lawmaker Liz Mathis of Hiawatha.
This time, she faces vastly underfunded first-time candidates running grassroots campaigns.
Corkery has focused her campaign on women’s health care rights and public education. She regularly attacks Hinson for supporting legislation limiting women’s ability to receive an abortion.
Who is Ashley Hinson?
Age: 41
Party: Republican
Town of residence: Marion
Occupation: Member of the U.S. House and former journalist/news anchor
Political experience: Hinson served in the Iowa House from 2017 to 2021. She won a seat in the U.S. House in the 2020 election, defeating incumbent Democrat Abby Finkenauer.
Campaign website: ashleyhinson.com/home
The district
Iowa’s 2nd District encompasses 22 counties in Northeast Iowa, including Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Dubuque. The race is expected to be less competitive than contests in the 1st and 3rd congressional districts that are also up for election.
A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll showed in September more likely Iowa voters preferred a Republican candidate over a Democrat in three of the state’s four congressional districts, including the 2nd District.
The independent, non-partisan Cook Political Report rates Iowa’s 2nd District as a “solid Republican” R+4 district, meaning that in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, voters in the district supported Republican candidates an average of about 4 points more than the nation did as a whole.
The latest figures from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office show there are nearly 150,000 active registered Republican voters, more than 127,000 active registered Democrats, nearly 130,000 active no-party voters, and 2,400 active registered Libertarians in the district.
Hinson has a large fundraising advantage over Corkery. National Democrats have not targeted the race in the same way they have in the 1st and 3rd districts, leaving Corkery with little outside support.
That has afforded Hinson the ability to crisscross the country and state to help boost other Republican candidates and position herself for a role among House Republican leadership should New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, one of the top GOP ranking leaders in Congress, be tapped to serve in a new Trump administration.
The economy
Hinson, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said a priority is reducing inflation by slowing government growth and spending, reducing taxes and “regulatory burdens” on small businesses, and supporting targeted investments like airport expansion projects “that helps to churn economic development and growth and investment all around The Eastern Iowa Airport.”
Hinson has blamed trillions in “wasteful spending” approved by Democrats in pandemic stimulus money, clean energy and climate mitigation investment programs for worsening inflation — creating a surge of consumer spending that collided with supply problems to boost prices.
She supports extending Trump-era tax cuts for small businesses, which are set to expire at the end of 2025. She also introduced legislation that would require federal departments and agencies to cut two existing rules for each new rule issued and offset any costs imposed by new rules while operating under a regulatory cost cap.
Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson meets Aug. 28 with attendees at the Farm Progress Show in Boone. (Jared Strong/The Gazette)
Immigration
Securing the Southern border is another of Hinson’s priorities. She said the federal government’s top priority on border security needs to be to “deport the dangerous illegals in this country” and secure the border by working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before focusing on reforming the immigration and visa systems.
“Well, I agree the immigration system in this country is broken, but what has happened under the Biden-Harris administration is unacceptable and it’s unsafe,” Hinson told The Gazette, citing reports that border-crossers with terrorist ties were released into the United States before they were later arrested.
“Not to mention the strain that 10 million-plus illegal immigrants puts on our country and our services. And I think that’s I think that’s wrong,” she said.
During a debate last Monday on Iowa PBS, she spoke about seeing the impacts of immigration and illegal border crossings on Iowa communities, pointing to anecdotes about higher rates of people who do not speak English requesting translation or English education services.
Trump has said he would invoke emergency wartime powers, activate military reservists and rely on the support of like-minded Republican governors to carry out the largest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in U.S. history.
Hinson said she supports mass deportation measures through coordinated efforts with ICE. However, that can’t be done without more support at the federal level.
“We need to allow and empower ICE to do their job, because this is a problem that is truly affecting the American economy and American communities. Every community is a border community right now,” Hinson said during last week’s debate.
Corkery argued that Hinson should have supported a bipartisan plan in the U.S. Senate to secure the border that was thwarted by Trump and his supporters. The deal called for increased funding for detention beds, Border Patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges. It would also reinforce new restrictions on migrants seeking asylum, and other reforms.
Hinson supported a 2023 House GOP-led measure to increase border security — a separate measure from the bipartisan deal. It would end the practice of “catch and release,” in which Border Patrol agents release migrants into the United States while they await immigration hearings, and impose new limits to asylum eligibility.
Hinson said she opposed the Senate deal because it would not mandate a border closure until Border Patrol reached a seven-day average of 5,000 or more border encounters, or if the number exceeded 8,500 in a single day.
She also noted her support of an appropriations bill that includes funding for drone technology and automated surveillance towers to act as a force multiplier to aid Border Patrol.
Abortion and IVF
Hinson has been a proponent of Iowa’s current law banning abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy after cardiac activity is detected. The law includes limited exceptions for some cases of rape and incest, to protect life or health of the mother, or a fetal abnormality judged by a doctor to be incompatible with life.
She said she would not support a nationwide abortion ban at the federal level without those exceptions. However, in January, she cosponsored the Life at Conception Act, which would establish legal protections for fetuses and embryos at “the moment of fertilization,” and guarantee a “right to life” for every human being.
While the bill — which never made it to the House floor — does not specifically mention abortion, critics say it would undoubtedly restrict the medical procedure as well as in vitro fertilization. The bill does not spell out protections for fertility treatments or exceptions for cases involving rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
Hinson said she would not vote for the bill as it’s now written because it does not contain those exceptions, and noted her efforts in the appropriations process to provide more IVF access to government workers.
“I support policies that are going to help protect life and help people grow their families first and foremost,” Hinson told The Gazette. “… So what I said earlier about supporting exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother, fetal anomaly, I would want to make sure that the same protections exist for IVF … before it would get a vote on the floor from me.”
Audience members watch and take videos of Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson performing on her fiddle Aug. 3 during her BBQ Bash fundraiser at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Foreign policy
Asked whether she would continue to support aid to Ukraine while a sizable portion of her party would not, Hinson noted she’s supported some foreign aid packages and opposed others.
She said her biggest concern is that she does not want American troops fighting Russia in Ukraine.
“I believe in America first, but not America alone,” Hinson said.
During the debate, she said Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “thug” who “cannot be allowed to win this war.” She also told The Gazette the United States needs to stand with its allies in Israel “and make sure they have the resources they need.”
Bipartisanship
Hinson’s latest TV ad aired last week. It portrays the sophomore congresswoman as willing to work on bipartisan issues. The ad features Iowans who say they support Hinson because of her “bipartisan record of results.”
She has partnered with Democrats to co-sponsor and pass various forms of legislation, including the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act and Sgt. Ketchum Rural Veterans Mental Health Act signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Corkery and Iowa Democrats, however, note Hinson voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law and capping the price of insulin.
Hinson has said government price controls ultimately will raise premiums for Americans. Instead, she said she favors another bill with several bipartisan provisions that would cap out-of-pocket insulin costs for seniors on Medicare Part D, allow high-deductible plans to cover insulin costs before the deductible kicks in, increase transparency for patients and promote health care innovation.
Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson speaks Aug. 6 during an Iowa GOP event at the Cedar Rapids Country Club. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Hinson has said she opposed the infrastructure bill because of its large price tag, and has advocated for and helped secure funding for targeted infrastructure updates and various projects in the district.
The Republican incumbent has also highlighted her work to expand access to maternal care for women in rural areas, expand the child tax credit for working families, provide additional resources for expecting mothers and support young families.
“I think if you look at my record of success for Iowans, I have continued to deliver even in divided government,” Hinson said.
“… I’ve stood up against an administration that I think has a incessant desire to spend money and eventually raise taxes in the (Inflation Reduction Act). … So I will continue to be an advocate for Iowa taxpayers, an advocate for rural America and an advocate for safety and security in our communities.”
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
