U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson speaks during her BBQ Bash at the Linn County Fairgrounds in Central City on Aug. 28. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Republican U.S. Rep Ashley Hinson announced a coalition of farmers supporting her re-election, including 100 farmers representing the 22 counties in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.
Hinson has scored endorsements from the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Corn Growers Association, which both tend to endorse Republicans.
In a statement announcing the coalition, Hinson said she advocates for farmers’ interests while avoiding partisan politics.
“From lowering input costs to reducing onerous regulations, our farmers deserve a representative who will fight to address the challenges they face, and I’m honored to be their voice in D.C.,” Hinson said in a statement.
Hinson, of Marion, is running for re-election in Iowa’s newly reconfigured 2nd Congressional District against state Sen. Liz Mathis, D-Hiawatha. Both are former television anchors.
Ad labels Iowa Senate president as extreme on abortion
Iowa Senate Democrats launched an ad this week painting Republican Senate President Jake Chapman of Adel as extreme on abortion issues. The ad, paid for by the Senate Democrats’ campaign wing Senate Majority Fund, says Chapman wants to ban abortion without exception and points to his efforts to add “unborn persons” as a protected class under Iowa’s hate crimes bill.
Chapman offered the amendment in 2016 to a bill that would have added gender identity and expression as protected classes under the hate crimes law, but the amendment was ruled not germane.
The ad says Chapman’s Democratic opponent, Sarah Trone Garriott of West Des Moines, would protect abortion rights.
“Virtually every Republican politician in Iowa wants to completely ban abortion without exceptions and Chapman is the leader of this extreme effort,” Senate Majority Fund’s Executive Director Andy Suchorski said in a news release. “Chapman wants new government mandates and led the effort to criminalize having an abortion, going as far as to try and make having an abortion a hate crime in the state of Iowa.”
Chapman and Trone Garriott are running to represent Senate District 14.
In a statement, Republican Party of Iowa spokesperson Kollin Krompton said Chapman has “has supported pro-life policies for the entirety of his tenure in the Iowa Senate” and said Trone Garriott’s abortion positions are extreme.
“Abortion on demand, up until the time of birth, is so extreme it is only supported by a small fraction of Iowans,” he said. “Democrats are trying to scare voters about abortion policies because they have no answer for the worst inflation in 40 years, which is a direct result of their failed policies.”
New Grassley ad says opponent would make Iowa like California
A new ad from Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley says Democratic candidate Mike Franken has a “scary vision” that would change Iowa to be more like more Democratic-leaning states.
“Democrat Mike Franken wants to make Iowa liberal like California,” the ad narrator says.
It then points to “rolling blackouts,” “rampant crime” and “highest gas prices” as some of the problems California is facing, while praising lower taxes, lower cost of living and less crime in Iowa.
Republicans often cast higher crime rates and homelessness in the Los Angeles area and elsewhere as the fault of Democratic policies.
“Mike Franken doesn’t even know Iowa. Grassley works for Iowa,” the narrator concludes.
In a…
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