Representative Ashley Hinson, Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate, August 28, 2026

At this time, I'm visiting with Congresswoman Ashley Henson as she is the Republican candidate on the Republican ticket for the U.S. Senate race coming up in the November election. And Congresswoman, thanks for taking time to visit with us. Jim, great to be speaking with you and your listeners. And we're really excited to be back in Iowa and having our big barbecue this weekend. It's this weekend, this big fundraiser for you? Yeah, so it's our sixth annual barbecue bash. It's going to be in Clive this year. Not too far of a drive for folks, and we have great guests coming. Lee Greenwood is coming. Senator Cruz is coming. We'll have Governor Reynolds and then basically our whole ticket, our lineup for the election this fall. So everybody's going to take the stage in Clive on Saturday. So hopefully everybody's hungry for some Jeff Rose barbecue. That's what we're serving up. And then, of course, entertainment by Lee Greenwood. And I might even break out my fiddle myself. So it's going to be a great time. Hey, we'll have fun. And that's what we always do in Iowa. We have these get-togethers, don't we? Yes. Well, and we will be with 800 of our closest friends, which is going to be awesome. But I'm really excited about it. And we're inviting active duty law enforcement and military to attend for free as well as kids. So we want people to bring their families. Like I said, we have our house band that's coming over from Lynn County. I've played with them for, like I said, this is the sixth year we're doing this. So I will be on the stage playing the fiddle with them for a couple of tunes. But easy to get a ticket. Just go to AshleyHimson.com. And there's a link to be able to buy tickets for Saturday. Well, let's talk about campaigning and how things have been going. Obviously, you've had a little bit of a break. But you've got to go back to work here in next week. But a little bit of a break. So making visits around the state. How has it been going? Yeah, well, they call it August recess. I call it August work period, right? We're out listening to Iowans. And I've already been to all 99 counties in the state. I spent a lot of the last week and a half at the Iowa State Fair, talking with folks who are excited about our common sense conservative message. I don't think that Iowans are going to elect a radical liberal like Josh Turrick, because he's been out there talking about raising people's taxes at 50% corporate tax rate. That would put a lot of our family farms out of business. So it's a choice between me, someone who voted to end tax on tips over time, and social security, and support our families with the child tax credit, and then someone who wants to take away that tax relief for working families on day one. When you get around and get to visiting with people about, what are their priorities as they're looking at this next election? Because we know what they're talking about now, and you've seen it in the past too. It happens. What's on their mind now could be totally different in about three, four weeks. The important thing is, and I've learned this as not only a member of the Congressional delegation in the future as our senator for our state, but I was a reporter and a journalist before. What I did was I listened to Iowans and told their stories. What's important is that we do it and we take action on that. A good example of that, I was at a hospital in Carroll County a few months back, and I heard from them that they were really frustrated in dealing with big health insurance companies. One of the number one things I hear from Iowans is that affordability for health care is a problem. I talked with these folks. They kept saying, hey, these big health insurance companies are denying so many of our claims. They're delaying care for Iowans. I took action after that conversation, and just a couple weeks ago, I was able to introduce a piece of legislation called the Health Insurance Transparency for Patients Act. This will hopefully force some sunshine around big health insurance companies who are denying claims and creating problems with pre-authorizations and get some data out there that I think will hopefully provide some accountability and drive down costs for patients. That's the tactic I'm taking. I'm out there listening and then turning those ideas into action in Washington. Things like that, of course, and this is what you've got to explain to a lot of the voters, is I can put this idea out there. I have to sell this to the others, to the other congressmen, congresswomen, senators. We need to be able to build a team to go after this. Yeah, and turns out you have to get to 218 votes in the House, and you have 100 senators, so you need to get to at least 51, and because of the filibuster, you've got to get to 60 over there. I think it's really important on a policy like this, though. It should be bipartisan. We should want to make sure we're driving down health care costs. My opponent did not show up to work to help get resources out to rural health care. Josh Turek only showed up to vote 42% of the time this year. I think that's wrong. I'm showing up every single day to help drive down those costs for families and make sure that those resources are going to our rural hospitals and providing better care for Iowans. I do know that, obviously, one of the things I bet you heard a little bit about, well, maybe not so much because it only happened just here in the last couple of days, but the opening it up to bring some beef in and then the react, kind of leaves our cattle producers in a tough spot out there. Yeah, well, and certainly I've been, I was at the State Fair with a lot of those folks just last week, having conversations with our producers who are trying to grow their herd. The herd is at a 70-year low, and it's been a tough couple of years for our farmers and our ranchers, and they face drought, and then, obviously, input costs have been really high for them as well, so they are facing tough times. So, I was very clear with the administration. I thought this was a bad idea. I didn't think this is the way to do it. We do need to focus on growing our herd first, and that takes time. And, you know, I buy a lot of ground beef. I've got teenage boys, minor 15 and 13, so we're going through pounds and pounds of it, so I want those prices to come down, but I just don't think bringing in all this extra beef is the way to do it. And will it even have that big of an impact? Again, those we don't know until we see it. Again, trade issues with Canada, because we're close enough. We know that a lot of the Northern states go back and forth with Canada quite frequently. We've got enough, of course, at Tom Vilsack, on the dairy issues that were going on a long time ago, but we still have a lot of those things out there. Yeah, well, I mean, we export a lot of products to Canada, so I think that we need to be getting a good deal for the United States. That needs to be a priority, and certainly, many people are tired of getting screwed by other countries, even if it is an ally like ours, Canada, but we do need to be sensitive to the fact that there are a lot of industries in Iowa that are exporting products to Canada, and this is what I've advocated to the administration, whether it's corn, ethanol products, pork. We export industrial machinery, tractors. The list goes on and on, so I think we need America's first trade policy. I think that's important. We need to put Iowa farmers and workers first, and that's what I'm going to continue to support, and I will tell you this, I will stand up to our party leadership, even the president, if they're wrong for Iowa. Just a couple months back, our delegation, we threatened to basically shut down Congress to get E-15 passed and across the finish line, and again, I'm not thrilled about the beef import section that they took either in addition to this challenge with Canada, so I'll continue to be a thorn in the side of anyone in Washington when Iowa is on the line and make sure we get the best deal for Iowa. Let's talk about that E-15. The House part of it's done. Now, what are we going to do? Are we going to see some success on the Senate side? Well, I certainly hope so. We have great advocates in Chuck and Joni, our senators, Senator Grassley and Senator Ernst have been huge advocates for ethanol, and it is a huge industry for our state, and not only that, I think it's a huge important policy for consumers in this country, because having the choice at the gas pump to pick a fuel that is less expensive but also supports American markets at the same time is critical, and I think it's a deregulatory policy, and that's what we should be supporting in Washington, so that's what I will continue to advocate for. It's a homegrown fuel, and there's nothing that our farmers do better than, as we've had this conversation here today, feeding and fueling the world, and I think E-15 is just such a critical policy to not only help support them, but to provide resiliency in the fuel market for consumers as well. We've seen it, Iowa. Again, when you start talking about energy policy, of course, a lot of people automatically go right to thinking about drilling for oil and doing that, you know, that's one thing, but we have so many other resources that we are already implementing here in Iowa. Absolutely, and for a long time, I drove, I call myself the minivan driving mom, right? I drove my Chrysler Town and Country Flex Fuel E-85 for more than 10 years, and I actually tried to find another Flex Fuel minivan. They don't make one right now. I was kind of mad at the manufacturers about that, but look, we have great opportunities to help, again, provide consumer choice, and there were many times when E-85, when I was putting that in, was more than a dollar cheaper than everything else at the pump-in, so I certainly love that as someone who was counting every dollar on my bottom line. Real quick, your schedule going back to Washington, but I know you're going to try to be making it back here as you can, obviously, campaigning when you can, because that's what you're working on when you're not working on getting your votes done. Yeah, well, and I am out in Washington voting, and I think it's important. Iowans elected me to do the job and to show up in Washington, D.C., and I'm very proud to say that I have very few missed votes in Washington, D.C. I missed about 1% of votes through my entire time in Washington. My opponent in this race, Josh Turek, missed 58% of the votes at the state capitol this year, because he was more concerned about getting the next job than the one he had. I care about the job I have in showing up for Iowans to vote, and I will be out on the road as much as possible in the next two months, making sure I'm getting out there and hearing from Iowans, hearing what's on their minds that I can be an effective, a cheap storyteller for them as I was next U.S. senator. Okay, the big thing is your barbecue bash this weekend? Yes, barbecue bash. Doors open at noon in Clive. Again, you can get your tickets by going to AshleyHinsen.com. There's an Eventbrite link. You can buy your tickets there, but really it's really about bringing Iowans together, and it's really going to be an unforgettable one. So bring your family, friends, and neighbors, and come out and celebrate our country and the values that are here in Iowa. We're very proud of them. Yeah, I want to thank you for taking time visiting with us. I know you're busy, and you got to head back to it. But again, if you have an opportunity to come by Boone and stop by our studios, it would be great to see you and visit with you. Thank you. Absolutely. We'll let you know when we're out on the road, Jim. Thanks so much for having me.