Iowa’s three candidates for U.S. Senate made their case at the state fair, telling voters why they should be the state's next senator in November.
Democrat Josh Turek, Libertarian Thomas Laehn and Republican Ashley Hinson spoke at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox during the first days of the state fair. The three candidates are running for Republican Sen. Joni Ernst's seat, after she announced last fall she would not seek reelection in what is becoming an increasingly competitive race.
Turek, who spoke on Friday morning, told the crowd he's a “common sense prairie populist.”
He wants to address what he said is corruption in Washington, D.C., by working to reform campaign finance and ethics laws, while attacking Republican opponent Hinson.
“I'm going to fight for ethics reforms, both to the Supreme Court and to members of Congress. I'm going to fight for term limits. I'm going to fight to ban members of Congress and their family from owning and trading stocks, because people like Ashley Hinson should not be going up to D.C. to become 10 times more wealthy,” he said.
Turek, a state representative from Council Bluffs, was first elected in 2022. He is a two-time gold medalist Paralympian and uses a wheel chair due to spina bifida, which he said was due to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.
He said he wants to address the state’s high cancer rate, water quality issues and invest more in public education. He also wants to address affordability.
“Now, because of the tariffs and because of the war in Iran, we lead the nation in farm foreclosures. This is not the state that we grew up in. This is not the state that we know,” he said.
If elected, Turek said he plans to work with Republicans, calling himself “one of the most bipartisan members” of the Iowa Legislature.
“I don't care if it's a Republican idea or a Democratic idea. I will be out there, always. What is best for the people? What's best for Iowans? What's best for our workers? And what is best for the middle class that is being hollowed out. That is my promise to each and every one of you,” he said.
On Monday afternoon, Hinson took the stage, attacking Turek for missing 58% of the votes during the last Iowa legislative session while he was out campaigning for the U.S. Senate race.
“It speaks to what he would do as a member of the U.S. Senate,” Hinson said. “He would raise your taxes. He would vote for ideology that is far too liberal for our state, and I think Iowans are going to reject him in November, aren't you?”
Hinson is a former TV journalist from Marion. She served as a state representative before she flipped northeastern Iowa’s Congressional seat in 2021.
She called herself a “bipartisan fighter” and said she wants to work on making things like healthcare more affordable for Iowans.
“I know families are getting squeezed. I know we have to do more to lower prescription drug prices. And if you just saw the news, they are at a 60-year low. But I know there is more to do to hold those shady PBMs [pharmacy benefit managers] and big pharma companies accountable,” she said.
As a U.S. representative, Hinson said she has helped to pass policies that benefit Iowans.
“I worked very hard listening to you because I heard one big thing: you wanted lower taxes and less government,” she said. “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.”
Libertarian Thomas Laehn, who spoke Saturday afternoon, pushed himself as an alternative to major party candidates Hinson and Turek.
“What is on the ballot is not simply a choice between a Republican, a Democrat and a Libertarian,” he said. “The choice is between freedom and slavery, between a broken and corrupt two-party system and a new beginning of the American Republic.”
Laehn, who was elected to be Greene County attorney in 2018, criticized the controversial Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision to veto a bill last year, which he said he helped draft. The bill would have restricted the ability of private companies to use eminent domain for the project.
As a senator, Laehn said he would work to change tax and campaign finance laws that help fund the project and the campaigns of the lawmakers who support it.
“Not only is this a project that doesn't do any good and wastes our taxpayer dollars, this private company has been vested with the power of eminent domain to take property from unwilling landowners along its proposed route.” he said.
