In Iowa’s open Senate race, Republicans and Democrats are trading barbs about voting records, but a recent ad from the Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC (SPM) is filled with “verifiably false” claims about the voting record of Rep. Ashley Hinson (R., Iowa).
SMP’s latest ad targeting Hinson relies on a story published by a website that carries all the hallmarks of a Democratic Party press release. The American Journal News (AJN) is funded, according to its own about page, by one of the Democrats’ largest sources of dark money.
“Our publisher is True Blue Media (TBM),” it says. “TBM publishes American Journal News using content from our partners across the internet. True Blue Media is a for-profit media company that relies on ad revenue and investors, including The American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, a 501(c)(4) research organization.”
SMP relies on a story from AJN to argue that Hinson skipped out on hundreds of votes — the ad comes shortly after Hinson’s Democratic opponent, state Representative Josh Turek, has been under fire for missing over half of the Iowa State House votes in 2026.
“Here are the facts,” the narrator of SMP’s ad intones at the beginning. “It’s Ashley Hinson who’s missed nearly 200 votes in Congress.” But Hinson’s campaign explained to the Washington Reporter that she has a 98.8 percent lifetime voting record in Congress. The SMP ad’s tone suggests that it is trying to turn Hinson’s attack against Turek on its head.
But Hinson’s team provided the data that discredits the crux of the Democrats’ dark money ad campaign. Ashley has been present for all final passage votes in her time on the appropriations committee. The ad counts voice votes as missed votes, despite no members being recorded as a yes or no on voice votes.”
Hinson’s campaign also charged that SMP “falsely” claims that Hinson missed an amendment vote on legislation to crack down on AI-generated child pornography. “That amendment was adopted by voice,” her team explained. “There is no record of anyone on the committee voting it up or down and it was included in the final bill. Ashley supported the final FY26 CJS appropriations bill, which increased that funding.”
On the other hand, some of Turek’s many missed votes were on legislation in Iowa that would add criminal charges to the use of AI to create pornographic images of both minors and adults.
One of the other charges by Democrats against Hinson refers to a vote that Hinson’s team says “simply doesn’t exist.”
“The ad falsely claims that Ashley missed a 2025 vote to fund a program that trains physicians in rural areas,” her campaign told the Reporter. “This vote cannot be independently verified; it seems it doesn’t exist. Ashley supported final Committee passage of the FY26 LHHS bill which included $14,000,000 for the rural residency planning and development program. This program funds physician residency training programs that support physician workforce expansion in rural areas.”
The Democrats’ 30-second ad also takes aim at Hinson and her husband for their net worth increasing in recent years, but Hinson’s team explained that that is attributed to her husband selling a business that he built before Hinson was elected to Congress. Unlike many of her colleagues, Hinson sold all of her public stocks and does not trade individuals stocks.
