Iowa Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson skipped out on Vice President JD Vance’s visit to the state on Friday as he tried to rally MAGA support for GOP candidates ahead of the midterms.
It was an awkward snub by the current House member of one of her party’s most prominent members, as more Republicans in competitive races shy away from the Trump White House with less than 50 days to go before the midterms.
The vice president tried to make light of it, still giving her a shoutout at the top of her remarks. But the decision not to show up for Vance was telling.
“First, I want to make it a shoutout to an amazing public servant. I know she couldn’t be here today, but are we going to elect Ashley Hinson the next United States senator for the great state of Iowa?” Vance said.
Her campaign told multiple outlets she would not attend because of previously scheduled events. It did not immediately respond to questions about what those events were.
The move comes as the Hawkeye State Republican tries to paint herself as someone who can work across the aisle as she faces a tough Senate bid.
Republicans are facing an increasingly unfavorable political environment as President Donald Trump is deep underwater with voters.
Just this week, Hinson, 43, released a video in which she touted her ability to work with Democrats, a sharp contrast to some in her party, like Vance, who have railed against the Democratic Party being taken over by extremists.
“Used to be that reaching across the aisle wasn’t just ok; it was expected,” Hinson said in her video, smiling at the camera. “Some people in Washington forgot that. I never have.”
Hinson is running against Democratic Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek. Recent polls show the race neck-and-neck in a state Trump won three times, including in 2024 by 13 points.
But recent polling shows most voters disapprove of Trump’s job back in office as Americans face soaring costs, and Iowa voters say the cost of living is too much.
In her video, Hinson tried to straddle the line, bragging about working with Democrats to help veterans and with the president to “take on health insurance companies.”
Meanwhile, at his rally in Council Bluffs on Friday, the vice president raged against Democrats, warning they’re not the party he claimed his grandparents grew up talking about but extremists.
“Today’s Democratic Party had decided that this country needs to not be preserved and built upon, but this country needs to be utterly transformed,” he claimed, calling the election a “referendum on common sense versus pure unadulterated crazy.”
While Hinson was not in attendance for Vance’s Democrat bashing, Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn was. He gave a campaign speech about defending Iowa’s “culture” but offered no policy specifics or addressed the challenges Iowans currently face.
Images from the rally showed barely 100 people seated in front of, to the side and behind the podium filled the room at the Mid-America Center on Friday afternoon to hear the vice president’s campaign speech.
It was a modest crowd for the Hawkeye State including including attendees and candidates with less than 50 days to go before Election Day.
