We Asked This Journalist-Turned-Congresswoman Why Voters Should Give Her Senate Promotion

The control of the Senate may run through one state in America’s heartland that Democrats are eagerly seeking to flip back after it supported former President Barack Obama twice and then President Donald Trump three times.

Republican Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democratic State Rep. Josh Turek are vying to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in a Hawkeye State race the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates “Lean R.” As she gears up for a blockbuster general election, the Republican nominee spoke about her state’s “common sense values” and addressed criticism that a pork bill she introduced was a gift to Communist China.

“In my congressional district we have eight of those pivot counties. Counties that voted for President Obama and then swung to President Trump,” Hinson, who represents Iowa’s Second Congressional District told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Iowans are just really common sense people. They are no nonsense people.”

“I think Iowans always expect you to go out and earn their vote. And that’s exactly how I’m running my campaign for U.S. Senate. It’s how I’ve run my past campaigns for Congress and for State House. Again, it’s that common sense initiative,” she added.

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Hinson, a former broadcast journalist and news anchor, first won election to the state legislature in 2016, winning by a landslide margin of 25 percentage points — in a seat that narrowly voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton on the same ballot. She said during the interview that due to her background, she knows “how to ask a tough question.”

“I’ve done 47 in-person town hall meetings. I can tell you I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of those tough questions. So, I how to make sure they’re holding their elected leaders accountable,” she told the DCNF.

Now in her third House term, Hinson serves on the Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She has co-sponsored multiple bills during her tenure aimed at preventing the CCP from buying American farmland.

The lawmaker told the DCNF that she is “laser-focused” on the issue.