Trump dominates the Iowa Senate debate from afar
NBC News · LC · trust 38/100
Turek hammered Hinson for supporting Trump policies that he says are the culprit in rising costs for Iowa families — from “chaotic tariffs” to the war in Iran — whether they live in cities or on farms.
“The real issue is that Iowans are hurting, and they’re hurting uniquely,” Turek said. “I’m hearing ‘I’m struggling to keep food on the table, I’m struggling to pay my electric bill, I’m struggling to keep a roof above my head,’ and now with this war in Iran, ‘I’m struggling just to keep gas in my tank.’” He noted that Hinson voted seven times against curtailing the war and five times against reining in Trump’s tariffs.
Hinson fired back, accusing Turek of skipping out on votes in the Legislature, being “too liberal” for the state and lying when he accused her of using her position to enrich her family.
“It’s one thing to vote like an East Coast liberal; it’s another to lie like them,” she said. At another point, she jabbed Turek for flip-flopping on his willingness to legislate with Trump. “You trashed the president during the primary, and now you’re doing ads saying you’re going to work with him,” she said. “It’s a tale of two Tureks.”
But by modern standards, the debate over a Senate seat that is one of a handful that will determine party control of the chamber was unusually civil. Hinson expressed her sympathy over Turek’s sister’s being diagnosed with cancer, and Turek nodded to the pain negative ads caused both candidates. And both of them pledged to work with Trump or a future Democratic president.
“You work with the person who’s going to sign the bills, no matter who that person is, on things that are important to your state, and that’s exactly what I’ve done,” Hinson said. In particular, she pointed to laws President Joe Biden signed on preventing stillbirths and providing mental health services to rural veterans for which she was the lead Republican sponsor in the House.
Recent polls have found the race is more or less a dead heat, with several surveys showing each candidate with a lead within the margin of error. Iowa has been a reliably Republican state in recent years, with Trump having won it in all three of his bids for the presidency and the GOP controlling both Senate seats and all four U.S. House seats.
But Trump’s low approval ratings have been an anchor on Republican candidates in Iowa, as they have been across the country. Trump was about 1,000 miles south Wednesday night, campaigning in Texas as Hinson and Turek debated in Iowa, but he looms over virtually every contest approaching in the midterm election.
The last time Democrats won statewide federal races in Iowa was more than a decade ago, when Barack Obama carried the state in two presidential elections and when then-Sen. Tom Harkin was re-elected to a fifth term in 2008. The Senate seat is open because Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is honoring a self-imposed promise to serve only two terms.
The one-on-one between Hinson and Turek, part of the Iowa Press debates series, was held at the local PBS studio in Johnston, about 10 miles north of Des Moines, and featured three journalists — from Iowa PBS, the Des Moines Register and The Gazette, a newspaper based in Cedar Rapids — asking questions.
Hinson and Turek sparred over taxes, Social Security and immigration, among other issues.
Hinson cited border crossings during Biden’s term as a reason Iowans should not trust Turek and Democrats on the issue, arguing that her rival supports “all the illegals.” Trump and Republicans, she said, deserve credit for clamping down on illegal immigration.
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Turek affirmed that he would not vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security without significant changes to immigration enforcement policies, including requiring the use of body cameras and revising use-of-force standards.
“Yeah, that is my position,” he said. He added that he believes that no one wants to see “Americans shot in the street,” a reference to federal officers’ killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti during an immigration crackdown in Minnesota this year.
“What I am talking about is we can have safe and secure borders, and we need to have a pathway to earn citizenship for those that have come here legally,” Turek said.
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