Trump voters in Iowa are souring on GOP Senate nominee Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), seeing her as both too MAGA and too establishment.
The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell laid out the finding in a Tuesday article after holding focus groups last week with Iowans who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 but now disapprove of him. Longwell argued the reaction points to a deeper brand problem for Republicans in a state Trump never came within 8 points of losing.
The Senate race there has tightened. Of the 10 polls taken since September 1 and tracked in The New York Times’ aggregator, Democrat Josh Turek led in four, Hinson led in five and one was tied.
Participants repeatedly described Hinson as a career climber and a MAGA loyalist at the same time, a combination Longwell found “almost comical,” she wrote.
“I think to me she kind of falls in the camp of like a party politician,” a Trump voter named Celeste said, adding that Hinson seems to benefit because she appears to “toe the line” of the Republican Party. “You get on board, you say the right things, we eventually bump you up, and you get more and more power as a politician, and then eventually you retire very rich.”
A Trump voter named Joel put it more bluntly. “She definitely gives, like, MAGA vibes, and for some people that’s a plus. For me it is not,” he said, adding that Hinson “comes across as almost too polished.”
The group also watched “Aisle,” a Hinson ad touting her bipartisan record, including work with Trump to take on health insurers. Participants liked the message but doubted the messenger. Joel rated the ad a nine for appeal and a three for believability, and said the Trump mention “gives me another reason to wonder.”
Celeste suspected the Trump reference “was chosen very intentionally, probably for signaling support for more of a MAGA agenda, which I wouldn’t want to support.”
Longwell wrote that “if Republicans can’t mention Trump in an ad… that’s a brand problem,” arguing that Hinson is one of many Republicans with little credibility claiming independence from Trump.
“For years, Republicans have chosen to bind their fate to Trump’s,” she wrote. “Now, as he becomes a political albatross, it’s too late to separate from him.”
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