U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson defeated former state Sen. Jim Carlin to win Iowa’s Republican U.S. Senate nomination, setting up a contest with either state Rep. Josh Turek or state Sen. Zach Wahls in November.
The Associated Press called the race for Hinson at 8:22 p.m. Tuesday, June 2. Hinson led Carlin in early returns, according to unofficial results.
“Voters sent me to Washington to share their stories and be their voice in the fight to make life more affordable, safer and easier for their families,” Hinson said in a statement. “My record is one of delivering bipartisan results for Iowans, and that’s exactly what I’ll do in the United States Senate. I’ll work with anyone, from any party, to get things done for Iowa.”
She will face off against either Turek, of Council Bluffs, or Wahls, of Coralville, in the November general election. The Democratic primary has not yet been called.
The race — Iowa’s first open U.S. Senate contest since 2014 — has drawn national attention after Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst decision not to run for reelection. Both Republicans and Democrats plan to spend heavily in Iowa this fall to boost their candidates.
Hinson, of Marion, is serving her third term in Congress, where she represents northeast Iowa’s 2nd District. She won her first term in 2020, defeating a Democratic incumbent to flip the seat to Republican control, and won reelection in 2022 and 2024.
Hinson was the heavy favorite for the Republican nomination. She enjoyed a large fundraising lead over Carlin as well as the endorsement of President Donald Trump, Gov. Kim Reynolds and Ernst — the incumbent she is hoping to succeed in the Senate.
Carlin, a former member of the Iowa House and Senate from Sioux City, sought to cast himself as the true conservative in the race.
The election was Carlin’s second time running for U.S. Senate. He previously ran against U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in 2022, taking about 26.5% of the primary vote.
Libertarian Thomas Laehn is also running in the November election.
Democratic primary sees fiercely contested race
Iowa’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary has been fiercely contested this year.
Half a dozen Democrats initially launched campaigns for the Senate seat, but by March the race had narrowed to Turek and Wahls, with each candidate making the case that they were best-suited to take on Hinson.
Turek, who was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, is a two-time gold medalist in wheelchair basketball at the Paralympic Games representing Team USA. He won his first Iowa House race in 2022 by six votes and won reelection in 2024 by nearly six percentage points even as President Donald Trump carried the district.
Wahls rose to political prominence in 2011 at the age of 19 when he gave a viral speech on the Iowa House floor defending his two mothers’ right to marry.
He focused his campaign on taking on what he calls a corrupt political system he says is rigged in favor of billionaires and corporations at the expense of the middle class.
Stephen Gruber-Miller is the Capitol bureau chief for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com, by phone at 515-284-8169 or on X at @sgrubermiller.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ashley Hinson defeats Jim Carlin in Iowa Republican US Senate primary
Reporting by Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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