Fact check: Ashley Hinson's attack ad misrepresents Josh Turek

An attack ad from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson completely misrepresents her opponent’s legislative record.

Hinson is running for the Senate in Iowa against Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek. It is widely regarded as one of the most competitive races of 2026.

The ad, which was produced by Hinson’s campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), is titled “Josh Turek: The Darling of the Radical Left.” It claims that Turek supports the “liberal agenda,” including welfare benefits for undocumented immigrants, voting rights for undocumented immigrants, and taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgeries.

Each of these claims is an exaggeration, mischaracterization, or flat-out lie.

Turek has voted with his Republican colleagues in the state House more than 700 times, demonstrating a clear record of bipartisanship. This includes votes to cut property and income taxes for Iowans.

Turek also broke with his party to support legislation enhancing criminal penalties for serial domestic abusers and expanding protections for their victims. He voted with Republicans again to pass a bill cracking down on the fentanyl trade.

The claim that Turek supports welfare benefits for undocumented immigrants appears to stem from his opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), the sweeping budget law that passed the House and Senate last year with only Republican votes.

OBBB will impose a $1 trillion cut to Medicaid over the next decade, forcing about 12 million Americans to lose their health insurance. It also includes language barring undocumented people from enrolling in Medicaid, even though federal law already prohibited them from doing so.

Turek has cited the law’s Medicaid cuts as a primary reason for opposing it.

The claim that Turek supports voting rights for undocumented people is similarly misleading. Federal law already bars undocumented people from voting. A Bipartisan Policy Center analysis found that instances of undocumented people voting are extremely rare.

Turek also did not endorse taxpayer funding for gender-affirming surgeries. He voted against the 2025 Health and Human Services Budget bill which included a provision blocking Medicaid from covering such procedures, but Turek said he opposed the bill because it failed to address Medicaid waitlists or provider shortages.

“We’ve got 670,000 Iowans that are on Medicaid,” Turek said in a floor speech explaining his vote. “We’ve got 180,000 of those on Medicaid expansion. We need to do everything that we can to protect these. Health care should be a human right.”

The misrepresentations in the ad may suggest that Republicans are panicking. Recent polls have shown Hinson leading Turek by fewer than two percentage points.

A Democrat has not won a U.S. Senate race in Iowa since 2008.