Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), who is locked in a competitive race to replace Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) in the Senate, will not attend Vice President JD Vance’s rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, this Friday.
“Ashley has previously scheduled events and will not be in attendance,” a spokeswoman for Hinson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.
Hinson this week released an ad touting her bipartisan work in Congress, a sign of the increasingly tightening contest against state Rep. Josh Turek in the state President Donald Trump won three times, including by 13 points in 2024.
There is at least one Iowa Republican nominee in a competitive contest who will be in attendance at the Mid-America Center: gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn.
“Yes, he will be there!” a spokesperson for Lahn said.
Spokespeople for Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn (R-IA), who, like Hinson, are in toss-up races, did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.
Vance’s traveling to Council Bluffs this week with the Republican National Committee creates possible political complications for Miller-Meeks and Nunn, who on Tuesday both voted to restrict Trump’s war powers more than six months into the war with Iran.
“With the negotiating window closed, sustained combat operations now require congressional authorization,” Nunn wrote on X afterward. “Having deployed multiple times and flown over 700 combat hours in the Middle East, I will not support another open-ended war. We can defend Americans, pressure Iran, and pursue peace while ensuring Congress fulfills its constitutional responsibility.”
Vance’s rally in Council Bluffs could simultaneously help the Republican nominee for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, Brinker Harding, since Council Bluffs is on the state’s border with the Cornhusker State and shares a media market with Omaha.
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Like Lahn’s race, Harding’s contest to be the next retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), however, is leaning more Democratic less than two months before the elections, according to the Cook Political Report.