During the final showdown for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat, the contenders leaned heavily on familiar friction points. Democrat Josh Turek pressed Republican Ashley Hinson regarding her financial standing, while Hinson fired back by criticizing Turek’s attendance record as a sitting lawmaker.
Hinson drew attention to Turek sitting out several critical votes this year in the Iowa House of Representatives concerning rural healthcare and agriculture.
In response, Turek charged that Hinson contributed to a culture of corruption in Washington, drawing focus to her taxpayer-funded capital apartment and her husband’s involvement in political advocacy.
The Des Moines station WHO-13 broadcasted the debate.
Both contenders reiterated messaging that has dominated Iowa media markets as political action groups inject tens of millions of dollars into advertising for the high-stakes race to succeed retiring GOP Senator Joni Ernst.
Subsequent evaluations examined the factual basis behind several claims made on the stage.
Hinson: “42% of the time is all Representative Turek showed up to work this year, and that’s two out of every five days of work.”
An assessment of a comparable claim found it to be True.
Out of 445 House floor votes during the 2026 legislative term, Turek was absent for 261, reflecting a 42% attendance rate for roll calls. (Measured by physical days present, his attendance was 43%). This marked the second-highest rate of missed votes among all members of the Iowa House. The standard legislative session concluded at the beginning of May.
His absence rates were significantly lower in prior years: 9.8% in 2025, 12.2% in 2024, and 5.4% in 2023.
Turek attributed his absences to the demands of the campaign trail.
“I’m out meeting Iowans all over all 99 counties,” he remarked. “I’ve done hundreds of in-person town halls.”
Turek: Hinson “missed 193 votes.”
Turek offered this statistic to counter Hinson’s attendance criticisms, though the two figures are calculated differently.
While Hinson’s metric focused strictly on Turek’s floor votes in 2026, Turek’s figure encompassed the totality of Hinson’s missed floor and committee votes going back to the start of her congressional tenure in 2021.
Narrowing the focus to House floor votes alone, Hinson’s missed tallies are minimal. She has skipped 33 roll-call votes, roughly 1.1%, since 2021. For the current year, she has missed five floor votes out of 314.
Hinson: Turek “didn’t even show up to vote for the Iowa Farm Bill.”
This statement is correct.
The reference is directed at SF 2465, officially designated as the Iowa Farm Act. The National Republican Senate Committee highlighted Turek’s absence on this legislation in a September 30 press release. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds enacted the broad agricultural package on June 1.
The legislative vote occurred on May 2, with official records noting Turek as “absent or not voting” while operating under an approved leave of absence. However, he subsequently submitted a formal statement indicating he would have supported the measure if he were in attendance.
Turek: “She also took $50,000, even though she’s a multimillionaire, in taxpayer dollars to give herself a luxury (Washington) D.C. apartment.”
This assertion requires additional context.
Hinson utilized an established congressional stipend aimed at offsetting housing expenses, drawing $50,000 over a three-year span for a rental unit that aligns closely with median rental rates in the District.
According to a Daily Mail report from July, Hinson leases a unit in a Capitol Hill property marketed as upscale living featuring amenities like a swimming pool and sports facilities.
While members of the House are allotted office budgets that can be applied toward capital lodging, public records show the unit cost $2,254 per month in 2023—comparable to Zillow’s estimated $2,100 average monthly rent for a one-bedroom D.C. apartment.
Turek: Hinson “had her husband operating as a shadow lobbyist.”
This characterization is misleading.
Matt Arenholz, Hinson’s husband, works as an insurance professional.
Available records up to 2025 indicate that Arenholz served as the government affairs committee chair for the Iowa chapter of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.
Organization archives reveal that Arenholz helped coordinate a group meeting with Iowa lawmakers, including his wife, in 2023. That interaction prompted an ethics grievance filed in September by a representative of the Democratic group Defend the Vote, alleging a breach of House guidelines.
No concrete evidence links Hinson’s official duties to any undue benefit for the insurance association or her spouse, and structured visits by professional trade groups to congressional delegations are commonplace.
Representatives for Hinson maintained that the gathering complied with all ethical standards and noted to local media that Arenholz’s advocacy position is uncompensated.
Under federal standards, a formal lobbyist is classified as an individual compensated by clients who dedicates at least 20% of their working hours to lobbying tasks and engages in multiple outreach efforts to influence federal policy makers.
Hinson: “I’m banned from Russia because of my stance on being tough on them and supporting Ukraine.”
This claim is accurate, though it benefits from broader context.
Hinson was not singled out individually; the restriction applied simultaneously to 398 members of the U.S. House.
The Russian Foreign Ministry enacted the permanent travel restrictions on April 22, 2022, targeting over 1,000 Americans—including eight Iowans—in retaliation for U.S. penalties following the invasion of Ukraine earlier that year.