Hinson gets GOP leadership backing for Iowa Senate race against Ernst

EXCLUSIVE: Hours before Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa kicks off a statewide campaign swing as she runs to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, she landed the backing of the top Senate Republican.

“We need conservative fighters in the Senate — and that’s exactly what we’ll get with Ashley Hinson,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote early Friday as he endorsed Hinson.

And Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, wrote, “Having traveled Iowa with Ashley, I know she is the fighter the Hawkeye State needs to deliver President Trump’s agenda in 2026 and beyond,” as he and the NRSC backed her.

On the eve of the endorsements and Hinson’s campaign event in West Des Moines, where she was born and raised, she highlighted in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview that she’s “proud to stand” with President Donald Trump.

HINSON LAUNCHES SENATE BID IN RACE TO SUCCEED IOWA’S ERNST

“We have a common sense approach in Iowa, and I don’t want to see Iowa look like California. I think we need to see the country look more like Iowa,” she said.

 “Iowa does things right,” she added.

Iowa was once a top battleground state that former President Barack Obama carried in his 2008 and 2012 White House victories. But the state has shifted to the right in recent election cycles with Trump carrying the state by nine points in 2016, eight points in 2020, and by 13 points last November.

Republicans currently hold both of the state’s Senate seats – Ernst and longtime Sen. Chuck Grassley – and all four of Iowa’s congressional districts, as well as all statewide offices except for state auditor.

And while Democrats in Iowa are energized after flipping two GOP-held state Senate seats in special elections so far this year, Hinson sees her support for the president as a plus as she runs for the Senate.

TRUMP NOT ON BALLOT BUT FRONT-AND-CENTER IN 2025 ELECTIONS

“When I look at what message we’re out selling, it’s what exactly they voted for in the last election. Iowans overwhelmingly sent President Trump to the White House,” Hinson noted.

Hinson, who highlighted that she won her own House re-election by 15 points last November, said “we’re executing on what I heard on the campaign trail, which was that they…