Ashley Hinson Loses First Senate Debate, Caught Self-Dealing with Taxpayer Dollars to Build “Luxury” Homes “Far Above Median Homes Prices”
In This Week’s Edition of the Ashley Accountability Alert, Hinson Was “Uncertain” and “Scrambled” in the First Senate Debate, and a New Report Uncovered Hinson’s Latest Corruption Scandal
DES MOINES – This week, Ashley Hinson melted under the bright lights of the debate stage, getting “slammed” for voting to kick 110,000 Iowans off their healthcare and “defend[ing]” the chaotic tariffs that have hiked costs for Iowa families, cost Iowa businesses $1.7 billion in the last year, and crushed farmers.
Meanwhile, a new report from MeidasTouch News has found that Ashley Hinson and her husband performed a “bait-and-switch” in which their development company took advantage of tax credits Hinson pushed for in the state legislature and then “jack[ed] up rents and sale prices” of homes they constructed.
But that’s only a taste of Ashley Hinson’s latest terrible week on the campaign trail…
- First, a report from CNN over the weekend found Hinson is “unpopular” with some Iowa Republicans as she tries (and fails) to distract voters from her seven votes to continue the war in Iran that is raising costs.
- CNN pointed out that while Hinson is saying she wants the war to end, she voted just weeks ago for a seventh time to continue the conflict, even as her Iowa Republican colleagues said enough is enough.
- The report also highlighted how Hinson’s “tone has steadily shifted” as she tries (and fails) to talk up her nonexistent efforts to work across the aisle while she’s ranked the least bipartisan member of the Iowa congressional delegation.
- Then, a Bulwark focus group found Hinson’s campaign is “stuck in a sour spot” as Trump 2024 voters in Iowa said they fundamentally don’t trust Hinson.
- Iowans in the focus group said they think Hinson is “too polished” because “she’s giving the answer that she thinks people want her to give versus how she genuinely feels about things.”
- Others considered her a “yes person” who is afraid to stand up to her party bosses and fight for Iowa and “don’t believe” she’s someone who works across the aisle.
- One Iowa voter said they definitively weren’t going to vote for Hinson after seeing that “Ashley Hinson sold us out to China,” adding that “it’s hard to get that image out of my mind, so I’m just like ‘Yeah, no to Hinson. I’m just gonna say no.’”
- Next, Hinson was “uncertain” and “scrambled” as she struggled to explain her corrupt, self-dealing record, which includes her seven votes to continue the war in Iran and helping her shadow lobbyist husband gain access to her and the rest of the Iowa congressional delegation.
- While suggesting to raise the retirement age, Hinson took a nasty “swipe” at millennials, accusing them of being “the worst group of savers,” even as she undermines younger generations paying into Social Security by voting to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.
- It all added up for a miserable debate for Hinson that comes after multiple polls – including new ones from Fox News and Rasmussen – show her losing the Senate race as her “team has grown increasingly wary of the tight race.”
- What’s more, a new report from MeidasTouch News found that in the rural towns of Clear Lake and Mt. Pleasant, a development company owned by Hinson “built expensive ‘luxury’ homes that were above medium value and pricing out workers.”
- The company took advantage of taxpayer dollars despite promising in their application for tax credits that they would build “affordable rural workforce housing.”
- During this whole time, Hinson’s stake in the company “skyrocketed” by up to “10x.”
- To round out the week, Iowans slammed Hinson outside of one of her campaign stops to call her out for repeatedly voting against clean water legislation and taking thousands of dollars from the chemical companies that pollute Iowa’s water.
- “A small group of protesters gathered outside West Des Moines City Hall ahead of the event, with some holding signs saying, ‘Our kids deserve clean water. Hinson doesn’t think so!!!’”
- Barbara Eskildsen, an independent from Ankeny, said she’s concerned the nitrates in Iowa’s water are causing people to get cancer, and she doesn’t believe Hinson shares her concern.
- ‘She’s not handling it at all,’ Eskildsen said. ‘She won’t even face up to it. So that’s why I’m here. She needs to understand that people are concerned about it. She can’t just turn her head and decide she’s not going to do anything about it.’”
See What Iowans Were Seeing and Reading This Week:
CNN:
- Ashley Hinson: “I’ve called for an immediate and successful end to the war in Iran, so that families can get some relief at the pump and the checkout line.”
- Jeff Zeleny, CNN: “Yet she didn’t vote that way.”
- Jeff Zeleny, CNN: “She saw that speaking out against an unpopular war can be unpopular with some Republicans.”
- Hinson Supporter #1: “Just saying stop and just walking away is not the answer.”
- Ashley Hinson: “No, successful ending.”
- Hinson Supporter #2: “When you say stop, it almost sounds like…”
- Ashley Hinson: “A successful end.”
- Ashley Hinson: “I run every race the same, so for me, it’s always been going out and earning every vote and running like I’m 10 points behind.”
- Jeff Zeleny, CNN: “I mean, you were saying that same thing two months ago, running like you’re 10 points behind. But now some Republicans actually are concerned you may be, and the Senate Leadership Fund, as you know, invested 20 million more dollars this week.”
MeidasTouch News: Ashley Hinson pushed a tax credit for developers of affordable rural homes, her company took the credit and then jacked up sales prices
- As a legislator from Iowa and a member of the U.S. House, Iowa Republican Senate Candidate Ashley Hinson backed workforce housing tax credits to build affordable homes in rural Iowa. Her husband’s development company took advantage of the tax credits while jacking up rents and sale prices. In the meantime, Hinson’s stake in the company skyrocketed.
- In 2021, soon after Hinson was elected to the U.S. House, Hinson’s husband Matthew Arenholz helped create a property development company called BAM Development, LLC. Hinson disclosed value from BAM Development, LLC on her financial disclosure records.
- Hinson’s 2024 and 2025 financial disclosures revealed that her stake in Bam Development increased dramatically in the period while she was requesting appropriations for workforce housing in rural Iowa. In her 2024 disclosure she reported a stake in BAM Development between $50,001 and $100,000. By 2025, the stake had increased anywhere from 2.5X to 10X with her disclosure now between $250,001 and $500,000.
- Despite the massive public financial rewards Hinson’s company got for building townhomes in a rural area, they still jacked up the price of rent and home sales for their units. Even though on its application for the tax credits, BAM Development, LLC had claimed the Emerald Cove townhomes would cost as little $275,000 to buy, the units were later listed as “Luxury Condos.” Two sold for $400,000 and $402,000, which was $65,000 above the average home price in Clear Lake at the time.
- The entire point of BAM Development’s application for tax credits was predicated on the idea of building affordable rural workforce housing. But after reaping all the public benefits of building affordable homes, Hinson’s company performed a bait-and-switch, took the tax credits and built expensive “luxury” homes that were above median value and pricing out workers. All the while, Hinson’s value in the company skyrocketed.
Bulwark: A group of Iowa voters reveals why MAGA is flailing
- Rep. Ashley Hinson, the Republican nominee for Senate in Iowa, seems to be stuck in a sour spot, based on our group of Iowans who voted for Trump in 2024 but now disapprove of him.
- Joel, 39, said of Hinson: “[…] But I think she comes across as almost too polished—like she’s giving the answer that she thinks that people want her to give versus how she genuinely feels about things.”
- Rhonda, 55, was more sympathetic, with a caveat: “[…] Do I think that she is a ‘yes person,’ and are there questions? Yes.”
- Amanda 42: “I don’t know much about Ashley Hinson other than the little flag that the little tiny one-engine plane flew around for like six days out of the ten days over the state fair that said something about ‘Ashley Hinson sold us out to China’ or something like that. . . . It’s hard to, you know, get that image out of my mind, so I’m just like, ‘Yeah, no to Hinson.’ I’m gonna, you know, say no.”
- Joel: “[…] Did I believe what I heard? I would give it a three based on everything I’ve seen and everything I’ve heard. . . . She mentioned one bill that she worked with, with others, but I don’t believe that’s been the case in a lot of areas.”
- Celeste: “[…] It’s probably like a three or a four for believability. […] So I just have questions about her claims, and I wish that there was more evidence.”
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