Democratic Senate hopeful Josh Turek told voters he skipped most Iowa House votes to campaign statewide, and Republican Ashley Hinson said that record would get a normal worker fired.
In a televised debate Tuesday night, Oct. 13, 2026, at WHO 13 in Des Moines, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rep. Ashley Hinson pressed Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek over a 42% attendance rate on state House votes this year.
Fox News reported the exchange after Turek missed 261 votes from Jan. 12, 2026, through May 3, nearly 58% of the total in that window, and then defended the absences as time spent meeting Iowans.
The clash came after a question on Iowa’s rising cancer rates. Hinson tied the job of a lawmaker to showing up when the votes that matter are called.
Hinson said lawmakers have to be present for work like pediatric cancer research funding, and she has pushed to redirect resources toward that crisis.
"You have to show up to vote for things like pediatric cancer research, and I've invested in legislation to make sure that we're redirecting those resources to get to where it needs to go to help get to the bottom of this cancer crisis,"
Hinson said.
Turek did not dispute the thin 2026 attendance figure. He said he was on the road.
"I have gone out there, and I have met with Iowans all over the state, all 99 counties, hundreds of public forums,"
Turek said.
The moderator pressed him again on the missed votes.
"I want to ask again, though, why did you miss those votes?"
the moderator asked.
Turek repeated the campaign defense and turned the attack on Hinson’s town-hall schedule.
"I'm out campaigning. I'm out meeting Iowans all over all 99 counties. I've done hundreds of in-person town halls. Meanwhile, Ashley Hinson, since she's running for the U.S. Senate, has not done a single in-person town hall,"
Turek said. He also claimed that in his first three years in the legislature he posted more than a 90% attendance record, and that Hinson “also missed 193 votes.”
That framing treats a multi-year congressional tally as if it matches a single state session. Hinson’s campaign rejected the comparison outright.
Hinson answered with a workplace standard voters understand.
"I've done more town halls than the percentage of time he showed up to work this year. 42% of the time is all Rep. Turek showed up to work this year. That's two out of every five days of work,"
she said.
She went further for anyone watching at home.
"Iowans, if you're watching tonight, you should know if you don't show up to work two out of five days, you're not getting a promotion. You're getting fired. I am proud of my bipartisan record working with both parties to get things across the finish line. I rank in the top 20% of bipartisan lawmakers in Congress and I have a 99% attendance record even while running a statewide campaign,"
Hinson said, according to Fox News coverage of the debate.
Voters hiring someone for a six-year Senate term heard a simple contrast: one candidate claiming near-perfect presence in Congress while campaigning, and the other explaining away a year in which he made fewer than half the state House votes.
After the debate, Hinson campaign communications director Billy Fuerst gave Fox News Digital a fuller tally and rejected Turek’s claim that she held no in-person forums once she entered the Senate race.
Fuerst said that since her election to Congress, Hinson has held 47 in-person town halls and more than 30 telephone town halls.
"Ashley has a 98.8% lifetime voting record while Josh Turek registered a 42% voting record in the State House this year. Ashley missed 16% (94 of 553) of committee amendment votes over the course of her congressional tenure, but has been present for all final passage votes (final passage votes include the amendment language) in her time on the Appropriations Committee, 70 total bills since 2021,"
Fuerst said.
The campaign also stressed the apples-to-oranges problem in Turek’s “193 votes” line: those misses span Hinson’s full time in Congress, while Turek’s 261 missed votes came in the 2026 legislative session alone.
Turek and his campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital for comment after the debate.
Iowa’s open Senate race now carries a clean accountability test. A state representative who made roughly two of every five work days in the chamber this year wants a promotion to Washington.
He says the trade-off was worth it because he visited all 99 counties and stacked public forums. Hinson says the job still requires casting the votes in front of you, on cancer research and everything else, and that her own record stayed near 99% while she ran statewide.
The roll call does not grade speeches on the trail. It grades whether the member was present when the gavel fell.
Iowans who punch a clock already know what happens when someone misses three days out of five. Candidates asking for higher office should meet at least that bar before they ask for a raise in power.
