County chairs for Ashley Hinson’s Senate campaign have multiple ties to far-right extremists

Multiple members of U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson’s (R-IA) county leadership team for her U.S. Senate campaign in Iowa have ties to far-right and extremist views.

In the press release from last month, Hinson iterated that her “99 County Campaign Leadership Team” demonstrates “her strong grassroots support throughout the entire state.”

“I’m humbled by the massive support we have received across the state and I’ll continue to travel to all 99 counties to share my commonsense agenda: lowering taxes for working families and making both child care and housing affordable, fighting for our veterans, and ensuring Iowa farmers can continue to feed and fuel the world,” Hinson said. “We are going to keep this seat — and all of Iowa — red in 2026.”

The list includes freshman Iowa state Rep. Brett Barker (R-Nevada), who came under scrutiny in March after he circulated an extreme Christian pamphlet to his colleagues in the Iowa House of Representatives. The material, which originated from an organization called Capitol Ministries, included a section condemning same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ community as “satanic perversions.” There is also a paragraph titled “women’s liberation,” which is characterized as a “scheme of the devil.”

Barker later claimed that he did not read the documents before approving them.

“I’ve been asked to sign off on dozens of documents this session,” Barker told Iowa community blog Bleeding Heartland. “I was in a hurry while walking through the rotunda and did not ask to read this one and that’s my error. It’s a rookie mistake, and going forward, I will be asking for things to be sent to me so I can take time to review before initialing distribution forms.”

The representative did not tell Bleeding Heartland’s Laura Belin if or what parts of the pamphlet he agrees with. Now the Story County chair for Hinson’s Senate campaign, Barker has not responded to a Heartland Signal email request to clarify whether he agrees with the content of the Capitol Ministries publication.

Hinson’s Page County chair Larry Shum has reposted content from Matthew Trewhella, an extremist pastor and author. According to ProPublica, Trewhella’s history of anti-abortion stances are so extreme that two state chapters of the Right to Life anti-abortion group condemned him. Trewhella has also defended the murder of abortion providers, and he said that women working in government jobs are “sickening” and “perverse.”  

Darla Chappell, Hinson’s Jackson County chair, has previously made extreme comments about abortion on her Facebook page. In 2022, Chappell claimed in a public post that “women who need an abortion should have been on a sex strike before they got pregnant. Then they would not need an abortion.”

Hinson’s campaign did not respond to clarify if her leadership team was properly vetted or if they will continue to represent her campaign in Iowa. 

Hinson has served in the U.S. House since 2021, and she is seeking the Republican nomination for Iowa’s Senate race in 2026. The GOP is looking to retain the seat currently held by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is not seeking reelection.

On the Democratic side, Josh Turek (D-Council Bluff), former state Rep. Bob Krause (D) and state Sen. Zach Wahls (D-Coralville) are competing for the nomination. Turek gave the following statement on Hinson’s questionable leadership team:

“Ashley Hinson is platforming extremists instead of listening to the real struggles going on in our state while everyday Iowans worry about putting food on the table and keeping the lights on. I believe in women’s rights, reproductive freedom, and bodily autonomy, and when I’m in Washington, I will fight to codify Roe v. Wade.”

During her time in Congress, Hinson has also supported the use of pesticides linked to increased cancer rates in Iowa.