In Case You Missed It: Hecklers disrupt Hinson rally

CEDAR RAPIDS — Hecklers repeatedly disrupted a get-out-the-vote rally Wednesday for Republican U.S. Senate candidate and U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson in downtown Cedar Rapids, interrupting the congresswoman as she spoke about her efforts to ban members of Congress and staff from using insider information to trade stocks and bet on prediction markets.

The disruptions occurred inside the Veterans Memorial Building as Hinson addressed supporters alongside Republican Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate ahead of Iowa's Tuesday primary election. Some protesters shouted over Hinson and blew whistles before being escorted from the event by law enforcement officers.

Hinson's campaign declined to comment after the incident.

"You may have heard a little bit about this lately because there's a lot of talk around prediction markets … and people trading on outcomes of things around the world that maybe they have insider information on," Hinson told the crowd before the interruption. "I think that's wrong. I don't think Congress should be a casino. I don't think members of Congress should be trading stocks. I'm working to ban it, and I certainly don't think they should be trading on prediction markets either."

After the disruption, Hinson continued speaking, saying, "I know the loudest voices are not the most, but they are the most extreme."

One of the demonstrators escorted out, 24-year-old Cedar Rapids resident Nell Mari Barrios, said afterward she interrupted the rally because she believed Hinson was being dishonest about congressional stock trading and healthcare policy.

Barrios criticized Hinson's support for the Republican-backed "One Big Beautiful Bill," calling it "one of the biggest healthcare cuts in American history."

According to Hinson's latest financial disclosure report filed Aug. 13, 2025 — with the exception of stock held by her husband valued between $1 million and $5 million as part of ownership interest in a privately held partnership involving his business — Hinson and her husband do not directly hold or actively trade individual corporate stocks. Their reported investments consist primarily of mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, retirement accounts and variable annuities.

The Marion congresswoman has made banning congressional stock trading a key issue in her U.S. Senate campaign, featuring the proposal in her primary television advertisements.

But critics and Democratic opponents have noted that Hinson did not sign onto a 2025 discharge petition aimed at forcing a House vote on the bipartisan Restore Trust in Congress Act, a broader proposal that would ban members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from owning or trading individual stocks.

Hinson is seeking Iowa's open U.S. Senate seat following Republican Sen. Joni Ernst's decision not to seek re-election. She is running against former state Sen. Jim Carlin of Sergeant Bluff for the GOP nomination in the Tuesday primary.

Early voting is underway.

Hinson touts GOP agenda, Senate priorities

During the rally, Pate, a former Cedar Rapids mayor, urged Republicans to turn out for the primary election and praised Hinson's record in Congress.

"She actually did what she said she was going to do," Pate said. "She went in there and she told them what Iowans wanted, what Iowans needed. She fought for those things as a congresswoman, and that's special about her."

Hinson framed the Senate race as a choice between continuing Republican policies under President Donald Trump or returning to what she described as the economic failures of former President Joe Biden's administration.

"Democrats still want to spend more, they still want to regulate more, they still want to tax more, and I think that's wrong," Hinson said. "I don't want to go back to that."

The congresswoman argued Republicans have continued advancing Trump's agenda despite opposition in the U.S. Senate, criticizing Democrats for what she called efforts to block the president's nominees and policy priorities.

"They have done everything they can to try to stall out President Trump's agenda, his nominees, they're trying to halt all the good policy and moving forward," Hinson said. "But despite all of that blockade, we've still managed to get some really good things done, including passing the working families tax cut bill last summer."

She pointed to Republicans' tax and spending cuts package as one of the party's key accomplishments, highlighting provisions reducing taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits she said would benefit working families and small businesses.

Hinson also emphasized lowering healthcare and prescription drug costs, expanding workforce participation and supporting Iowa agriculture as central priorities of her Senate campaign.

"We need to continue to return as many dollars as we can back to you, cut taxes wherever we can, because guess what, it's your money," Hinson said. "We need to make sure we're making life more affordable, but I can tell you this: that the liberal agenda is not only wrong for our state, it's wrong for our country, and it takes us backward and makes life more expensive."

Dems cite rising costs, Hinson votes

Outside the Veterans Memorial Building, several dozen demonstrators gathered Wednesday afternoon at Plaza Park and lined First Avenue ahead of the rally. The group criticized Hinson's support for Republican-backed policies they said have increased costs for Iowa families. Protesters carried signs reading "Hinson Hurts Iowans" and "Country Over Party," while passing motorists frequently honked in support.

At a news conference before the rally, state Sen. Molly Donahue, a Democrat from Marion, said Iowa families are "facing a huge cost of living crisis."

"From rural Iowa to our growing cities, working families are struggling to afford the basics," Donahue said.

She accused Hinson of backing policies that have driven up healthcare, grocery and energy costs for Iowans. She criticized Hinson's votes against extending Affordable Care Act tax credits and against the Inflation Reduction Act, arguing those decisions increased costs for families and senior citizens.

Berleen Wobeter, a Tama County farmer who said she and her husband operate a small cow-calf herd, said many farm families are struggling to navigate rising costs and consolidation.

"People who have been farming for 50 years can't find their way through this chaos," Wobeter said.

She said farmers are struggling with rising fertilizer, fuel and operational costs while consolidation among agricultural suppliers and meatpackers is hurting smaller producers and rural communities. Wobeter also criticized what she described as a lack of action on mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef and reductions to Farm Service Agency support offices.

"We are losing local control," she said. "Our ag businesses are consolidating. This is what it looks like right now, right here, we are losing competition."

Shawn Gallagher, owner and president of Cedar Rapids-based Adcraft Printing, argued the Republican-backed "One Big Beautiful Bill" disproportionately benefits wealthy Americans and corporations while weakening protections for workers and small businesses.

Gallagher also criticized Hinson's opposition to the PRO Act, saying workers deserve "a higher standard of living" and the ability to "provide a roof over their head and food for their families, while working a 40-hour-week job."

The Iowa Democratic Party also challenged claims made in Hinson's recent television advertising, arguing her voting record and campaign fundraising undercut her message on health care affordability, veterans' services and congressional ethics.

According to campaign finance data compiled by OpenSecrets, Hinson has accepted tens of thousands of dollars from HMO corporate political action committees, health insurance industry PACs, and from pharmaceutical manufacturers' PACs since launching her first congressional campaign in 2020.

Democrats also pointed to Hinson's opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which authorized Medicare drug price negotiations and capped monthly insulin costs at $35 for Medicare recipients, among many other provisions.

The congresswoman voted against the legislation, instead backing an alternative Republican proposal that would have set a higher cap for seniors. That proposal ultimately did not become law.

Hinson has promoted the House Republican-backed "Lower Costs, More Cures Act" as her preferred approach to lowering prescription drug costs. The legislation included a $50 monthly cap on insulin costs for Medicare beneficiaries, allowed high-deductible health plans to cover insulin before deductibles were met, and included a series of bipartisan health care measures aimed at increasing competition and reducing out-of-pocket costs.

The proposal also sought to increase transparency requirements for pharmacy benefit managers, prohibit certain Medicaid drug pricing practices known as "spread pricing," and cap annual out-of-pocket prescription drug spending for seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D.

Hinson and other Republican supporters argued the bill's more market-oriented approach would reduce costs without imposing pharmaceutical price controls they said could discourage medical innovation or lead to higher premiums.

Democrats also criticized Hinson's response to federal cuts affecting veterans' services after Trump's Department of Government Efficiency moved to cancel Veterans Affairs contracts in Iowa and targeted tens of thousands of agency employees for layoffs in 2025.

During an April 2025 town hall in Mason City, Hinson said it was "absolutely critical" to have veterans working in the VA system but argued the agency had become a "huge, huge bureaucracy" with "a lot of bloat at all of our federal agencies." Hinson said she wanted to ensure veterans received services "in a very targeted way and efficient way," while also "respecting taxpayers in this process."