Waco, TX – “Skipping a vote on the Iowa Farm Bill is a strange way to ask Iowans for a promotion,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said after Republicans criticized Democratic Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek over his voting record in the state legislature.
Cruz was responding to a post from the National Republican Senatorial Committee accusing Turek of missing nearly 60% of his votes in the Iowa House and specifically pointing to his absence during a vote on the Iowa Farm Bill. The NRSC contrasted Turek’s record with Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running against him for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat.
The criticism comes as the two candidates increasingly focus their campaigns on each other’s attendance and voting records. Recent reporting by Gray Media’s Iowa State Capitol Bureau found that both campaigns have been highlighting missed votes as the Senate race intensifies.
According to the report, Turek missed or did not vote on 58.1% of Iowa House floor votes in 2026. The figure does not include committee or subcommittee votes. The Iowa House records examined by reporters showed Turek absent or not voting on more than half of the chamber’s floor votes this year.
Hinson has made Turek’s attendance a central part of her criticism. “Josh Turek didn’t show up to vote for the Iowa Farm Bill. He skipped 58% of the votes in the State Capitol, and so he’s not shown up for Iowa farmers,” Hinson said, according to the Gray Media report.
Turek has pushed back against the criticism, saying he spent time traveling around Iowa and meeting with voters. He also defended his record as a state legislator, describing his work as effective and bipartisan.
The issue has become particularly relevant because agriculture is a major part of the Iowa Senate contest. Turek has repeatedly made rural Iowa and farming a central part of his campaign, including releasing a rural policy plan focused on farmers, rural communities and environmental issues. His campaign has also called for action on the federal farm bill, KYOU News reported.
Turek recently urged Senate Democrats to help advance a new farm bill, arguing that Congress needs to act despite disagreements over provisions involving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The voting-record dispute has also gone in the other direction, with Turek accusing Hinson of missing votes during her time in Congress. He has claimed that Hinson missed 193 votes since entering Congress.
However, Gray Media’s review found that the comparison depends on which types of votes are counted. GovTrack showed Hinson missed five of 283 U.S. House floor votes in 2026, giving her a 1.1% missed floor-vote rate this year. Turek’s claim that Hinson has missed more votes than he has becomes accurate only when committee and voice votes are included across her congressional tenure.
The same review found that Turek’s 58.1% missed-vote rate was the second-highest among Iowa’s 100 state House members in 2026. Only Democratic state Rep. Jerome Amos had a higher rate.
The dispute is unfolding as the Iowa Senate race becomes increasingly competitive. Hinson and Turek are competing for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, and recent national political coverage has described the race as one of the contests Democrats are targeting as they seek to gain Senate seats. The Cook Political Report recently moved the race to a toss-up, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Turek, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist and Iowa state representative, has presented himself as a bipartisan candidate focused on working-class and rural voters. Hinson, a Republican member of Congress, has emphasized her record in Washington and has attacked Turek over his attendance and legislative record.
Cruz’s latest comment adds another national Republican voice to the criticism of Turek, turning a dispute over a missed state legislative vote into part of the broader battle for Iowa’s Senate seat.
The election is scheduled for November, with both candidates expected to continue using their legislative records as they try to convince Iowa voters they are the better choice to represent the state in Washington.
