(KIWA Staff Photo)
Statewide Iowa (RI) — Republican Jim Carlin says he cannot in good conscience ask his supporters to vote for U.S. Senate nominee Ashley Hinson, who finished 48 points ahead of Carlin in this month’s GOP Primary.
In an statement to supporters, Carlin suggested it’s time for conservatives to use their leverage, withhold their votes, and let Hinson lose.
Two Republicans who served alongside Carlin in the Iowa House say Carlin cannot claim to be a champion of the party’s grassroots after he sided with trial lawyers and voted against tort reform when he was a state legislator. Bobby Kaufmann is the Republican Majority Leader in the Iowa House.
State Representative Steven Holt of Denison says Carlin’s burn-it-all-down mentality would lead to the election of Democrat Josh Turek, which could flip control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats.
Kaufmann suggests Carlin is thumbing his nose at Trump, who endorsed Hinson nine months ago. Carlin also ran against fellow Republican Chuck Grassley, who received Trump’s endorsement half a year before the 2022 Primary.
Carlin was elected to the Iowa House in 2016 and served six years in the Iowa Senate after winning a special election in December of 2017.
