Hinson’s BBQ Bash is the third major Iowa Republican event Cruz has headlined this year. In May, he headlined a forum hosted by the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition. And in July, he was the keynote speaker at Attorney General Brenna Bird’s annual Barn Bash fundraiser.<\/p>\n
“Y’all know how to make a Texan feel welcome,” Cruz said. “First of all, you serve BBQ. And the pulled pork is fantastic.”<\/p>\n
In addition to Jethro’s BBQ, the event featured nearly every one of Iowa’s Republican elected officials and candidates for office, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, governor nominee Zach Lahn, Iowa’s full congressional delegation and several statewide officeholders.<\/p>\n
Hinson warmed up the crowd of 1,000 by joining the band onstage and playing a few songs on her violin, including “Jolene” and “9 to 5” in a tribute to the late Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Congresswoman Ashley Hinson speaks at her annual BBQ Bash fundraiser Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026 in Clive, Iowa.<\/p>\n
USA Today Network<\/p>\n
And the event finished with a performance by country musician Lee Greenwood, who had the audience clapping and waving miniature American flags as Hinson joined him onstage for, “God Bless the U.S.A.”<\/p>\n
Ashley Hinson touts bipartisan bona fides, attacks Josh Turek<\/p>\n
Hinson praised Republicans’ record in Congress, working with President Donald Trump on his signature “One Big, Beautiful Bill” last year.<\/p>\n
“Here\u2019s what success looks like: We cut taxes on tips, we cut taxes on overtime, we cut taxes on Social Security,” she said. “We delivered real relief for small businesses and for family farms all across this state. We also prevented a $4 trillion tax hike on all of you. I would say that makes you pretty happy, right?”<\/p>\n
And she also emphasized her bipartisan credentials, noting she has had bills signed by both Trump and President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hinson’s BBQ Bash is the third major Iowa Republican event Cruz has headlined this year. In May, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[145],"tags":[32082,504,12001,12,18293,51245,32081,3665,12000,8220,13047],"class_list":["post-216136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chuck-schumer","tag-ashley-hinson","tag-chuck-schumer","tag-democratic-party-united-states","tag-donald-trump","tag-iowa","tag-iowa-democratic-party","tag-josh-turek","tag-politics-of-the-united-states","tag-republican-party-united-states","tag-ted-cruz","tag-united-states-senate"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117218098768544415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}