Summary
- Jim
Carlin is the first Iowa GOP Senate candidate in 2025. - Served
as Iowa State Senator from 2017 to 2023. - Strongly
loyal to Donald Trump and his conspiracy theories. - Opposes
election results, claims fraud in 2020 election.
Carlin, who was then a senator from Iowa, was a featured
speaker at a Stand With President Trump rally in Orange City shortly after the
November 2020 election. He made the unfounded claims that Trump was denied a
second term because of a vast conspiracy and that Joe Biden did not win the
2020 election.
Carlin stood on the Iowa Senate floor three days after Biden
was sworn in as president, saying that “widespread fraud” had stolen
the election for Biden and that “tyranny’s not at the door, it’s in the
house.”
However, Carlin has failed to attract Trump’s notice despite
his numerous public gestures of fealty. Trump gave Rep. Ashley Hinson his
Senate endorsement on Friday.
“I know Ashley well and she is a WINNER!”
Trump posted
Friday on Truth Social.
“A Loving Wife and Proud Mother of two sons, Ashley is
a wonderful person, has ALWAYS delivered for Iowa, and will continue to do so
in the United State Senate.”
Three days prior, Hinson had declared her intention to run
for the Senate, four hours after Sen. Joni Ernst declared she would not run for
reelection. Hinson was endorsed by a continuous stream of Republicans in the
House and Senate even before Trump posted.
With the exception of Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who
has opposed
Trump on a number of issues and is spearheading the fight to have the Epstein
files made public, all Republican candidates are now required to show personal
commitment to Trump.
Hinson has a history of lavishly praising the 79-year-old
president and even criticizing attempts to hold him accountable for crimes
committed while he was out of office. He has also consistently voted the way
Trump has stated members of Congress should.
Prior to the Iowa Republican Caucus in January 2024, Hinson
chose to stay neutral and did not back Trump. They claim that “Trump
lieutenants” attempted to take advantage of Hinson’s drive in order to
eventually advance to the Senate and secure an endorsement. According to people
familiar with the conversation, Hinson was informed five days prior to the Jan.
15 caucus that unless she endorsed Trump,
“she could expect no more, and
perhaps less, than neutrality from Trump when the day came she wanted to succeed
the 90-year-old dean of the delegation, Sen. Charles Grassley.”
Naturally, Trump has never allowed principle to get in the
way of his attempts to take credit for someone’s position as the front-runner
in the race, so he gave Hinson his “Complete and Total Endorsement”
in his post on Friday.
For her part, Hinson has been praising Trump more
lately.
“I think he’s going to go down as the best president in our
history,”
she said in an interview on Sunday.
Regarding Trump’s endorsement, Carlin hasn’t commented
publicly yet, but he can’t have been shocked that Trump would support the
candidate who is certain to win the nomination. Trump never brought up Carlin
during his 2022 Senate campaign, instead endorsing Chuck Grassley.
How has Jim Carlin’s relationship with Trump influenced his
policy positions?
Carlin has echoed Trump’s unsubstantiated conspiracy
theories about the 2020 election and has placed himself firmly in the
Trump-aligned group which has questioned election legitimacy and supports stricter
voting laws.
Carlin supports Trump’s “America First” agenda
with its conservative stances on immigration, deregulation, gun rights, and
reduced government spending.
Carlin models aggressive positions on establishment
Republicans, including accusations about not being sufficiently conservative
and collaborations with Democrats, hoping to emulate Trump’s style. The
aggressive and combative populism of his rhetoric is often reminiscent of
Trump’s, appealing to voters in the legislative districts who were frustrated
with the traditional politicians they have historically elected into office,
and has branded himself a Trumpist outsider.
