Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), the Republican nominee for Iowa's open Senate seat, downplayed the war with Iran as "out of sight, out of mind for so many Americans."
Hinson made the remark on The Iowa Podcast with Justin Brady, in an episode published Aug. 26, when the host asked what her message would be heading into her Senate campaign.
The episode drew little notice, logging 137 views on YouTube. Journalist Aaron Rupar resurfaced the Iran exchange Friday on X, where his post had drawn more than 21,000 views.
"It seems like Americans are kind of like, 'Ah, gosh. I don't know. I signed up for this America First stuff. I don't know what this stuff is,'" Brady said, describing the mood among voters after the United States went to war with Iran.
"So what is the message going into your Senate election?" Brady asked. "Are we still America First, or are we focused elsewhere?"
"And when it comes to Iran, you know, I don't want an endless war in Iran," Hinson answered. "I think it is important to make sure Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and it is thousands of miles away. It's out of sight, out of mind for so many Americans."
"Why I'm running for the U.S. Senate [is] we need to protect taxpayers," Hinson continued. "We need to make sure rural America has a seat at the table, and we have to have a safe and secure country. And that starts by eliminating threats not only at our southern border, but abroad as well."
"And Iran has been massively increasing its stockpiles, not just of nuclear materials, but of missiles, of drones, that could have been not only a threat to our allies in the Middle East, but us here in the homeland as well," she said.
"And so I want to make sure we get this done quickly," Hinson added, "but the end goal for me in any deal or any negotiated deal end to this war is we need to make sure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon, and we need to make sure our allies in the region are protected."
The war Hinson described as distant has been running for more than six months. The United States and Israel began military operations against Iran in late February, according to the Congressional Research Service, and the fighting has continued since.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Thursday that it targeted two U.S. Navy vessels, eight oil tankers and 10 other ships near the Strait of Hormuz, The Washington Times reported. The announcement came a day before Rupar posted the clip.
Gasoline averaged $4.15 a gallon nationally this week, up from $4.08 a week earlier, Al Jazeera reported, with the increase tied to the fighting around the strait.
Rupar noted in his post that Hinson has defended the war and voted against war powers resolutions, the measures that would force the president to seek congressional approval to keep fighting.
Hinson and Iowa's three other House Republicans voted in March against a resolution that would have limited the military campaign against Iran, Radio Iowa reported. It failed 219-212.
The House passed a similar measure 215-208 in June with four Republicans crossing over, CBS News reported. Hinson was not among them.
"Even though the Iran war is thousands of miles away, it is important that we finish the job there, because Iran can never get a nuclear weapon," Hinson told The Gazette in June, using nearly the same phrasing she would repeat on the podcast.
"If it drags on beyond that, it's a political liability for us too, because we've lost Iowa soldiers," Hinson told voters at a meet-and-greet in Webster County in late May, according to audio obtained by Politico and reported by The New Republic. "I've been to four funerals since December, it's awful."
Six Army Reserve soldiers assigned to a Des Moines-based command were killed in an Iranian strike on a facility in Kuwait on March 1, The Gazette reported. Two were from Iowa.
Hinson faces state Rep. Josh Turek, an Iowa Democrat, in November for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), in a race Democrats are targeting as a long-shot pickup, 19th News reported.
