Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, endorsed Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) on Friday in her bid to succeed retiring Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) next year.

The endorsement announcement comes days after Ernst confirmed that she won’t seek a third term in the Senate, which was followed by Hinson’s entry into the campaign hours later. 

“We need conservative fighters in the Senate — and that’s exactly what we’ll get with Ashley Hinson,” Thune said in a statement. “Ashley has been a fierce advocate of President Trump’s America First agenda and has been instrumental in delivering big wins in the House for Iowans and the American people. I know that she’ll bring with her to the Senate that same unrelenting energy. Ashley has my full support and endorsement.”

Scott’s statement noted his time traveling across the Hawkeye State with Hinson in 2022, as the South Carolina senator was mounting his 2024 presidential bid, and expressed confidence Iowa voters would rally around her candidacy. 

“Having traveled Iowa with Ashley, I know she is the fighter the Hawkeye State needs to deliver President Trump’s agenda in 2026 and beyond,” Scott said. “Iowans are all-in for Ashley Hinson, and that’s why the NRSC and I are proud to stand with my friend, a proven conservative and staunch Trump ally.”

Hinson, a former local news anchor and state representative elected to Congress in 2020, has been working to consolidate support among the GOP primary electorate to fend off competitive challengers. She was also endorsed this week by Sens. Jim Banks (R-IN), Katie Britt (R-AL) and Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), as well as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Reps. Zach Nunn (R-IA) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Nunn was considered a possible candidate to replace Ernst prior to endorsing Hinson.

Neither Ernst nor President Donald Trump have endorsed a candidate in the contest. 

Thus far in the race, Hinson is facing Jim Carlin, a Republican former state senator who initially entered the contest to challenge Ernst from the right after delivering a 27% showing in his primary against Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in 2022, and Joshua Smith, a former libertarian and podcast host with a record as a critic of the U.S.-Israel relationship and Zionism. 

Smith has also espoused virulently anti-Israel beliefs on his X account, posting in March of this year that Israel is a “fake state of anti Jesus heathens who are fine with killing children” and claiming in a post last May that Jewish people suffer from a “Jewish victim complex.”