Hinson aims to define Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill before Democrats

CEDAR RAPIDS — Rep. Ashley Hinson praised President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill at her fifth annual “BBQ Bash” in Cedar Rapids last month, celebrating the measure’s changes to taxes on tips and other tax cuts that she says are aimed at the middle class.

But the only part of the law that really garnered applause from the mostly friendly crowd at the Iowa Republican’s event was the hundreds of billions it plows into Trump’s signature issue, immigration enforcement.

Hinson’s pitch — and the crowd’s reaction to it — hints at how GOP lawmakers plan to sell their major legislative achievement. Republicans, who expect a fierce fight to retain their single-digit House majority in the 2026 midterms, are racing to describe the legislation as spurring the economy and benefiting “working-class” Americans. Democrats, meanwhile, contend that the bill is doing so on the backs of poor and middle-class people who depend on government programs like Medicaid and food benefits, both of which were slashed to pay for the legislation’s $3.4 trillion price tag.

In more than two dozen interviews, Republicans, Democrats and independents in Hinson’s deeply red 2nd District who were familiar with the bill expressed significant skepticism about it.

Maria Gourley, a 23-year-old ER nurse, had heard about the bill and was “absolutely worried” that Medicaid cuts could put extra pressure on her hospital’s emergency department.

“Working in health care is already hard enough, and my career is everything to me, so if I see things get worse, it could affect my vote,” said Gourley, who has only ever voted Republican, as she was buying groceries and bags of dog food from the Walmart in Dubuque.

Initial polling shows the bill isn’t popular. YouGov polling in July said 52 percent of Americans thought the tax and immigration bill would hurt the average American either a lot or a little, and sizable shares wanted increased funding for Medicaid (49 percent) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) (41 percent) — two programs crunched by the bill. More specific polling by KFF found that Republicans, especially those who affiliate with the MAGA movement, are warming to the legislation.

John Darrah, chair of the GOP’s branch in Dubuque, a county inside the 2nd District, said that although he’s happy about the bill’s “attempt to rein in the Medicaid costs that got completely out of control under [Joe] Biden,” he admits that public perception of the bill could be a “concern” in the midterms.

“We have to counteract the lie the Democrats are trying to promote that everyone’s going to be kicked off Medicaid. That’s a concern,” Darrah said.

But immigration has long been Trump’s strongest issue — even though polls also show American attitudes trending in a more positive direction toward immigrants.

The fight over how to define the OBBB is likely to intensify as Hinson is widely expected to run for the seat of retiring Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), according to two Republicans familiar with her decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she has not announced a campaign.

Hinson’s focus on the increase in deportations and strengthened border control might have gone down well with her base at the barbecue, where she opened the event by playing the national anthem on her fiddle. But reaction to the bill wasn’t nearly so positive at a town hall she held in May. On that occasion, just the mention of being “proud to vote for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill” was met with boos.

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By controlling access to the event, ticketed at $40 apiece, Hinson largely avoided the angry reception encountered by the handful of GOP lawmakers who held town halls, which the public could attend, over Congress’s August recess. National Republicans have advised their members to avoid public gatherings since Trump started his second term because some have been overrun by voters fuming about cuts to federal spending and other initiatives.

But Hinson braved two town halls in her district last week, where she was heckled by the crowd after mentioning the bill. At the gathering in Northwood on Aug. 27, she referred to the “One Big Beautiful Bill once,” the Associated Press reported, before adopting a name being used more recently by Republicans: “the working families tax cuts” bill.

A spokesperson for the congresswoman, Olivia Late, told The Washington Post that Hinson will “continue to advance President Trump’s commonsense, conservative agenda,” pointing to posts on X where she says Hinson “debunks some of the left’s lies” about the bill.

“Iowans are excited about tax cuts for working families, strengthening Medicaid while ending fraud and finally securing the border,” Late said. “The only people in danger of losing benefits are illegal immigrants and those who are gaming the system.”

Most of Hinson’s barbecue speakers, including Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) and conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings, who has hinted he might run for retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R) seat, either mentioned the bill only in passing or focused largely on Trump’s immigration agenda. There was no talk of releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein, which captured Washington’s attention before lawmakers left for recess.

“Our president, Donald Trump, is negotiating peace in the Middle East, negotiating peace in Europe, hopefully, deporting violent illegal aliens, cutting your taxes and canceling funding for transgender operas in Peru,” Jennings told attendees.

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There were a few protesters, who held signs reading “Ashley Hinson voted to cut poor people’s health care,” on the border of the premises. They had been escorted from the entrance of the venue, one of them said.

Protester Robin Collins, 60, is unemployed and receives partial Medicaid and disability benefits because of chronic depression and anxiety. She fears the impact that changes to Medicaid eligibility, requiring people to work or volunteer 80 hours a month, will have on people like her. Congress’s bipartisan Joint Economic Committee estimates that 26,886 people in Iowa’s 2nd District are at risk of losing health care insurance because of the bill.

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Hinson’s district in Iowa’s northeastern quadrant is inclined to support her, and Trump. The 2nd District, centered in Cedar Rapids, swung dramatically in 2016 to Trump, who also won Iowa with 56 percent of the vote in 2024.

Hinson was reelected with almost a 16-percentage-point victory over her Democratic challenger in November. The fight is on for the Democratic nomination to face her in 2026. Iowa Democrats were buoyed by a special-election win Tuesday, where Catelin Drey (D) flipped a state Senate seat located in the 4th Congressional District, ending a Republican supermajority in the chamber.

Dubuque — one of the counties in Hinson’s district on the Mississippi River where factories have been replaced by sports bars and tourist hotels — had voted Democratic in 14 straight presidential elections before Trump carried it in 2016, according to a Post analysis during the president’s first term.

Fred Krapfl, 84, a retired engineer for John Deere and lifelong Democratic voter, who was picking up his medication from Walmart’s pharmacy, described the government as a “fat pig” making cuts to support for working people in favor of billionaires.

Leaders at rural hospitals and health care centers — nonprofits that provide primary, dental, mental health and other care to medically underserved areas, with help from the federal government — are also speaking out in the district.

Joe Lock, CEO of Eastern Iowa Health Center in Cedar Rapids, has worked in subsidized health care for two decades and said he has never seen such a threat to the health care system. He is an independent voter who supported both Democrats and Republicans in the 2024 presidential and state elections.

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“We operate on razor-thin margins,” he said, estimating that his health center will lose $3 million in Medicaid funding because of fewer people qualifying for the program as of Jan. 1, 2027, when the changes start.

“It’s going to significantly impact hospitals and specifically rural critical access hospitals, which are all over the country,” he said.

Lock has made three trips to Washington this year — with another coming up — because of his concerns about losing Medicaid funding. He’s skeptical about the real reason the program was targeted.

“People on Medicare, those that are 65 and over, that is a voting block that shows up to vote. Poor people often don’t vote,” Lock said.

“What’s the follow-up to Medicaid cuts? There’s going to be a lot of people that are affected. But are [politicians] going to feel it at the ballot box? I don’t think so,” he said.

The One Big Beautiful Bill is also on the minds of other Iowans.

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Farming equipment manufacturer John Deere announced layoffs last month, citing the impact of tariffs. But Aaron Lehman, head of the Iowa Farmers Union, which describes itself as nonpartisan, said farmers could face tight budgets as a knock-on effect of new requirements for food programs like SNAP.

Like the now-almost-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development, SNAP provides a steady income for farmers whose produce is bought by the government. “Massive cuts to food programs like SNAP will hurt residents and hurt farmers,” Lehman said.

And some voters appeared to be swayed by other issues entirely.

For independent conservative voter Daniel Feller, 34, a locomotive engineer from Iowa City, his tepid support for Hinson and Trump in November translated into his first attendance at Hinson’s barbecue. Really, he came for the food, he said, but he left with a copy of Schmitt’s book and was “impressed” by Hinson’s messaging.

“I liked her enough to vote for her in the last election,” he said with a shrug, praising her “traditional family and church values.” He voted for Trump because he liked the president’s non-interventionist approach, though that support is wavering.

“I don’t support what he’s doing in Gaza, and I used to be pro-tariff, but I don’t agree with the way he’s done that, either,” he said. “I’ll probably vote for them again down the line if we’re not involved in any more foreign wars.”