Some votes are hard. These weren’t.
In March 2024, the Iowa House took up two bills cracking down on AI-generated sexual images of real people, including children. S.F. 2243 passed 93 to 0 on March 6. H.F. 2240 cleared its final House vote 93 to 0 on March 25. Republicans voted yes. Democrats voted yes. Basically everyone with a pulse and a voting button voted yes.
Josh Turek didn’t vote at all. Either time.
Out of 100 members of the Iowa House, exactly two missed both votes. One of them is now asking Iowans to send him to the United States Senate.
These weren’t messaging bills. Both are Iowa law, signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in April 2024. Under S.F. 2243, possessing AI-manufactured sexual images of an identifiable child is a felony. Under H.F. 2240, posting fake nude images of someone without their consent is criminal harassment, and adults convicted of it go on the sex offender registry. As the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported, lawmakers cited an FBI warning about deepfakes being used for sextortion and noted Iowa had already seen cases at home.
No powerful lobby fighting it. No tough district math. No complicated amendments to explain at the county fair. The only job was to be in the chamber and push green.
So where was he? Was there something more pressing than protecting Iowa kids from predators with a laptop? If there’s a good answer, Iowans would love to hear it. Twice.
Meanwhile in Washington, Ashley Hinson was doing the work Turek couldn’t make time for.
When the TAKE IT DOWN Act came to the House floor in April 2025, Hinson voted yes. It’s now federal law. Publishing non-consensual intimate images, including AI deepfakes, is a federal crime, and platforms have 48 hours to pull that content once a victim reports it. Hinson was there for the vote. Funny how that works.
She also cosponsored the bipartisan Intimate Privacy Protection Act to put even more heat on Big Tech, with 24-hour takedowns, data preservation so prosecutors can build cases, and limits on the spread of explicit AI content. She also cosponsored the Child Exploitation and Artificial Intelligence Expert Commission Act, which would build a federal strategy for tracking and prosecuting AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
And she hasn’t let up on the campaign trail, pushing for tougher protections for kids online, including rules on children’s use of AI chatbots and real oversight of social media platforms.
A Senate term is six years, and the votes don’t wait for you to show up. Turek’s campaign will tell you he cares deeply about protecting kids online. Maybe he does. But caring is free. Votes are on the record, and on two of the most lopsided, least controversial child-protection votes of his House career, his record- again- says “absent.”
