Top GOP senator steps up efforts to protect Republican majority in 2026 midterms

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, the number three Republican in Senate leadership, is turning up the volume on his effort to protect and strengthen the GOP’s majority in the chamber in next year’s elections.

A non-profit public advocacy group aligned with the senator on Tuesday launched an ad highlighting GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa, who’s running in the 2026 race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.

The ad is the latest effort by Cotton, the Army veteran who served in combat in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before becoming a rising GOP star, to support Republicans in key Senate races in next year’s midterm elections when the party will be defending its 53-47 majority in the chamber.

“Iowa has a fighter in Washington. Her name is Ashley Hinson,” says the narrator in the spot by America One Policies, which was first shared with Fox News Digital.

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Hinson, a former local TV anchor, has been endorsed by President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) as she runs to keep Iowa’s open Senate seat in the party’s hands.

The narrator highlights that Hinson “is tough on crime, and she’s tough on China. Ashley fought to stop China from buying our farmland, and she voted for President Trump’s tax cuts.”

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“Ashley Hinson is putting more money in your pocket. Tell her to keep fighting for Iowa,” the narrator adds.

The Cotton-aligned group tells Fox News that it will spend six-figures to run the ad on broadcast TV and digital in the Des Moines market.

It’s the second spot this cycle by America One Policies following an ad that targets Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, whom Republicans consider the most vulnerable Democratic senator running for re-election in 2026.

And earlier this month, Cotton’s leadership PAC went up with an ad that takes aim at North Carolina’s former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who’s running against former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whately in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Thom Tillis.

An America One Polices spokesperson told Fox News that “Senator Cotton plans to fight for his colleagues in the US Senate, to ensure that we grow our majority in the senate, to fundraise and advertise for our candidates and to make sure that the American people know the records of their Democrat opponents. American One Policies will be assisting our candidates across the United States throughout this election cycle.”  

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Cotton, who didn’t face a Democratic Party opponent as he cruised to re-election in 2020 and who isn’t expected to face a difficult re-election next year in red state Arkansas, has crisscrossed the country in recent election cycles to campaign on behalf of fellow Republicans.

“As Tom Cotton has done since the first day he was elected to office, he will continue to help support Republicans around the country who are running for office at any level, to win,” a source in the senator’s political orbit told Fox News Digital.

The 48-year-old Cotton took a hard look at running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination as he made numerous trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that have long kicked off the GOP’s presidential primary calendar.

But days before the 2022 midterms, Cotton announced he wouldn’t run for the White House in 2024. 

And last year, Cotton was considered to be on now-President Donald Trump’s larger list of potential running mates.

Cotton’s support for Hinson in Iowa may spark speculation about a potential future run by the senator for the White House.