Iowa GOP House candidate pulls multiple sections from website amid plagiarism accusations

Ashley Hinson, a GOP candidate for a House seat in Iowa, removed multiple sections from her campaign website on Monday after a New York Times report found several passages appeared to have been taken nearly word-for-word from the Times and other news sources, including The Hill. 

The Times reported that Hinson’s campaign website and op-eds published by the candidate included sentences that were identical to those found in various articles.

A 642-word essay on her campaign website published last week, for example, included 91 words taken verbatim from a Times story published on March 11.

Hinson’s campaign website also included “exact passages” from 2019 pieces in the Des Moines Register and The Hill, according to the Times. All of these pages have now been taken down.

Hinson, a state representative in Iowa, is running against Rep. Abby Finkenauer (D-Iowa) in a competitive House race. 

In an April op-ed in The Gazette, the state representative used several phrases that had appeared in a CNBC story published days before. Her platform on veterans issues also reportedly included almost the same phrasing as Finkenauer’s platform, The Times reported. 

Hinson, a former television reporter, addressed the reports of plagiarism in a tweet, saying she “was unaware of the plagiarism when I reviewed drafts presented to me by staff.”

“As a journalist I take this extremely seriously and am deeply sorry for the mistake,” she posted. “The staff responsible will be held accountable.”

I was unaware of the plagiarism when I reviewed drafts presented to me by staff. As a journalist I take this extremely seriously and am deeply sorry for the mistake. The staff responsible will be held accountable. https://t.co/0MiXVUYEs4

— Ashley Hinson (@hinsonashley) July 20, 2020