Rep. Ashley Hinson received thousands of dollars in PAC donations from maker of Roundup

The corporate political action committee of the company that makes the agrochemical herbicide Roundup has given thousands of dollars in campaign donations to Iowa Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson over the past three years.

Several scientific studies have linked the main ingredient of the agricultural version of the product, glyphosate, to an increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

Iowa has the second-highest and fastest-rising cancer rate in the United States, according to the Iowa Cancer Registry at the University of Iowa.

In March, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that the nonprofit group Food and Water Watch had released a report that said 60% of U.S. counties with the highest rates of glyphosate application had above-average non-Hodgkin lymphoma rates. An accompanying map classifies more than two dozen Iowa counties as “hot spots,” that is, counties in the top 20% by use of glyphosate that have the highest incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Federal Election Commission disclosures, first flagged by the opposition research group American Bridge 21st Century, show that Hinson received $1,000 from BAYERPAC, the corporate PAC for Bayer US LLC, in November 2023 and another $5,000 in March 2026.

In 2018, Bayer acquired the agricultural products company Monsanto, which produced Roundup, and continues to produce several formulations of the herbicide.

Hinson also received $2,500 in September 2023 from the PAC of CropLife America, the trade association representing Bayer and other developers, manufacturers, formulators, and distributors of pesticides and agrochemicals. 

Hinson is the Republican nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat of retiring Iowa Republican Joni Ernst in the November election. Her Democratic opponent, state Rep. Josh Turek, has pledged not to accept any corporate PAC money.

In March 2015, the International Association on Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The organization, part of the World Health Organization, says, “The data from all of the studies combined show a statistically significant association between non-Hodgkin lymphoma and exposure to glyphosate.”

A spokesperson for Ruveon, the U.S. subsidiary of Bayer that produces Roundup and other glyphosate products, said in an emailed statement that the company stands by the safety of its products: “The EPA has an extremely rigorous review process which spans multiple years, considers thousands of studies and involves many independent risk assessment experts at the EPA. The fact is that no health regulator anywhere in the world has ever found glyphosate to pose a threat to human health. Regulators – including the EPA, EU, and others around the world have repeatedly concluded that glyphosate-based products – which are the most widely used and extensively studied products of their kind – can be used safely according to the product label directions.”

“The pesticides used by American farmers are among the most thoroughly studied and highly regulated products in the world,” a CropLife America spokesperson told the Iowa Independent in an email. “When used as directed, these products are determined to pose no unreasonable risk to human health or the environment.

A Hinson campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. In 2025, Hinson was an original co-sponsor of the Community Access to Treatment and Care for Health through Increased Testing Act, or CATCH IT Act, which her office said would increase the federal government’s share of the cost of grants for rural communities to purchase medical equipment for the early detection of cancer. The bill was referred to committee in December 2025 and has not been advanced since then.

“Ensuring farmers have access to safe, evidence-based crop protection tools is essential to strengthening our food supply, conservation, and keeping food affordable for families — but there should be no blanket immunity for pesticide manufacturers from lawsuits,” Hinson said in a June 25 Facebook post. “If a product is proven harmful, the people it hurts should have legal recourse. It’s inexcusable that Iowa has the second highest cancer rates in the country. We need to invest in research, discover cures, and find solutions that save lives and keep Iowans healthy.”