If you farm in Iowa, there is a decent chance you have heard the name Bruce Rastetter — and not fondly.
Rastetter founded Summit Agricultural Group. His carbon capture pipeline venture, Summit Carbon Solutions, spent years working to run a pipeline across Iowa farmland, and in 2024 it won a permit from the Iowa Utilities Commission that came with the power of eminent domain: the legal authority to take a farmer's land whether the farmer agrees to sell or not.
On August 5, Rastetter co-hosted a fundraiser for Ashley Hinson's U.S. Senate campaign.
Who was on the invitation
Iowa Starting Line obtained the invitation. Rastetter — described in Iowa political circles as the "kingmaker" — is listed as a host, alongside Summit CEO Justin Kirchhoff.
The sponsorship tiers ran from a $500 "believer" level up to $2,000 to join the host committee.
This is not a first date. Federal Election Commission records show Rastetter has been funding Hinson's career for years:
| Date | Amount | Committee |
|---|---|---|
| June 2019 | $2,800 | Ashley Hinson for Congress |
| September 2020 | $2,800 | Ashley Hinson for Congress |
| June 2021 | $5,800 | Ashley Hinson for Congress |
| March 2023 | $6,600 | Ashley Hinson for Congress |
| November 2025 | $7,000 | Ashley for Iowa |
| April 2026 | $17,000 | Team Hinson |
That is $42,000 from Bruce Rastetter personally — including a $17,000 contribution in April to Team Hinson, the joint fundraising committee that lets a single donor write a much bigger check than campaign limits normally allow.
What the money is attached to
Here is why this matters more than a normal donor relationship.
Eminent domain is the government taking your property. When a private pipeline company gets that power, the state has effectively handed a businessman the ability to condemn his neighbors' farms.
Iowa landowners fought it hard, and they have won ground:
- In 2025, South Dakota banned the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines, and Summit abandoned that state entirely.
- In May 2026, Summit unveiled a new route that removed eight Iowa counties, cut more than 200 miles, and took roughly 400 landowners out of the project's path — rerouting west through Nebraska instead.
But Summit's original 2024 Iowa permit and its eminent domain authority remain in effect, now under review in Polk County District Court. And in July 2026, the Iowa Utilities Commission loosened a procedural condition for breaking ground in Iowa.
In other words: the fight over whether an Iowa farmer can be forced to give up land is live right now — and the man on the other side of it is raising money for Iowa's likely next senator.
Hinson hasn't said where she stands
The most telling detail in the reporting is an absence. There is no statement from Hinson on the pipeline. There is no statement from Hinson on eminent domain for private carbon pipelines. There is no vote to point to.
Her primary opponent Jim Carlin was blunt about it, criticizing her for taking money from "the man who leads that charge to take away private property rights."
Plenty of Iowa landowners have made themselves heard on this — loudly enough to drive the project out of South Dakota entirely and knock eight counties off the Iowa route. But the candidate with $42,000 of Rastetter money in her accounts has managed to stay quiet.
That silence is the product being purchased.
This fits a pattern on Iowa farmland
The pipeline isn't the only fight where Hinson has ended up on the side of the people with money rather than the people with dirt.
She voted for Trump's budget bill, which repeals most of the clean energy tax credits that built out Iowa's wind industry. That is not an abstraction for farmers — many lease their land for turbines as a hedge against volatile crop prices. One northern Iowa livestock farmer told Vox he earns about $30,000 a year from four turbines: "This is the 401(k) that I never had."
Her environmental record is not a close call. The League of Conservation Voters gives Hinson a 0% score for 2025 and 8% lifetime.
Put the two together and a consistent picture emerges. Land use that pays farmers directly — wind leases — she voted to undercut. Land use that pays a megadonor — a pipeline running through those same fields under threat of condemnation — she won't criticize.
The bigger habit
Hinson has a track record of letting donors set the message. When Josh Turek won Iowa's Democratic Senate primary, her campaign hit him within the hour with an attack ad making three claims he had never supported. And she has previously drawn scrutiny for the company her donor list keeps.
Add the "kingmaker" to that list.
What to ask her
Iowa voters deserve three straight answers before November:
- Do you support private companies using eminent domain to take Iowa farmland for carbon pipelines — yes or no?
- Will you return the $42,000?
- If a constituent's farm is condemned for Summit's pipeline, whose side are you on?
She has had years to answer the first one. She hosted a fundraiser with the man instead.
Source
Pipeline exec accused of buying influence is now bankrolling Hinson — Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Starting Line, August 5, 2026. Contribution figures independently verified against FEC records. Photo: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall.
