Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek has won the Democratic nomination for his state’s open U.S. Senate seat, NBC News projects, advancing from a combative primary to a potentially competitive general election in a state that has favored Republicans in recent elections.
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Turek defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls and will face Rep. Ashley Hinson, the winner of Tuesday’s GOP primary, in the general election.
The seat is up for grabs after Republican Sen. Joni Ernst decided not to seek re-election this year. And despite a run of comfortable, double-digit wins for Republicans in Iowa over the last decade-plus, the race has emerged as a sleeper in the battle for partisan control of the Senate. The Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund plans to spend $29 million on the battle.
Turek, 47, a former Paralympic gold medalist in basketball, is backed by former Sen. Tom Harkin, whose “prairie populism” was a staple of Iowa politics until his retirement in 2014 led to Ernst’s election.
“Iowans feel like they’re pushing uphill, and I know exactly what that feels like, because it’s working-class families like mine paying the price for Trump’s war and Washington’s corruption,” Turek said in a campaign ad that featured him pushing his wheelchair up an incline. “In the Senate, I’ll take on Trump, and no one will push harder for change.”
The biggest difference-maker in the primary may have been VoteVets. The outside spending group, which traditionally supports veterans, invested in Turek because of his backstory — he was born with spina bifida attributed to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange while he was serving in Vietnam — and spent $10 million on advertising, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm.
“Josh Turek — 21 surgeries by age 12, but he put up 1,000 shots a day to make Team USA,” a narrator says in one of the VoteVets ads, which features video of Turek on the basketball court. “Now Josh is running for Senate to reverse Donald Trump’s healthcare cuts and take on the insurance companies. Iowa families are hurting, but Josh Turek’s got the strength to fight back.”
Wahls, 34, first landed on the national radar in 2011, when, as a University of Iowa student, he went viral for his speech defending his moms and marriage equality at the state House of Representatives.
In his primary with Turek, Wahls boasted an endorsement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and argued that he was the true progressive in the race. Wahls also railed against the flood of outside money boosting his opponent. Noting how VoteVets has aligned with Senate Democratic leadership in the past, he framed Turek as an extension of a party establishment led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
The VoteVets onslaught was substantial, accounting for almost 2 out of 3 ad dollars Democratic groups spent during the primary, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm. Turek’s and Wahls’ campaigns each spent about $1.5 million.
Despite his complaints about what he termed “dark money” groups, Wahls benefited from outside spending himself, though it was only a tiny fraction of what VoteVets put behind Turek. A group called Iowa Action hit state airwaves last month with a 30-second spot that warned of “D.C. insiders” who were “spending millions to stop” Wahls.
Hinson, 42, has represented her eastern Iowa congressional district since 2021. With Trump’s endorsement, she emerged from what, compared to the Democratic primary, was a lower-wattage contest with former state Sen. Jim Carlin.
In a campaign ad, Hinson emphasized both her support from Trump and her willingness to cross the political aisle — foreshadowing what could be a real general election battle this fall.
“I’m Ashley Hinson, and here’s what I believe,” she says in the 30-second spot. “Our veterans deserve a hell of a lot better. Healthcare companies are ripping you off, and members of Congress should not trade stocks. That’s why I worked with both parties to expand mental health care for veterans, I’m working with President Trump to take on insurance companies, and I’m fighting to ban stock trading in Congress.”