Gold medallist Josh Turek wins Iowa Senate nod

Josh Turek, a Paralympian gold medallist and former U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball player, won the Democratic nomination for Iowa’s Senate seat after first winning the Iowa House in 2022 by six votes. In a race centered on personal struggle and working-class

Josh Turek didn’t wait for Washington to validate his story. On Tuesday. after winning Iowa’s Democratic nomination for the Senate. he pointed back to the stairwell work that built his first political victory—dragging his wheelchair up and down every day in 2022 to speak with voters. regardless of party.

“I won that first race by dragging my wheelchair up stairs every single day to talk to voters, regardless of party,” Turek said as he accepted the nomination, later describing the run as proof he could persuade Iowans to send him to Washington in November.

The 47-year-old former U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball player has already done the hard part in a world that rarely changes quickly: he won gold medals at the 2016 and 2020 Paralympic Games as a four-time Paralympian. Now. he’s asking Iowa voters to bet that the same persistence can reshape a high-stakes Senate contest—one that could decide whether Democrats can dent Republican control as retiring Sen. Joni Ernst leaves the seat.

Turek’s story. delivered with the force of someone who has lived through every sentence. has become entwined with the Iowa race itself. During his Tuesday victory speech, he linked his political fight to a life shaped by disability and family hardship. Born with spina bifida. he told the crowd that the condition is connected to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He said he had 21 surgeries before the age of 12.

“In no other country on earth could someone born into a working-class family from Council Bluffs. Iowa. who went to the Goodwill. shared clothes. had the wrong color lunch ticket. who was born with my disability of spina bifida due to my father’s exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. who had 21 surgeries before the age of 12. be able to represent the United States in four Paralympic Games and bring home two gold medals and represent their community in the Legislature. ” he said.

That background is why supporters argue his campaign is not just another Democratic bid. They frame it as an attempt to reach disaffected Republicans and independents in a conservative-leaning state—at a moment when economic anxiety and the costs of everyday life are pressing harder on families.

Turek first entered politics in 2022, winning a House seat in a Republican-leaning district in western Iowa by six votes. He has said his winning approach was personal and relentless, and that his continued push is about being reachable to people who usually aren’t.

“I wanted to be a voice for the voiceless, for the Iowans who cannot afford a lobbyist,” Turek said during his primary night speech.

In this newest race, his platform has leaned into the bread-and-butter concerns he has described as central to working families: access to healthcare, a living wage, affordable housing and other policies important to working families.

In the Democratic contest that carried him to the nomination, Turek ran a populist campaign that drew national attention both for his personal story and for his opponent’s record. State Sen. Zach Wahl—whom Turek faced—has testified to Congress in favor of gay marriage rights while still a teenager.

Turek’s momentum was amplified by outside spending. VoteVets, a Democratic-aligned PAC, boosted his candidacy with more than $10 million in outside spending, running television and digital ads supporting him.

VoteVets Senior Advisor Major General (Ret.) Paul Eaton said in a news release that “veterans across America are proud to congratulate Josh Turek on his decisive victory.” Eaton added: “Josh knows firsthand what it means to fight through adversity. That’s a quality veterans know well — and we are proud to stand behind him. If elected, he will fight for working families, veterans, and military family members like his own.”.

While national backers have been loud, Turek’s political compass appears anchored to Iowa’s disability history. He has called former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, his political hero for Harkin’s work to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act. Turek has said it will be “beautifully poetic when the man who takes back Sen. Harkin’s seat is only here because of his work.”.

In the final months of the campaign, Turek consolidated support through endorsements from national figures, including former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, Maggie Hassan, Tammy Duckworth, Bob Casey and Ruben Gallego, as well as Harkin.

The political math facing Iowa Democrats is more complicated than one inspiring biography. Midterm trends are leaning toward Democrats in general. with polling showing voters souring on Republican President Donald Trump. gas prices rising amid the war with Iran. and the cost of living remaining high. In Iowa. the strain has another edge: trade wars and high costs have threatened a renewed farm crisis in the state’s agricultural economy.

Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz warned Iowa Republicans at a May 2 rally in suburban Des Moines that “The Democrats have put a bullseye on the state of Iowa.”

Still, Democrats face a ceiling in the numbers. Registered Republican voters outnumber registered Democrats in Iowa by nearly 200,000, and Republicans have dominated recent election cycles. Trump carried Iowa by about 13 percentage points in 2024. and Republicans hold all six seats in Congress. both chambers of the state Legislature. and every statewide elected office but one.

Even so, Turek’s own record has complicated the story of a one-way state. He won reelection in 2024 by nearly six percentage points, despite Trump carrying his district. As the primary was called for Turek. independent elections analysts at Sabato’s Crystal Ball shifted their rating of the race from a “likely Republican” outcome to a more competitive “leans Republican.”.

That shift matters now because the general election matchup is set. Turek is headed toward a contest against Republican Ashley Hinson. a 42-year-old three-term congresswoman and former news anchor backed by Trump and Ernst. Hinson opposed legislation that ultimately codified the right to same-sex marriage and has campaigned on her support for Trump’s 2025 tax-cut and spending bill.

The stakes are high because Iowa is not just another Senate battlefield. It’s a state where Republicans still control nearly every lever of power. where voters have been hit by economic pressure. and where Democrats are trying to prove that a candidate built on personal struggle and working-class politics can break through.

By winning the nomination, Josh Turek has made that argument on Tuesday night—then turned it into an even harder task: persuading an Iowa electorate that has leaned Republican for years, while Republicans brace for the kind of national momentum they do not usually want to be chasing.

Josh Turek Iowa Senate Joni Ernst Ashley Hinson Paralympics wheelchair basketball VoteVets Paul Eaton Tom Harkin Americans with Disabilities Act Ted Cruz Sabato's Crystal Ball Donald Trump Iowa politics