Turek says Iowans want a ‘common sense, moderate Democrat’ as he announces U.S. Senate campaign

DES MOINES — State Rep. Josh Turek said the best thing for Iowans is for lawmakers to “move away from this party over country mentality,” as he announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

Turek, a 46-year-old Democrat from Council Bluffs, in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, said he is joining the expanding field for Iowa’s Senate race out of “patriotic duty” as he continues to see Iowans struggle to make ends meet.

“I love this country. I love Iowa,” Turek said. “I'm seeing an enormous amount of Iowans struggle … with kitchen table issues. That's with being able to keep food on the table and a roof above their head.”

Iowa’s 2026 U.S. Senate election is for the seat held since 2015 by Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst. Ernst has not yet declared whether she plans to run for re-election, although her campaign hired a campaign manager earlier this month and has raised $723,000 in campaign funds between April and June.

Turek is the fifth Democrat to announce a run in the race alongside state Rep. J.D. Scholten from Sioux City, state Sen. Zach Wahls from Coralville, former Knoxville Chamber of Commerce leader Nathan Sage from Indianola, and Des Moines school board member Jackie Norris.

Turek said his own story and life experiences are what make him stand out from the other Democratic candidates. Born with spina bifida after his dad was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, Turek said he and his family relied on social services, including food assistance, VA medical services and Iowa’s Area Education Agencies as he underwent 21 surgeries before the age of 12.

Seeing the privatization of Iowa’s Medicaid is what inspired Turek to run for the Iowa House in 2022. And seeing funding reductions to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the GOP-backed federal budget reconciliation package passed earlier this summer is what is driving him to run for the U.S. Senate and fight for the “most vulnerable.”

The budget package will reduce future Medicaid spending by $941 billion over 10 years and increase the number of uninsured people by 10 million, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

“I'm someone that has gone through an enormous amount of economic struggle early in life,” Turek said. “Seeing all of these social safety nets being eroded and gutted and defunded by folks like Joni Ernst and all just to make tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations. Iowans deserve to have someone who actually has an understanding and empathy of their plight, that understands their suffering in a real way, and is going to work for Iowa and Iowans and not just look out for large corporations and millionaires in the donor class.”

As a two-time U.S. Paralympian gold medalist in basketball, Turek currently serves as the volunteer director for the Ryan Martin Foundation, which provides children with disabilities opportunities to play sports for free. He also has worked at a wheelchair and mobility assistance company, which provides mobility devices and complex rehab technology to people with disabilities.

Turek said that if elected, he would legislate like former Iowa U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, whom he referred to as a “prairie populist.”

Harkin, a Democrat, served in office from 1985 through 2015 and authored the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which protects people with disabilities from discrimination.

“That's what we need to get back to. We need to get back to having a senator from Iowa that is looking out for social and economic justice, for the middle class, for working people, for the most vulnerable and that's what I want to do, and that's why I'm doing this," Turek said

Winning in one of the reddest areas of Iowa

Turek was elected to the Iowa House District 20 seat in 2022, winning by just six votes in a district that went to President Donald Trump by 11 points. He won re-election by roughly five points in 2024 when Trump won by eight points. Turek said his ability to win as a Democrat in one of the reddest parts of Iowa as one of his biggest strengths going into his U.S. Senate campaign.

“From June all the way until Election Day, I went out and I talked to everyone, every Republican, every independent, every Democrat. I literally crawled stairs, drug my wheelchair up there to talk to people,” Turek said. “I'm going to do the exact same thing, but now I'm just going to go and talk to the 3.1 million Iowans. And I know that at our core, we are a common sense state, and I think that there is a real appetite for a common sense moderate Democrat.”

In Iowa House District 20, which covers Council Bluffs and Carter Lake in Pottawattamie County, there are 3,966 registered Democrats, 4,840 registered Republicans and 3,988 registered no-party voters as of this month, according to the Iowa Secretary of State.

As a member of the minority party in the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature, Turek said his bipartisanship and ability to work across the aisle are how he has gotten his bills across the finish line, adding that those attributes are needed in Congress.

He says he plans to use similar messaging in his run for the U.S. Senate as he did in his Iowa House campaigns by highlighting kitchen table issues, including affordable housing, increasing the minimum wage, curbing Iowa’s rising rate of cancer and lowering the cost of groceries and prescription drugs.

“Even though I have to work 10 times as hard to get something done in the minority party, it can be done if you're willing to do the work, and also willing to work across the aisle again, not for any sort of political games, but just to solve the problems and provide legitimate solutions to the problems that Iowans are facing,” Turek said. “I intend to take that exact same mentality to Washington, where it is desperately needed.”

Turek lives in Council Bluffs with his wife, Jarolin, an immigrant and U.S. citizen who works in health care.

The primary election in Iowa is scheduled for June 2, 2026.