Josh Turek

Josh Turek is the 2026 Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Iowa, running to flip the open seat left by retiring Republican Senator Joni Ernst. A state representative from Council Bluffs, two-time Paralympic gold medalist, and lifelong Iowan, Turek won a competitive Democratic primary on June 2, 2026, and has quickly drawn national attention as a genuine contender in a race that could help determine control of the Senate. Following his primary victory, the Cook Political Report shifted its rating of the Iowa seat from "likely Republican" to "lean Republican," and a new poll showed the general election as a dead toss-up.

Turek's story is one of extraordinary resilience. Born with spina bifida after his father was exposed to Agent Orange during his service in Vietnam, Turek underwent 21 surgeries by the age of 12, growing up in a working-class family in Council Bluffs that relied on free summer lunch programs and Area Education Agencies to get by. He went on to become the most prolific scorer in the history of Southwest Minnesota State University's basketball program, earned an MBA, and represented Team USA at four Paralympic Games — winning bronze in London in 2012 and gold medals in Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021. He has been inducted into the Athletic Halls of Fame at Abraham Lincoln High School, Southwest Minnesota State University, and the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.

After his basketball career, Turek returned home to Council Bluffs to serve his community. He became the first permanently disabled member of the Iowa Legislature, winning his first election by just six votes in a district Donald Trump had twice carried, then winning re-election by five points even as Trump carried the same district by eight. In the legislature, he has passed meaningful bipartisan legislation on veterans' benefits and disability rights, and has been a champion for working families, public education, and health care reform. He is not accepting a dollar of corporate PAC money, and is backed by former Senator Tom Harkin, the legendary Iowa prairie populist whose seat he is now seeking to restore to Democratic hands.

Turek is fighting to:

• Restore full Medicaid funding for the 110,000 Iowans at risk of losing health care coverage, protect and expand the ACA, and introduce a public option so every Iowan has access to care
• Make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again, protect access to contraception and IVF, and address Iowa's OB-GYN crisis
• Impose a federal ban on price gouging on food, raise the federal minimum wage, and tie future raises to inflation
• Ban Wall Street private equity firms from purchasing single-family homes and farmland, and cut taxes for first-time homebuyers
• End school vouchers that drain public school funding, and restore Department of Education funding so every Iowa child has access to a world-class education
• Fight for Iowa farmers with a long-term Farm Bill, Right to Repair legislation, Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling, and an end to the chaotic tariffs driving a farm crisis
• Address Iowa's cancer and water quality crisis by funding water quality sensors, cracking down on chemical polluters, and restoring NIH funding for cancer research
• Eliminate 14C certificates that allow companies to pay workers with disabilities a subminimum wage, and raise Social Security income and assets limits for disabled individuals
• Pass the PRO Act to protect workers' right to organize and strengthen unions
• Ban Members of Congress from trading stock, pass the DISCLOSE Act, and pass a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United

A prairie populist in the tradition of Tom Harkin, Josh Turek brings firsthand experience with the struggles of working-class Iowans — from growing up poor to navigating a health care system that too often fails the most vulnerable. In the Senate, he will fight every day to build an Iowa and an America where the American Dream is real for everyone, not just the wealthy and well-connected.