Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek, a Democrat and former Paralympic wheelchair basketball champion, defeated Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson on Tuesday in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Joni Ernst. The win hands Democrats control of the Senate for at least the next two years.
Turek, 47, is the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Iowa since Tom Harkin in 2008. He campaigned as a centrist “common-sense populist,” pitching lower costs for voters while siding with President Trump on some issues, including limits on Medicaid coverage and on transgender athletes in sports.
Hinson, 43, has represented northeastern Iowa in the House since 2021. She branded herself a “minivan-driving mom” fighting for families, but ran into a wall of voter frustration over the cost of living, including a spike in gas prices and inflation tied to the war with Iran, along with Trump’s tariff policy, which hit Iowa farmers hard.
Trump tried to blunt the damage to farmers in October by announcing an $8 billion harvest relief fund offering a one-time payout to eligible growers.
The contest was unexpectedly close for a state Trump carried by 13 points over Kamala Harris in 2024 — and one he has now won three times.
Turek was born with spina bifida and built a professional wheelchair basketball career in Europe after graduating from Southwest Minnesota State University in 2002. He went on to win gold medals with the U.S. national team at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.
His political career started small: he won his Iowa statehouse seat by just six votes out of 6,800 cast in 2022, then was re-elected by a five-point margin in 2024.
Hinson, a mother of two and former morning TV news anchor, first won her House seat in 2020 after putting more than 60,000 miles on her minivan to hear from constituents in diners and living rooms about rising costs, pledging to fight for taxpayers in Washington.
“Common sense versus crazy is on the ballot,” Hinson told voters in her closing argument Sunday, framing Turek as too liberal for Iowa.
Trump got involved in the race’s final months as polling tightened, calling Turek “lazy” over reports he missed nearly 60% of votes in the state legislature. The president visited Iowa on Oct. 22, calling Turek a “woke, far-left radical” and describing Hinson as “a mother, a warrior [and] a patriot.”
Trump returned to Iowa on Sunday for one last push, where he credited Hinson for losing weight while admitting he’d put on a “couple of pounds” himself.
“I knew Ashley for a long time, and she was a little bit heavier,” Trump said, praising Hinson for getting into “perfect shape” through “the old-fashioned way” and calling it proof of her commitment.
Ernst, 56, a former Army officer, will leave the Senate in January after two terms. Turek will take his seat alongside 93-year-old Sen. Chuck Grassley when the 120th Congress convenes.
