Josh Turek, former Paralympian, wins Iowa Senate seat for Democrats

The result

Democrat Josh Turek won Iowa's open US Senate seat on 3 November 2026, defeating Republican Ashley Hinson. Early returns gave Turek 50.5% of the vote. NBC News put Hinson at 46.5%, while La Libre reported 46.4% for her, so the exact margin varies by source. Turek is 47 years old and succeeds Republican Joni Ernst, who chose not to seek re-election. Trump carried Iowa in each of the last three presidential elections, including by 13 percentage points in 2024, and the New York Times projected the Democratic flip.

What it means for the Senate

The New York Times described the seat as crucial to the Democrats' fight for control of the Senate. Forecasts based on preliminary midterm results pointed to a clear Democratic gain, and Turek's win was one of the factors that gave the party the edge. In the same election, Adam Hamilton won a Senate seat in Kansas as the first Democrat to win one there since 1932. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed won a Senate race and will become the first Muslim to serve in the US Senate.

From Council Bluffs to the Senate

Turek was born in 1979 in Council Bluffs with serious spinal defects, including spina bifida, and underwent 21 complex operations as a child. He links his condition to his father's almost two years of military service in Vietnam, where he was exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide associated with birth defects in the children of exposed people. His great-grandfather emigrated from the area around Krosno in Podkarpacie at the age of 17. Turek played wheelchair basketball, competed at four Paralympic Games and won two gold medals with the US team. In 2022 he flipped a Republican-leaning Iowa House district by six votes, taking office in 2023. He is the first Paralympic athlete elected to the US Congress.

Hinson's defeat and the campaign

Hinson worked as a television journalist in Cedar Rapids for a decade before serving as a state representative and then a congresswoman, and she was viewed as a top Republican recruit. Her loss is a blow to the state's Republican establishment. El Pais reported that she had distanced herself from some Trump measures, including a fuel supply deal with Russia, but that this was not enough to overcome the Democratic wave. Turek campaigned against Trump's tariffs and the war in Iran, attacked Hinson's support for cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, and stressed her personal wealth. Polls had shown the two candidates tied before the vote. Farmers struggling with high fertilizer, diesel and gas costs, which they linked to the tariffs and the war, added to the environment that favored Turek.

Turek's victory speech and next steps

In a speech to supporters in Des Moines, Turek said that over 448 days of campaigning he had seen much suffering and much hope. He promised to lower the costs of housing, fuel, medicine and other basics. He thanked former senator Tom Harkin, who had represented Iowa for 30 years and whose last term in the seat ended in 2008. Democrat Rob Sand, a former state auditor, also won Iowa's governorship and becomes the state's new Democratic governor.