State Rep. Josh Turek dominated Iowa’s Democratic Senate primary Tuesday night, posting a double-digit victory made partially possible by an injection of $10 million of outside spending on his behalf.
Now Democrats see Turek as a potentially pivotal candidate for their hopes of winning a Senate majority in November.
Turek beat state Sen. Zach Wahls in the state’s marquee contest, in which both candidates focused their campaign pitches around their own electability in the general election. Turek, the preferred candidate for Senate Democratic leadership, will face GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson in one of the most closely watched Senate races this fall.
Turek’s victory is also a win for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who didn’t formally endorse in the race but whose leadership PAC gave the maximum donation to Turek’s campaign. Tuesday’s results come as Schumer is defending the party’s chances in Maine, where an embattled Graham Platner faces a fresh round of controversy over sending sexually explicit text messages to multiple women.
Trending
Given Platner’s growing controversies, Iowa’s prominence in Democrats’ path to regaining the Senate is rising. Iowa Democrats feel bullish that the red-leaning state is open to their pitch, as President Donald Trump’s job approval ratings have plummeted and farmers are feeling the pinch of Trump’s trade policies. State Auditor Rob Sand, the lone Democrat elected statewide in Iowa since 2022, is already running a well-funded campaign for governor. And a trio of House races are all expected to be competitive this fall, drawing additional spending to the state.
Even so, Democrats still acknowledge it’s a tough climb for a party in a state Trump easily won three times. Hinson, who also won her primary handily, is already sitting on a $6 million war chest.
Turek “is a great candidate with a great story, but he’s running in a state with 200,000 more Republicans than Democrats,” said Jeff Link, a Democratic strategist in the state who wasn’t affiliated in the primary. “He needs to win over a lot of people like his father, who voted for Trump.”
Republicans attacked Turek in a digital ad released Tuesday night, calling him “Chuck Schumer’s puppet” who “wants to hike taxes, rip away Second Amendment rights, and open our borders to violent criminal illegals.”
Who was most electable — a longtime obsession of Democratic voters — turned into the central argument of the primary. Turek, a gold-medal Paralympian, leaned on his compelling personal story and electoral track record, while Wahls, endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, promised to take on establishment leadership in both parties.
But Iowans heard Turek’s pitch far more frequently on the TV airwaves this spring, after VoteVets, a Democratic group that backs veteran politicians, pumped $10 million into the race — vastly outspending either Turek or Wahls’ campaigns, which each spent $1.5 million on advertising, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact.
VoteVets’ intervention drew condemnation from some Democrats, since Turek has not served in the military. VoteVets defended its involvement because Turek suffers from spina bifida after his father was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the Vietnam War.
VoteVets’ support was “undeniable” in helping Turek, said Sue Dvorsky, the former Iowa Democratic Party chair who endorsed his campaign. A handful of polls, fielded in February and March, before VoteVets started spending in the race, found Wahls ahead of Turek. But by May, Turek led in polling.
Dvorsky argued that the spending evened the pair’s name recognition, since “Zach has been working on and building his name brand since he was 19, and more people across the state knew who he was,” and Wahls “used VoteVets to push his own campaign.”
Indeed, Wahls attacked Schumer for meddling in the primary. Wahls, who rose to viral fame as a teenager by defending his gay moms at the Iowa Legislature, styled himself an outsider in the race against Turek, pledging to not back Schumer’s leadership.
Wahls told CNN Tuesday night that he was running against the “broken establishment” and castigated Schumer for not having “met this moment.” A few hours later, Wahls told his supporters he’d called Turek and conceded the race.
Now, with a bit of gallows humor, at least one Wahls supporter, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, said Democrats “probably should’ve kept that $10 million to resuscitate Janet Mills in Maine.”
Author
