Josh Turek focuses on healthcare and bipartisanship in run for Iowa US Senate seat

Iowa Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek says his genuineness and the authenticity of his lived experience give him a unique ability to connect with voters of all political persuasions, and he’s hoping that ability will propel him to the U.S. Senate. 

Turek is the Democratic nominee for the seat of retiring Republican Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst. He will face Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson in the general election on Nov. 3.

Turek has won two statehouse races in Pottawattamie County, which President Donald Trump comfortably carried three times. He says he is proud of his work in the Legislature on bills about making state parks more accessible to those with disabilities, requiring farm equipment manufacturers to provide independent repair shops and farmers with the information and parts necessary to repair their own equipment, and ban the use of catheters containing carcinogenic chemicals in the state, he said. 

Turek was born and raised in Council Bluffs in a big working-class family that shopped at Goodwill for clothes and got meals from free summer lunch programs, he said. At times, his family had to put the grocery bill on a credit card. 

“We were struggling that much, and I’m seeing a lot of Iowans that are going through the exact same thing,” he told the Iowa Independent. “What I hear the most, whether I’m in an urban area or a rural area, is Iowans telling me that they’re really, really concerned that they don’t have the money. They’re struggling just to keep food on the table, a roof over their head, pay their electric bill, or just put gas in their tank.” 

Turek was born with spina bifida, a spinal condition that the Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes in children of Vietnam veterans like Turek’s father as a result of their exposure to Agent Orange. He was 1 day old during his first of 21 surgeries before he turned 12. Nearly all of those surgeries were done in Minnesota at the Shriners Children’s Hospital because that was the only way his family could afford the care, he said. 

As an adult, Turek won two Paralympic gold medals playing wheelchair basketball before volunteering as the director of a nonprofit for disabled kids. Turek worked as an assistive technology professional who assessed and provided wheelchairs and mobility devices to children, newly injured people and individuals with progressive conditions such as ALS, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. 

Karen Kedrowski is a professor of political science at Iowa State University. She said Turek is an effective campaigner who can simply and accurately communicate his positions. 

“Josh Turek is very much a moderate Democrat,” Kedrowski said. “I think he also has a really compelling personal story. He’s won in a Republican district. He has a permanent disability and really focuses on healthcare and disability access issues. So, all of those things come into play and I think make him a really strong candidate.”

‘Healthcare is a human right’

Turek said he decided to get into politics about four years ago after he saw, through his work, a 1,000% increase in the coverage denial rate after Iowa privatized its Medicaid program in 2016. A 2021 report from state auditor Rob Sand found the privatization of Medicaid in Iowa led to an 891% increase in members being “illegally denied services or care,” the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported.

“I believe that healthcare is a human right,” Turek said. “People shouldn’t have to win the genetic lottery just to have access to healthcare. Our healthcare system is fundamentally broken.” 

The cancer crisis in Iowa, a state that has the second-highest rate of new cancers in the country, has affected Turek’s loved ones. He said his grandmother dying of pancreatic cancer was one the most horrific experiences he’s ever seen someone go through. His father has had several bouts of cancer, too. 

Then, right around the day he launched his campaign, his sister was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. He said her private insurance would not cover a PET scan to look for cancer elsewhere in her body because she was only at Stage 2. Without coverage, that scan would cost $30,000 out of pocket. 

“This is something I really would like to address in the United States Senate,” Turek said. “We all can recognize that it is fundamentally wrong for insurance companies to be dictating and deciding care. I think it should be decided by doctors.” 

Turek criticized the budget law Trump signed last year, which included an estimated $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid spending over 10 years nationally and about $9 billion in Iowa over that time, according to KFF, a health policy nonprofit. Some Iowa hospitals are at risk of closing or reducing services, and an August 2025 report from KFF estimates that 68,000 Iowans will be uninsured in 2034 due to new work and reporting requirements for Medicaid eligibility. 

The White House has said it is going after waste, fraud and abuse, including in Medicaid; KFF reported in 2025: “DOJ and HHS-OIG operate a Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) program, designed to coordinate federal, state, and local health care fraud and abuse law enforcement activities. A HCFAC report is published annually, describing health care fraud enforcement actions. Recent analysis of the FY 2023 HCFAC report found no beneficiary fraud in the listing.” 

Plans to get corruption out of politics

Turek said he’s in favor of term limits for members of the Supreme Court and Congress. He told the Iowa Independent that, if elected, he would commit to serving no more than three terms in the Senate. He said he might even be comfortable serving just two terms.  

Additionally, he wants members of Congress and their families banned from owning and trading stocks. 

“Great news is I don’t have any stocks,” Turek said. “You don’t have to worry about that with me.” 

He said he wants campaign finance reform to address corruption in politics. He supports overturning the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which let corporations and outside groups spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. He also said he wants Congress to pass the Disclose Act, which would require more information on campaign finance spending be made public. 

“I say we can have oligarchy or we can have democracy, but we cannot have both,” he said. “Right now, what we have is outsized influence from billionaires and large corporations that are buying off our elections and buying off our politicians, and it’s leading to an even further erosion of the middle class.” 

The Iowa Independent reached out to Hinson’s campaign to request an interview and did not immediately hear back.