State Rep. Josh Turek has voted for bipartisan bills to lower costs

Since his election in 2022, Democratic Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek has cast at least 775 votes for legislation that had support from members of both parties, earning him recognition as one of Iowa’s most effective lawmakers and the legislators showing the most bipartisanship.

Turek is the Democratic nominee for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat. He will face Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson in the Nov. 3 general election.

A number of the bipartisan bills for which Turek voted were designed to address Iowa’s affordability crisis.

• He voted in May 2023 for a House File 718, a law reducing Iowa property taxes and creating additional property tax exemptions for veterans and individuals age 65 and older. 

• Turek voted in May 2025 for House File 1037, a bill to reform how the state provides economic incentives for small business development.

• This February, he voted for House File 2514, a law making permanent a childcare assistance benefit for Iowa’s childcare workers, regardless of their income level.

• In March, he voted for House File 2529, a bill to give farmers the right to repair equipment without having to pay technicians authorized by the manufacturer.

The affordability section of Turek’s campaign platform says that, if elected to the Senate, he will work to cut taxes for middle class and working families, ban price gouging on food, increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation, prohibit Wall Street private equity firms buying up single-family homes, make prescription drugs more affordable, and lower the cost of childcare.

“Josh Turek has voted over 700 times with Republicans to cut taxes for working families, lower costs, support our veterans, and keep Iowans safe,” a Turek spokesperson told the Iowa Independent. “In the U.S. Senate, he will continue that trend and work with anyone — including President Trump — to get things done for Iowa and Iowans. At a time when corrupt politicians like Ashley Hinson are enriching themselves and their billionaire donors at the expense of everyday families, sending Josh, a true champion for working-class Iowans, to the U.S. Senate has never been more important.”

Hinson has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2021. Her campaign issues page says she wants to “Make life more affordable by cutting wasteful spending, lowering inflation, and creating an economy where small businesses can grow and create good-paying jobs.”

She voted in 2022, however, against the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped out-of-pocket prescription drug and insulin costs for millions of Medicare subscribers and offered rebates and tax credits to help Americans make their homes more energy-efficient. In a floor speech, she called it “yet another tax-and-spending spree, wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on Green New Deal priorities, and raising taxes on middle class families.”

In January, she voted against bipartisan legislation to restore a recently expired enhanced federal health insurance subsidy that had helped 22 million Americans pay for policies through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. “I will not support the status quo of health care in America today,” she said in a press release.

Hinson has also cast votes against ending President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods and against directing him to withdraw military forces from hostilities in Iran. Experts say the tariffs and Iran war have fueled inflation. 

A Hinson campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

A July 2026 fact sheet published by the minority staff for Congress’ Joint Economic Committee estimated that the average household in Iowa has had to spend more than $3,000 more on goods and services under Trump due to his policies and the actions of the Republican majority in Congress.