DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Josh Turek won Iowa’s rare open U.S. Senate race in Tuesday’s midterm elections, flipping a Republican-held seat and becoming the first Democrat since Barack Obama to win a federal race in the state.
Turek defeated Republican Ashley Hinson to succeed retiring two-term Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in a race that drew hundreds of millions of dollars in ad spending.
While thought to be a reliable red state in recent cycles, Iowa reemerged
as a political battleground this year amid high fuel prices, a weak agricultural economy and a war overseas. The retirements of Ernst and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds made for the first cycle without incumbents seeking the top-of-the-ticket seats since 1968, breathing new life into Democrats’ efforts to reverse years of electoral failure in the state.
Iowa became one of Democrats’ targets as they looked to take over majority control of the Senate, especially as controversies roiled the effort in other states. Headed into Tuesday, Democrats needed to pick up at least four new seats for a majority but would need at least five if they don’t retain the Michigan seat.
Although many Republicans walked a political tightrope this cycle, Hinson had a more challenging balancing act than most. Iowa has faced manufacturing job losses, healthcare clinic closures and shrunken farm profits since Trump returned to the White House. There was loud unrest that reached the forefront of nearly all campaigns over poor water quality and rising cancer rates.
Hinson launched her campaign last year promising to be Trump’s “top ally” in the Senate. Almost a year later, Hinson instead focused her message on being “Iowa’s best bipartisan fighter.”
In September, after House members were sent home, Hinson said Iowans “shouldn’t have to foot the bill” for the war.
She did not, however, join two fellow Iowa Republicans in battleground districts — U.S. Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks — in voting with Democrats earlier in September on a resolution intended to halt Trump’s ability to continue military action without lawmakers’ approval.
She said the resolution was not the way to allow Trump to bring the war to an immediate and successful end.
While Hinson pointedly critiqued the president on specific issues in the final months of the race, she still appeared beside him when he made two visits to Iowa in the last two weeks of the campaign.
Then-President Obama was the last Democrat to win a statewide federal election in Iowa with his reelection victory in 2012. State Auditor Rob Sand is the lone Democrat in statewide elected office.
For three decades, Iowans sent a bipartisan pair to the Senate. That included current Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and former Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who decided not to seek reelection in 2014. Ernst won Harkin’s seat.
Turek, a state representative and former Paralympian, wanted to follow in Harkin’s path. Born with spina bifida, believed to be from his father’s exposure to chemicals during the Vietnam War, Turek credits Harkin’s work to enact the Americans with Disabilities Act for his own achievements.
Obama endorsed Turek after his primary win.
While Turek regularly criticized Hinson as a rubber stamp for Trump, he also tried to send a message to voters that he would work with the president on issues including immigration enforcement and border security.
