Paralympic gold medalist Josh Turek launches run against US Sen. Joni Ernst

The Iowa state representative, who won twice in Trump territory, is betting his story of overcoming adversity will resonate statewide.

Josh Turek has never been afraid of long odds.

Born with spina bifida after his father’s exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, Turek endured 21 surgeries by age 12. He then went on to win two Paralympic gold medals for Team USA in wheelchair basketball. 

“ I’m someone that has overcome an enormous amount of economic adversity in my life, and certainly healthcare challenges. With all that I’ve been able to go through, I can speak to all these Iowans that are suffering and struggling,” Turek said. 

United States players celebrate winning the men’s group B preliminary wheelchair basketball game against Brazil during the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016. Front, from left are John Gilbert, Joshua Turek and Jake Williams. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

This was the story he drug upstairs—in addition to his chair—as a candidate for an Iowa House seat in Council Bluffs.

“ I learned the importance of hard work and grit and determination,” Turek said. “But it also taught me that at our core, we’re ultimately not that much different, that a lot of people out there, we’re all struggling with some of the same issues.”

In his successful 2022 run for the state House, he won his seat by just six votes. Two years later, Turek overperformed Democrats in seats across the state, outperforming former Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 13 points in his district. 

Now Turek is taking on a big, new challenge. On Tuesday morning, he entered the Democratic primary to unseat US Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican. 

“Iowans deserve a senator who works for them again,” Turek said in his campaign announcement Tuesday. 

But winning statewide in Iowa presents a different challenge entirely. Republicans control nearly every major statewide office, and Trump carried the state by Iowa by eight points in 2020 and 13 points in 2024. Democrats haven’t won a US Senate race in Iowa since Tom Harkin’s reelection in 2008.

Turek’s campaign strategy appears to center on his personal story and his focus on healthcare issues. As someone who has navigated the healthcare system his entire life while managing his disability, he speaks about medical costs and access with authority.

“People would change jobs or change insurances and they could no longer afford their insulin,” Turek said, describing conversations from his door-to-door campaigning. “It’s fundamentally wrong to live in the richest country on earth and people are having to make that determination of, do I take my medicine? Do I take my pills? Or do I pay my bills?”

Turek’s legislative focus on disability issues stems from personal experience navigating healthcare bureaucracy. His signature “Work Without Worry” bill would eliminate what advocates call the “marriage penalty”—asset and income limits that can disqualify people with disabilities from Medicaid waivers when they get married or receive modest pay increases. The legislation would raise income limits for employed, disabled Iowans from 250% to 450% of the federal poverty level and remove most asset restrictions.

“He understands the barriers,” said Ben Grauer, a disability policy advocate in Iowa City who has worked with Turek. “He speaks to these issues and he does it in a way that’s not been co-opted by the generic Democrat talking points.”

Turek faces a crowded Democratic primary field in his bid to challenge Ernst, joining Mformer Marine Nathan Sage, State Rep. JD Scholten and State Sen. Zach Wahls.

The key question is whether Turek’s formula for success in his House district can scale statewide. His approach has leaned on the personal. He says he knocked 14,000 doors in his district in 2022. That kind of retail politics worked in a single district, but reaching Iowa’s 3.2 million residents requires a different kind of campaign.

But Turek said he’s optimistic about Democratic chances in 2026, pointing to energy he’s seeing at campaign events across the state. He was at a recent event in Harlan, where he says there’s a change happening in Trump country. 

“They said, ‘I voted for Trump, but this is not what I stand for. This is not what I voted for. Not the naked corruption. Not the cuts to food assistance and healthcare just to benefit billionaires.”

“Iowa, we have presented as far more red than what we are at our essence,” he said. “We are a common sense state, and I am a common sense prairie populist. And I believe … we can do it. It just takes a lot of hard work.”