Iowa Democratic Senate primary becomes a referendum on what anti-establishment actually means

Josh Turek and Zach Wahls agree on almost everything. The one thing they can’t agree on: what it actually means to fight the system.

Iowa’s Democratic Senate primary will be decided June 2, with voters choosing between two candidates who both claim to be the anti-establishment candidate. State Senator Zach Wahls and State Representative Josh Turek agree on nearly every policy issue—but Wednesday afternoon, at a town hall held by Progress Iowa and End Citizens United, Wahls and Turek made their pitch to a room of 140 Iowans.

The event was focused on rooting out the influence of corporate PAC money on US politics. Both candidates have rejected corporate PAC money. But VoteVets, an outside spending group that has aligned with Senate Democratic leadership in the past, has spent over $2.5 million on ads supporting Turek. 

“If Josh Turek were serious about his pledge to end the influence of dark money, he’d call for this super PAC to stop their spending and let Iowa Democrats decide who should be their nominee,” said Wahls campaign manager Anna Brichacek. “Turek can’t fight a system he depends on to win.”

Turek argues this doesn’t undermine his anti-dark money credentials. It’s illegal for a candidate to coordinate with the operations of PACs like VoteVets and his own fundraising record shows he’s held to his promise of not accepting corporate PAC money. What matters, Turek said, is results: he’s won in one of Iowa’s reddest districts, outperforming other Democrats by double digits.

“Zach (Wahls) hopes he can win. I know I can win,” Turek told reporters following the town hall. “I am the only one in this (race) that’s even run against a Republican. He comes from a Harris plus-37 district. … This is not the moment to try and experiment. I am battle-tested. I am out there in western Iowa.”

Wahls argued that even the appearance of establishment backing matters, even if unsolicited. When voters see outside VoteVets money flowing into a race, it signals compromise. Wahls has called for new Senate Democratic leadership, while Turek has not and appears to be Schumer’s preferred pick. Wahls argues his stance is the only authentic anti-establishment position.

“If you’ve been tagged as the establishment favorite in Washington D.C., I don’t know what to tell you,” Wahls told reporters following the forum, suggesting the optics alone undercut Turek’s claims of independence.

Iowa Starting Line reached out to the Turek campaign following the event about Wahls’ criticism. 

“Josh Turek is the grassroots candidate in this race, with 50,000 donors and an average donation half that of his opponent,” a Turek campaign spokesperson said. “Unlike Zach Wahls and Ashley Hinson, Josh is not a millionaire, and that’s why working class Iowans know he understands their struggles and will fight for them in the Senate.” 

Turek’s campaign argued that Wahls is a connected insider. From January 2024 to April 2025, he served as the executive director of the The Next 50, which works to support young Democratic candidates across the nation. The organization runs a PAC that spent half a million dollars in 2025. Wahls exited his role before the group contributed the legal limit of $10,000 to his campaign last November. 

Outside their arguments about the influence of Schumer on the race, Turek and Wahls talked about wanting to ban congressional stock trading, drive private equity from healthcare and housing, and tie US Department of Homeland Security funding to strict ICE reforms. Both candidates during the forum said they support a public option for health insurance. On Hinson, the likely Republican nominee in November, they’re also aligned, calling her a rubber stamp for billionaire tax cuts and Trump’s war in Iran.

The primary election is June 2. The general election is November 3.