The Iowa House just passed a bipartisan right-to-repair bill that Turek helped champion. Now he’s running for US Senate on a promise to take that fight to Washington.
State Rep. Josh Turek on Monday launched his Rebuild Rural Iowa plan —and he’s got a fresh legislative win to point to.
The Council Bluffs Democrat, who is running in the Democratic primary for US Senate, released a sweeping rural agriculture agenda that draws directly on his work in the Iowa House of Representatives, including a right-to-repair bill that he championed and which passed in a bipartisan 70-18 vote last week.
Turek’s plan also includes mandatory country of origin labeling for beef and pork, a ban on vertical integration by dominant retailers in meat processing, fertilizer pricing transparency requirements, and incentives for water quality practices, all bills he worked on in the Iowa Legislature.
A federal right-to-repair policy is a centerpiece of Turek’s plan, though, and Turek points to the state-level bill as a proof of concept.
House File 2763 would require equipment manufacturers to make parts, software, and repair tools available to farmers and independent mechanics at fair and reasonable costs—ending the practice of locking farmers out of fixing their own equipment. Turek co-sponsored the bill alongside Rep. J.D. Scholten, the ranking member of the Iowa House Agriculture Committee, who endorsed Turek after dropping his own Senate bid.
“For too long, politicians in Washington have betrayed Iowa’s rural communities, leaving behind the farmers, small businesses, and families they were elected to represent,” Turek said in a statement.
The stakes for Iowa farmers are real. A 2022 report by U.S. PIRG and the National Farmers Union found 95% of farmers surveyed support right-to-repair legislation, 92% believe they’d save money with better repair access, and 77% have bought older equipment specifically to avoid software lockouts on newer machines. John Deere is at the center of the fight—the Federal Trade Commission sued the company in January 2025, alleging it locks farmers out of repairs by making diagnostic tools available only to licensed dealers.
Scholten pointed to Colorado, which passed a nearly identical law in 2023 with no measurable economic harm to dealers or manufacturers, as proof the policy works. Iowa’s bill adds a second provision giving farmers ownership rights over data their equipment collects.
The bill still needs Senate action—a companion measure hasn’t moved there yet, and legislative leaders are pushing toward adjournment.
In a statement his campaign shared first with Iowa Starting Line, Turek took direct aim at the likely Republican nominee for US Senate, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, accusing her of being “nothing but a rubber stamp on policies that have destroyed Iowa’s agricultural economy.”
Read Turek’s full plan here.
