US Rep. Ashley Hinson will face Democratic challenger Josh Turek this November. 42 minutes after polls closed, The Associated Press called the race for Turek.
“Iowa sure does love an underdog, and we have done it tonight,” Turek told a crowd at the Iowa Democratic Party’s watch party in Des Moines. “… Whether you are a Republican, an independent, or a Democrat, there is room here for you in our campaign. Together, we can win this race. And together, we can change this state and change this country.”
Turek, a state legislator representing Council Bluffs, defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls. Turek is the first permanently disabled member of the Iowa Legislature. Born with spina bifida, he won gold medals at the 2016 and 2021 Paralympics as part of the US wheelchair basketball team. He’s been in the statehouse since 2023, representing Council Bluffs.
“What is needed in [Washington] D.C. is people who have gone through real struggle, who know what it’s like to not have enough, who know what a gallon of gas costs, who have had to put groceries on a credit card. We have enough billionaires in DC looking out for billionaires,” Turek said. “We need real people in Washington who have felt the consequences of a broken system because when you’ve gone through real struggle. … And this is what we need in DC, fight for the people, and that is what I will be in the United States.”
On the Republican side, Ashley Hinson was projected to win the GOP nomination to succeed Ernst. Hinson, 42, was born in Des Moines and lives in Marion. She earned a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Southern California and worked as an anchor for KCRG-TV9 before entering politics. She served in the Iowa House from 2017 to 2021, then won a US House seat in 2020, narrowly defeating Democratic incumbent Abby Finkenauer. She and Miller-Meeks were the first Republican women to represent Iowa in the House. She’s now in her third House term and vacated her congressional seat to run for Senate. She locked up endorsements from Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune before the first vote was cast.
The general election matchup sets up one of the clearest contrasts on the ballot anywhere in the country: Turek, who grew up poor in western Iowa and got into politics after watching Medicaid privatization deny care to disabled Iowans, against Hinson, who voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill—a law KFF estimates will leave roughly 110,000 more Iowans without health insurance by 2034.
