Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek won his Senate primary Tuesday, a victory for national Democrats who helped boost him as they seek to flip the critical seat.<\/p>\n
He will face Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP nominee, to compete in what has become one of the nation\u2019s most closely watched Senate races, as both parties battle for control of the upper chamber.<\/p>\n
Turek, a wheelchair basketball player who was on teams that won two Paralympic gold medals, defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls in a chaotic primary election that turned into a proxy war between the Democratic Party\u2019s leaders and its anti-establishment wing. Wahls frequently accused Turek of being beholden to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> \u2014 who didn\u2019t formally endorse in the race but whose leadership PAC maxed out to Turek\u2019s campaign \u2014 and outside groups like VoteVets, which spent more than $10 million on advertising<\/a> for Turek. That figure is more than three times the combined spending from Turek\u2019s and Wahls\u2019 campaigns.<\/p>\n In the end, that money \u2014 in cohort with Turek\u2019s \u201cprairie populism\u201d pitch focused on building up the working class \u2014 helped him prevail.<\/p>\n Turek also boasted significant backing from Democrats in the state, including former Sen. Tom Harkin, the last Democrat to represent Iowa in the U.S. Senate. He enters the general election in a deadlock with Hinson, with preprimary polling<\/a> showing the two in a statistical tie.<\/p>\n Democrats have not elected a senator to Washington since 2008, when Harkin was elected to his final term. But they view this cycle as a golden opportunity, thanks to a sagging economy and growing frustration with the Trump administration\u2019s tariffs, which spiraled Iowa\u2019s agriculture sector into chaos<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Turek, who was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2022, has been through tough races before: In that first election, he defeated a Republican opponent by just six votes.<\/p>\n