Josh Turek flips Iowa Senate seat, handing Democrats chamber control

Iowa, a state Donald Trump carried by 13 points in 2024, just sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate for the first time in nearly two decades — and in doing so, handed Democrats the majority in the chamber. The AP projected Tuesday that state Rep. Josh Turek defeated Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson for the open seat vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, a result that CBS News says was Democrats' fifth flip of the night, enough to secure control of the upper chamber.

Turek, 47, defeated Hinson in the race for the open seat. His victory breaks the Republican hold on both of Iowa's Senate seats that has stood since Democrat Tom Harkin left office in 2015.

The race was never supposed to be this close. Iowa's steady rightward drift in recent years made the seat look like a safe Republican hold when Ernst announced she would not seek reelection. But the Cook Political Report moved the race toward Democrats during the campaign as frustration mounted over rising costs, Trump's tariffs, and the war with Iran — pressures that hit Iowa farmers, truckers, and consumers with particular force, according to NBC News.

Turek, a Council Bluffs state lawmaker, built his campaign on affordability and appeals to working-class and independent voters. He hammered Hinson repeatedly on her votes backing Trump's trade war and her support for the Iran conflict, which he argued was driving up gas and diesel prices across the state. He also centered government ethics in his pitch, including backing a ban on congressional stock trading, according to Axios.

Hinson, 43, a former local news anchor who has represented Iowa in the House since 2021, entered the race vowing to be Trump's 'top ally' in the Senate, according to CBS News. That framing became a liability. As Trump's approval ratings sagged and the Iran war grew unpopular, she was forced into a difficult balancing act — courting the MAGA base while trying to create distance from the president's most unpopular positions.

In September, after casting seven votes against efforts to end the war, Hinson reversed course and called for the conflict to come to a 'successful and immediate end,' according to NBC News. Turek immediately labeled her a flip-flopper, and the attack stuck.

I work alongside the president. When he's right for Iowa, I'm going to tell him. When he's wrong for Iowa, I'm going to tell him. But that's not a change for me in how I've operated. I've always worked with both sides to get things done for Iowa.— Ashley Hinson, Republican candidate

The race attracted roughly $200 million in combined spending from the two candidates' committees and outside groups — more than the $167 million annual appropriation for Iowa's state agriculture and natural resources programs that Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law this summer, according to NBC News. Polls showed the contest within the margin of error for months, with leads trading hands.

Turek's personal story gave his campaign a distinctive texture. Born with spina bifida, which he attributes to his father's exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, he won gold medals in wheelchair basketball at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics, according to NBC News. He won election to the Iowa state House in 2022, becoming the first permanently disabled member of the Legislature. He will also be the first person with a permanent disability to represent Iowa in federal office.

His path to the nomination was not smooth. He faced a contested primary against state Sen. Zach Wahls in June, with Wahls arguing that Turek had the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — though neither officially endorsed him. Turek won the primary 63% to 37%, according to NBC News. Hinson cleared her own primary more easily, winning 75% after Senate Majority Leader John Thune and NRSC Chairman Tim Scott endorsed her in the fall of 2025.

Turek's win came on a night when Democrat Rob Sand also won Iowa's governor's race, according to CBS News — a double blow to Republicans in a state they had considered firmly in their column. For Democrats, the Iowa result offers what Axios described as a potential roadmap for competing in states that have trended sharply right, by anchoring economic grievances to specific, local consequences of federal policy.

Democrats needed a net gain of at least four Senate seats to wrest control of the chamber from Republicans, according to NBC News. Iowa was the fifth flip, making it the decisive race for the majority.

Why it matters — Iowa's Senate flip gives Democrats majority control of the chamber and demonstrates that economic grievances over tariffs, energy costs, and an unpopular war can make even deeply red states competitive.

Reported by axios.com, cbsnews.com, nbcnews.com, bloomberg.com, usatoday.com, iowacapitaldispatch.com