Democrats flip Senate as Josh Turek dunks Ashley Hinson in Iowa race

WASHINGTON — Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek, a former wheelchair basketball star, defeated Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson Tuesday in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, ensuring Democrats would take control of the upper chamber of Congress for at least the next two years.

Turek, 47, the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the Hawkeye State since Tom Harkin in 2008, ran a surprisingly strong campaign as a centrist “common-sense populist” focused on lowering costs while agreeing with President Trump on some issues, such as limiting Medicaid coverage and sports eligibility for transgender people.

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Hinson, 43, had represented northeastern Iowa in the House since 2021 and struggled against national headwinds confronting Republicans, including a spike in gas prices and inflation caused by the war with Iran.

She ran as a “minivan-driving mom” on a mission to make life better for families, but voters were turned off by the rising cost of living under President Trump and his tariff policy that had hit Iowa farmers hard.

Trump tried to alleviate the pressure by annoucing in October an $8 billion harvest relief fund for farmers eligible for a one-time payout.

The race for the open Senate seat was surprisingly competitive in a state Trump won three times, carrying Iowa by 13 percentage points over Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024.

Turek was born with spina bifida and played wheelchair basketball professionally in Europe after graduating from Southwest Minnesota State University in 2002, ultimately winning gold medals with the US team at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, respectively.

He won a seat in Iowa’s state legislature by just six votes out of 6,800 cast in 2022 and was re-elected by a relatively comfortable five-percentage-point margin in 2024.

Hinson, a mother of two, is a former morning TV news anchor and former two-term Iowa state representative.

She arrived in Washington after winning a competitive district in 2020 by putting more than 60,000 miles on her minivan, talking with constituents in diners and living rooms about affordability problems and pledging to be a taxpayer advocate.

“Common sense versus crazy is on the ballot,” Hinson said in her final push to voters Sunday, arguing Turek was too liberal for Iowa.

Trump waded into the race in the final months as polling showed a close contest — ripping Turek as “lazy” for reportedly missing nearly 60% of votes in the state legislature.

The president visited Iowa on Oct. 22 to turn out his base, branding Turek a “woke, far-left radical” and praising Hinson as “a mother, a warrior [and] a patriot.”

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Trump also spent Sunday in the Hawkeye State in one final push for the GOP ticket, where he credited Hinson for losing weight, while acknowledging he’s put on a “couple of pounds.”

“I knew Ashley for a long time, and she was a little bit heavier,” Trump said, praising Hinson for getting herself in “perfect shape” through “the old-fashioned way” and calling it a sign of her commitment.

Ernst, 56 and a former Army officer, will retire from the Senate in January after two terms.

Turek will serve alongside 93-year-old Chuck Grassley when the 120th Congress convenes in January.