Iowa Democrat Josh Turek wants to live up to the legacy of Tom Harkin

Josh Turek knows the kind of impact a good senator from Iowa can have on Americans. Had it not been for the work of former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin to create the Americans with Disabilities Act, Turek might not be where he is today: a state lawmaker, a Paralympian, a Democratic candidate running for Harkin’s old seat.

“The ADA and Senator Harkin’s work literally provided me an onramp onto society to be successful,” Turek said. “We here in Iowa deserve to once again have a senator that is going to fight for the people, fight for the working class, that is going to fight for our farmers, that is going to fight for small business.”

For Turek, it is important for Iowa to have a representative in the U.S. Senate who will also fight for social safety nets like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. It is these social safety nets, Turek added, that have allowed him to be successful after being diagnosed with spina bifida at birth.

As the first permanently disabled member of the Iowa Legislature, Turek carries that title like a badge of honor. It is also a main reason why he decided to run for office in the first place back in 2022. Turek told Jasper County Democrats last week that he is giving a voice to the one in five Iowans with a disability.

“We have representatives like Ashley Hinson up there who does not care about the plights of the most vulnerable, does not care about people’s healthcare,” Turek said of the Iowa congresswoman, who also announced her run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Joni Ernst.

Turek condemned the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the significant cuts it makes to programs like Medicaid and SNAP benefits, which he said strips 110,000 Iowans from basic healthcare and thousands of poor children from basic food assistance “just to give tax breaks to billionaires.”

If elected to the U.S. Senate, Turek pledges to raise the minimum wage and eliminate subminimum wages allowed by 14(c) certificates, fight for affordable and accessible healthcare and women’s reproductive freedoms, advocate for affordable pharmaceuticals and have a 100 percent labor voting record.

Turek also wants to address the rising cancer rates in Iowa. The very same day he announced his run for U.S. Senate he learned his sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, but because it was only Stage 2 insurance companies told her they would not pay for a PET scan to see if the cancer had spread.

“Healthcare is a human right,” Turek said, noting his sister would have to pay $30,000 out of pocket for the scan. “…You should not have to win the lottery, you should not have to divorce your spouse and declare bankruptcy just to have access to basic healthcare in the richest country on earth.”

Turek also pledged to give Iowans access to clean water. While some may argue that to be a state issue, Turek believes it is a federal issue that needs to be addressed at the Environmental Protection Agency level. He also advocated for public education, infrastructure and farmers.

“We are moving into an absolute ‘farmageddon’ is what I’m calling it. It’s a return to the 1980s farm crisis,” Turek said. “We’ve got foreclosures that are going up. We’ve got suicides that are going up. The commodities prices are upside down. This is due specifically to the tariffs.”

Turek wants his campaign to be about hope and inspiration and positivity, because people “have not felt it in so long.” He rejected the idea that Iowa is a red state. It is a common sense state, he said, and it is seeing higher Democratic turnouts than it has in the past few years.

“I’m a common sense prairie populist,” Turek said. “The district I represent right now is actually more red than the rest of the state as a whole is. We can win.”