Democrat Josh Turek has won Iowa’s US Senate race, defeating Trump-backed Republican Ashley Hinson and becoming the state’s first Democratic senator in more than a decade.
The result, called by the Associated Press and projected by other media outlets on Tuesday night, was a key pickup in a midterm election in which Democrats captured majorities in both the Senate and the House. Republicans had held the Senate by 53 seats to 47 going into Tuesday’s elections, with Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to take control.
Turek will succeed Joni Ernst, who announced last year that she would not seek re-election. He takes a seat in a state that Donald Trump carried in three successive presidential elections, and in a race that had initially been expected to remain safely Republican before growing increasingly competitive in the final weeks.
According to the Associated Press results, Turek polled 686,487 votes to Hinson’s 630,615, with all precincts reporting — roughly 52 per cent to 48 per cent of the two-candidate vote. The result remains a media projection until Iowa completes its official certification.
Turek, an Iowa state lawmaker who calls himself a “prairie populist”, campaigned on affordability and fighting corruption. He criticised Hinson’s support for Trump’s 2025 tax law, which included cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, and focused on lowering costs for farmers and tackling Iowa’s high cancer rates.
Like other Democrats in competitive Midwestern races, he took moderate stances on transgender rights. Hinson, a former congresswoman backed by Trump and national Republicans, had criticised Turek for missing votes in the Iowa House and characterised him as too liberal for Iowa on issues including immigration.
Born with spina bifida, Turek uses a wheelchair and has won two Paralympic gold medals in wheelchair basketball. Campaign videos featured him travelling up hills and stairs to knock on voters’ doors, an image that became central to a campaign built on persistence and plain-spoken populism.
His victory underscores how far the political map shifted on Tuesday night. In a state long regarded as a Republican stronghold at presidential level, a Democrat running on costs, corruption and healthcare has now won a Senate seat — and helped deliver his party control of the chamber.
Note: the featured image is an official 2023 portrait of Josh Turek, not a photograph from election night.
Sources: Reuters, “Democrat Josh Turek flips Republican-held US Senate seat in Iowa”, 4 November 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/democrat-josh-turek-flips-republican-held-us-senate-seat-iowa-2026-11-04/ ; Associated Press election results, U.S. Senate, Iowa, https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/?ap_doc=ap%2Frg1%2FWyJhcC92Mi8yMDI2MTEwMy9sLzE3MjQ3L0lBL3MiLFsiMTE0OTE3IiwiNjg3NDQiXV0
