T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM U.S. Senate candidate and current State Rep. Josh Turek, a Democrat from Council Bluffs, highlights the benefits of voting for him rather than his prospective general election opponent, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, during Thursday’s Marshall County Democrats Spring Picnic at Riverview Park.

State Rep. Josh Turek (D-Council Bluffs) was one of the Democratic candidates stumping at Riverview Park on Thursday for the Marshall County Democrats Spring Picnic.

Being born with spina bifida, which was caused by his father’s exposure to Agent Orange during his military service in the Vietnam War, and having to deal with a plethora of healthcare bills, gives him a greater sense of empathy for people with health conditions.

“In a deeply personal way, I understand the importance of affordable and accessible healthcare,” Turek said. “I’m someone who believes healthcare is a human right.”

Growing up without money, he also has empathy for the financial struggles people are experiencing.

“We need more people like myself who have gone through the lived experience – both on the economic and the healthcare side,” Turek said. “When you have gone through it personally, you have a different level of empathy, a different level of fight, and that’s what we need in D.C. – fighters for the people, for Iowans and the middle class. That’s why I’m running to be your next United States senator.”

If elected, he intends to focus on making healthcare affordable for people, including prescriptions.

“In the richest country on earth, people should not be making the impossible choice ‘This month, do I take my pills or pay my bills?'” Turek said. “From negotiated drug costs with Medicare and Medicaid to caps on things like insulin, I will be fighting to make sure every single Iowan, every single American, has access to affordable and quality pharmaceuticals.”

He got into politics while working as a volunteer director for the Ryan Martin Foundation, a nonprofit that provides disabled children the opportunity to play sports. After Iowa privatized the Medicaid system, Turek found a 1,000 percent increase in the denial rate.

“I thought that was fundamentally wrong and morally unjust,” he said. “So, I decided to do something about it. I decided to run [for a legislative seat].”

Turek’s campaign strategy was to “outwork” his opponent, which resulted in a victory by only six votes.

“What that taught me is right candidate, right message and I believe that message is common sense prairie populism like Sen. [Tom] Harkin (D-Iowa) used to talk about,” he said. “With the right work ethic we can win, and I believe this is the year the pendulum swings back.”

Harkin is a large reason why Turek is running. He said Harkin’s work on the Americans with Disabilities Act made it possible for him and others to have an onramp to success in the country.

“We deserve to have a senator like Sen. Harkin who is out there fighting for the people, fighting for Iowans, fighting for social and economic justice, fighting for the social safety nets like Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security which are being eroded . . . Not just looking out for the billionaires and the large corporations,” Turek said.

When the Big Beautiful Bill was being discussed in the United States Congress, he went to Washington, D.C. to talk to all of Iowa’s delegates to tell them 110,000 Iowans would lose healthcare and 140 organizations would lose funding if it passed. U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) was the only one who did not meet with him.

“Ashley Hinson is Joni Ernst 2.0, arguably worse,” he said. “She is someone who voted for the Big, Beautiful Bill . . . just to give tax breaks to billionaires. . . . She’s also someone who has voted four times in favor of the Trump tariffs, which has led us to lead the nation in farm foreclosures. It’s absolute ‘farmageddon’ for our farmers. She’s not looking out for Iowans or the middle class.”

If elected, the first Senate bill Turek will sponsor is a dignity in work bill which will raise the minimum wage, get rid of 14C certificates that allow employers to pay disabled workers below-minimum wages and bring back collective bargaining rights to workers.

Affordable housing is another subject he is passionate about, which is the key to the American dream and the only way to pass wealth from one generation to the next. In the Iowa legislature, he ran a bill which put a five-year moratorium on private equity firms buying single family homes, and Turek plans to do the same in Congress.

“Homeownership should be possible for everyone in this country,” he said.

Turek will also fight for a fully funded United States Department of Education because, as he put it, access to education is the single greatest indicator of future success. Additionally, he spoke about the rising cancer crisis in the state and said the only way to address it is to address the root cause which is water quality.

“Every single Iowan, I don’t care where you sit on the political spectrum, deserves access to clean water,” Turek said. “There’s a lot we can do on this. We can make sure we have incentives in place for farmers for land barriers, cover crops. We can make sure we restore the funding for water quality sensors. We go after the polluters and make sure they pay their fair share.”

He will face State Sen. Zach Wahls (D-Coralville) in the primary election in June for U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)’s seat as Ernst is not seeking reelection. The winner will go up against either Hinson or fellow Republican candidate Jim Carlin in the general election.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.