Out of all fifty states, Iowa is dead last for economic growth. The state is also struggling with most healthcare metrics, leading in both farm foreclosures and cancer rate increases, and experiencing significant job loss. To put it bluntly Iowans are suffering under tariffs, inflation, and poor healthcare systems.
Josh Turek, Iowa State Representative (D), is ready to turn this sinking ship around. In his conversation with Jen, Turek addresses the dire motivation behind his campaign for Iowa’s open Senate seat. The two also discuss Iowans’ disapproval of the Iran war, the state’s economic crisis, and rural community reinvestment.
Joshua Turek is a member of the Iowa House of Representatives and a candidate in the 2026 United States Senate election. Turek is a two-time Paralympic gold medalist for Team USA’s wheelchair basketball team. He was also the volunteer director for the Ryan Martin Foundation, an organization providing disabled children opportunities to play sports for free.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of the Contrarian. We’re delighted to have back with us Josh Tarek, who is one of the candidates for Senate in Iowa, looking to replace Joni Ernst, who is not running for re-election. Welcome, Josh, good to see you again.
Josh Turek
Yeah, it’s great to be back. Thanks for having me.
Jen Rubin
So, Julie Ernst, voted against the War Powers Resolution. Republicans in the Senate don’t even think there’s need for any hearing on the Iran war. What would you be doing if you were in the U.S. Senate right now regarding the war?
Josh Turek
Yeah, I think that it’s, It’s important that we have the approval of Congress. on these, conflicts. You know, it’s, I was paying a high price for this right now. We’ve already lost two Iowans in this conflict with Iran, and you know, I come from a… from a family, a long lineage, multi-generations of families that have served in conflicts. Both of my grandfathers We’re World War II Navy men. My father spent 22 months in Vietnam and was exposed to Agent Orange and is dealing with lots and lots of health complications due to that. My spina bifida that I was born with was due to his exposure to Agent Orange. And these conflicts not only have, you know, the billion-dollar cost per day of what we were seeing, they have long-term ramifications, generational ramifications. And, you know, what we’re seeing right now, costing a billion dollars a day, I don’t see how that is America first. What I’m hearing all over when I’m going over to Iowans and not hearing any Iowans tell me that they’re wanting to see us go into another forever war, another conflict, what I’m hearing is people saying. That they’re struggling to be able to pay their bills, and they’re struggling to keep a roof above their head. And that they want, they want a government that is working for them, and not just working for billionaires and large corporations.
Jen Rubin
The cost of the water, as you point out, is going to be very high, and we’re already seeing a hike in gas prices, oil prices. How does that reverberate in the Iowa economy, both for businesses as well as farmers, consumers? What is your concern about what that’s going to do with already high prices?
Josh Turek
It’s gonna… it’s gonna hurt people in a very real way. as I’m traveling the state, the thing that I’m hearing the most by none, it does not matter if I’m in an urban area or a rural area, I am hearing people say that they are just struggling to make ends meet, and now we are going to see gas prices continue to go up, you know, 50, 40%, and it’s just going to make cost of living that much more difficult. I just did an economic roundtable the other day, and I was with a 21-year-old kid, and he was saying that he’s seeing 50% of his income already just go to cover his housing. And now with the loss of the ACA subsidies, he’s looking at a 4-5 fold increase in just being able to cover his medication. So what little additional income that he had going in there. disposable income is just going to cover his medication. I mean, you’re looking at the erosion of the American dream, and more and more people are struggling, and this is just going to add to that. I mean, in Iowa, we are struggling in a very real way. We are a state that is dead last for economic growth, one of two states already in economic decline. We are dead last for nearly every healthcare metric. We’ve closed facilities all over the state, nursing homes, rural hospitals, skilled nursing facilities. We’re the only state with a growing cancer rate, second highest rates behind only Kentucky, and now we lead the nation in farm foreclosures because of what we’re seeing with the Trump tariffs. You know, Trump administration gives $20 billion to Argentina, so that China can buy their soybeans. Meanwhile, our Iowa farmers the heck with you. And, and people are struggling. Urban areas, rural communities, Iowa’s hurting in a very real way.
Jen Rubin
These concerns do not seem to be very partisan. You would think that Republicans, Independents, Democrats would all be concerned. What’s the reaction you’re getting from people who are perhaps not hardcore Democrats? Are they amenable at this point to voting for a Democrat, or at least voting for someone like you?
Josh Turek
Every single place that we are doing, we’re getting big turnouts, and we’re not just getting turnouts of Democrats, we’re getting turnouts of Independents and of Republicans. I was just up in Orange City last week. Scott County, a very red county in Iowa, and we had multiple card-carrying Republicans that came up and said, enough’s enough, we’ve got to have change at the state level and at the federal level, and I’m going to be voting for you. And this is part of our calculus. You know, I am the Democrat that represents the reddest district in the Iowa legislature. So the two communities that I represent, Carter Lake, Trump won by 18 points, and my hometown and community of Council Bluffs, Trump won by 10 points. So, I have proven results of being able to, to resonate well with independents and moderate Republicans, and that’s what it’s going to take to be able to win here in Iowa, and I can tell you this, that it doesn’t matter where people are sitting on the political spectrum, Iowans are ready for change in a very, very real way. We just got our first independent poll that came back two weeks ago, shows myself and Ashley Henson tied. This state is in play in a very real way.
Jen Rubin
And that’s a theme that we’ve seen all over. We saw, in Texas, quite a primary, over the week, a few days ago with James Tallarico. One of the things he talks about, and I’m wondering if that message resonates, is that there’s tremendous discomfort, to put it very mildly, with a very few people at the top getting very, very rich, as the rest of us are struggling to get by. we’re not… jealous people or greedy people, people like the opportunity to get rich, but it seems like there’s a sentiment out there that the top 1% or the 1% of the 1% has made out like bandits. What are voters telling you about that, and about their concern that This is working just for the very, very rich.
Josh Turek
Yeah, without a doubt, and certainly what Telerico was out there talking about, trying to bring more people into our party, trying to resonate with moderate Republicans and independents. Without a doubt, what you were talking about with this economic divide, this is what we’re hearing everywhere we’re going, and this is what I’m out there talking about, is that there is really two Americas now. It’s the haves and the have-nots, and we are certainly living through a second Gilded Age, and currently what we have right now in our representatives here in Iowa, and people like Ashley Henson, are just looking out for that 1%, for the billionaires, for the large multinational corporations, for the special interest groups, and doing absolutely nothing to look out for the shrinking middle class and for the average worker, certainly for the most vulnerable, for children, for the homeless, for, you know. looking out for people’s healthcare, for the elderly. There’s no one out there that are looking out for that. It’s… sadly, what I’ve had to learn in the Iowa legislature is you only have to ask yourself one question, whether legislation moves or does not move. And that is, where’s the lobby? And there’s not a lot of lobbyists out there for these people that are really struggling. And we need more individuals that are going to go up there and actually fight for this, to address this two Americas that we’re seeing. The haves and the have-nots, and going after the 1%, and actually focusing on taking care of the 99.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. Whether… you win, your opponent wins, Republican wins, Donald Trump is still going to be president. What’s the way to contain him, do you think? Or at least stop him to getting… stop him from doing the worst of the worst? How do you see the relationship? Let’s say Democrats get the Senate. What do you do to slow down this train wreck?
Josh Turek
Well, the very best way that we can do this is by finally winning elections. And, you know, if we’re able to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity that we’ve got here in Iowa, where we’ve got an open Senate seat with an open governor’s race for the first time since 1968, and two open congressional races, Iowa can be the center of the political universe, and we can be a part of providing those checks and balances in place. During Trump’s first midterm here in Iowa, we were able to win 3 out of the 4 congressional races. almost won all four, and I can tell you this, that there is significantly more energy and desire for change now than even then. And so, the best way that we provide checks and balances is by winning right here in Iowa. If we’re able to flip 3 of the 4 congressional seats, which I know we can, we take back Congress. And the amazing opportunity that we’ve got here is, I believe that Iowa, we can be the 51st state in the U.S. Senate. We gotta pick up North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, seat number 51, it’s right here in Iowa. And what’s amazing is that now we’ve got independent polling showing myself and Ashley Henson tied, and now we’ve got the data to show us what we have been experiencing for the last 6 months, boots on the ground. is that Iowans are ready for change.
Jen Rubin
It’s remarkable, how the political landscape has changed in a year with Donald Trump in office. Last question I want to ask you about, Iowa has… is an older state in terms of population, because young people do not see a future there, so they tend to leave, quite frankly, look for other opportunities. What’s your vision of how to keep, young people in Iowa, how to create opportunity within Iowa?
Josh Turek
Yeah, the very first thing is we’re a rural state, and so we need to invest in our rural communities. Right now, what we’ve got are rural communities that are seeing their pharmacies disappear, they’re seeing their grocery stores disappear, and they’re seeing their schools go, and that’s largely due to lack of funding. I mean, both at the state level and the federal level, they’re seeing their healthcare clinics close. all over these rural communities, they don’t see any opportunity. Additionally. everything that we’ve done at the state and the federal level, we’ve made this state less welcoming. That’s less welcoming to every single minority group, we’ve made it less welcoming to immigrants, and that has certainly led to more and more people leaving. You can imagine if you’re a young woman, and you’re looking at having a six-week abortion ban, and not even having rights, why would you want to live in a state like Iowa? We’re a state that is driven by the agriculture industry, and the ag industry, and the beef packing plants, and the direct care worker crisis that we’re seeing. These are industries that rely on healthy immigration, and we’ve made this state less and less welcoming to individuals, and so we need to invest. We need to reinvest in our public education. Iowa, we were nearly number one in public education, one of the very best. I mean, on our state quarter, it was a foundation in education, now we give private schools 44% increase. Meanwhile, our public schools, we have defunded year after year after year, so we have precipitously dropped from the top down to the bottom half. If you want people to move here, you have to invest in the community. You have to make sure that Iowa is a place that’s livable. Right now, with a state like Iowa being dead last for economic growth and leading the nation in cancer rates and not, you know, having a water quality crisis. And in having state and federal policy that’s making the state less welcoming.
Jen Rubin
You can imagine why young people are leaving. I can imagine. Well, best of luck to you, Josh. If people want to find out more about you, your campaign, what do they do? Where do they go?
Josh Turek
One last thing I want to say, is that…
Jen Rubin
Absolutely.
Josh Turek
A lot of folks out there are gonna look at a state like Iowa, especially on the coast, you’re gonna say, this is a red state. This is absolutely not a red state. This is a common sense state that has masqueraded more red than what we are. In Trump’s last midterm, we won 3 of the 4 congressional seats, almost won all four, and in the last midterm that we had out here in Iowa, 2022, we were only 1% away from having 3 of our 6 statewide officials being Democrats. That means your average Iowa voter went and voted for three Dems and three R’s. This is a winnable state. There is something magical that is happening out here in Iowa. We have won a special election. It was a Trump plus 25 district that we won. Caitlin Dre just won a Trump plus 11 district. We won that by 10 points. We can win this race, we’ve got no power of incumbency, and Iowa has basically bottomed out, and we’ve got a candidate like me with proven results of being able to win in very, very red environments. I know that my story, my background, my resume, and my politics resonates with independents and moderate Republicans, and we can flip this seat, and we can change this state, and we can change this country. Please go to Turek, the number 4 Iowa, turretforiowa.com, to help us push for change here in Iowa.
Jen Rubin
I can certainly echo the sentiment that Iowa is in play. Frankly, just about every Senate seat should be in play this time around. If you’re looking at a shift in the electorate of over 10%, that’s a lot of Senate seats. So, best of luck, Josh. Thanks so much. We’ll keep checking back with you.
Josh Turek
No better place to invest than in Iowa. It’s the only state where you can see flipping 3 of the four congressional seats, flipping a governor’s race, and flipping a U.S. Senate seat. We can do it. There you go. We can do it.
Jen Rubin
Thanks so much, have a great day.
Josh Turek
Thank you.
