An unusual flood of outside money to boost a Senate candidate in Iowa has created a messy Democratic primary, exposing fissures in the party.
VoteVets, a political organization dedicated to electing Democratic veterans and their relatives, has spent more than $8 million on ads supporting state Rep. Joshua Turek, who isn’t a veteran, to advance to a general election that the party believes could be winnable this year.
Turek’s leading primary opponent, state Sen. Zach Wahls, has accused Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and establishment Democrats of attempting “to buy” and quietly influence the June 2 primary through VoteVets. He has not offered evidence to support that claim, and VoteVets and a Schumer spokesperson denied any coordination.
Wahls has been an outspoken critic of Schumer, announcing early in his campaign that he would not support him for leader, while Turek has said he wouldn’t decide until he’s elected.
VoteVets began their campaign in March and has since spent or reserved $8.2 million on ads in the state, according to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising, dwarfing the $943,000 Turek’s campaign has spent. The amount also overshadows any other Democratic spending in the Senate primary. Wahls’s campaign has spent only $729,000 on ads, and no outside groups have aired commercials on his behalf.
It is also a significant commitment for the group, which pledged to run additional ads through at least next week. VoteVets, according to its most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission, had $12.3 million in the bank at the end of March.
Many national Democrats see Turek, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist in wheelchair basketball who represents a district that President Donald Trump won in 2024, as more electable than Wahls, who is seen as more liberal and represents a district in deep-blue Johnson County. U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson is the likely Republican nominee.
While the state has backed Trump for three straight elections, Democrats are hopeful that a worsening farm economy, the president’s sagging approval ratings and rising prices could put the race within reach.
Turek was largely unknown before the spending, while Wahls had a higher statewide profile after going viral in 2011 for defending his two mothers and arguing for marriage equality before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee. Representatives from both campaigns acknowledge that the ads have helped Turek pull ahead.
“This is an unprecedented amount of outside spending in a Democratic primary,” Wahls said. “And it certainly seems to us like Senator Schumer’s trying to make a point, and that is this is not about winning in November at all, this is about asserting his control over the Democratic Party.”
Allison Biasotti, a Schumer spokesperson, denied Wahls’s accusations that Schumer is not focused on winning.
“For Schumer,” Biasotti said, “it’s all about winning in November and defeating Trump.”
Around the time the ads began airing, private and public polling showed Wahls with a double-digit lead over Turek. VoteVets put out a memo two weeks ago, after millions in spending, that showed Turek now holds a double-digit advantage over Wahls.
Turek’s campaign has rebutted the accusations that he is being powered by outside spending, arguing that his momentum stems from Iowans knowing the candidate “is the right candidate to take on Ashley Hinson.”
“The momentum behind Josh Turek is surging because Iowans know that Josh is the fighter they need in the U.S. Senate,” said Hannah Goss, a Turek campaign spokesperson.
Schumer has taken a particular interest in recruiting Senate candidates in competitive primaries this cycle. In Maine, the New York Democrat suffered an embarrassing loss when Maine Gov. Janet Mills, the candidate he recruited to run, ended her primary campaign against populist Graham Platner, who had mounted a notably anti-Schumer challenge. In Michigan, Schumer recruited Rep. Haley Stevens to run for the open seat, allowing her two more liberal opponents to lambast the congresswoman as the establishment pick.
Schumer has not backed Turek, but there is widespread belief in Iowa that the top Senate Democrat prefers him in the primary.
“Leader Schumer’s focused on one thing: taking back the Senate to stop Trump’s reign of devastation, chaos, and high costs for Americans,” Biasotti said.
Campaign finance laws bar Schumer from directly coordinating with super PACs. A spokesperson for VoteVets said the organization has not had conversations with Schumer about the spending and is unaware if the Democratic leader has directed any donors to the group. A spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC, a Schumer-aligned group tasked with taking back the Senate, said they had “not transferred funds to VoteVets this cycle.”
While Turek is not a veteran, VoteVets has highlighted that Turek attributes his spina bifida from birth to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.
“We are proud to support Josh Turek because he knows firsthand the generational costs of war,” said retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, a VoteVets senior adviser. “With our country at war and prices soaring, our nation needs Josh in the Senate now more than ever.”
A spokesperson for the group acknowledged that the spending in the race was “one of, if not the biggest primary election spends VoteVets has done over its 20-year history.”
That has led to fervent criticism from Wahls’s supporters in Iowa and nationwide.
“If Turek can’t win this primary without huge amounts of outside money, is he actually going to have the enthusiasm needed to win in November?” asked Amanda Litman, the co-founder of Run for Something, a national group that aims to encourage first-time candidates. Wahls was a member of the group when he first ran for state Senate in 2018.
The VoteVets ads feature veteran endorsements. While one ad pledges Turek will “fight back” against corruption and high gas prices under Trump, multiple ads include veterans touting Turek’s résumé. In one, a veteran says Turek has “been fighting his whole life” over shots of Turek in a wheelchair, a callback to Turek‘s campaign launch video, which highlighted his health struggle and how he won his Iowa House seat by going door-to-door in his wheelchair.
Charlotte Clymer, a Democratic operative and Army veteran, argues the support from VoteVets could lead voters to believe Turek is a veteran.
“It feels dishonorable,” said Clymer, who supports Wahls but is not paid by the campaign. “If Mr. Turek were a veteran, I would not have an issue with any of this.”
That view has received strong pushback in Iowa. Former senator Tom Harkin, who endorsed Turek this month, told the Iowa Mercury that Turek “is as much a victim of the Vietnam War as veterans who were out in the field fighting.”
The sheer amount of spending, especially in a state where political advertising is famously inexpensive, has stunned even longtime Iowa politicos.
State Rep. J.D. Scholten, who ended his Senate campaign and endorsed Turek, has been surprised by the inundation by VoteVets.
“I don’t own a TV, and I have seen the ad on television like six times,” Scholten said of the first week of the campaign, recalling how he saw it three times while watching sports at a bar. “It’s the way things are right now. Things need to be fixed in the long term, but as of right now, you have to play with the hand you are dealt.”
And Republicans have seized on the spending, like Wahls, to point the finger at Schumer. “Chuck Schumer is pouring cash into Josh Turek’s campaign in a desperate attempt to rescue his handpicked candidate in the polls,” said Bernadette Breslin, spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.
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