State Representative Josh Turek, a self-described “prairie populist” and a two-time Paralympic gold medalist on the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team, is one of two candidates on the ballot in the Democratic Senate primary in Iowa on Tuesday.
Here are five things to know about Mr. Turek, 47, of Council Bluffs in southwestern Iowa, who is running to succeed Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican who is not seeking re-election.
1. He was born with spina bifida. Mr. Turek says the condition, a spinal abnormality, was caused by his father’s exposure to Agent Orange while fighting in the Vietnam War. By age 12, he’d had 21 surgeries, he says, and he has been in a wheelchair since childhood. He became a standout basketball player, first on the Southwest Minnesota State University wheelchair basketball program and then on Team USA, winning gold twice and bronze once. At Southwest Minnesota State University, he scored more than 4,000 points.
2. He is a running as a moderate. Mr. Turek’s campaign casts him as one of the most bipartisan Democrats in the Iowa Legislature. “I know that at our core, we are a common-sense state, and I think that there is a real appetite for a common-sense moderate Democrat,” he told The Quad-City Times as he announced his campaign. But he has also said he finds inspiration in former Senator Tom Harkin, a progressive Democrat from Iowa who championed legislation banning discrimination against people with disabilities. Mr. Harkin has endorsed Mr. Turek’s candidacy.
3. He is viewed as the preferred candidate of Senate Democratic leadership. Mr. Turek has been targeted by his rival, State Senator Zach Wahls, over perceived ties to Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader. Mr. Schumer has not endorsed Mr. Turek, but a political action committee aligned with the senator has donated to Mr. Turek’s campaign. Mr. Wahls said at a debate that Mr. Schumer had been “trying to come into Iowa, trying to buy an election.” In an interview, Mr. Turek said, referring to Mr. Wahls, “When he’s, like, ‘Oh, you’re the Schumer candidate,’ it’s, like, ‘Hell, no. I’m not.’”
4. He is endorsed by VoteVets. Mr. Turek is not a military veteran, which makes him unusual among Democratic candidates supported by VoteVets. But Max Rose, an adviser to the organization, said Mr. Turek’s “connection to his father’s service truly represents part of VoteVets’s mission to be there for service members, veterans and their families.” VoteVets was the first outside group to spend in this race, and says it has spent about $10 million in support of Mr. Turek.
5. He has won a conservative-leaning state legislative district twice. Mr. Turek makes a point of highlighting his success in a working-class legislative district east of Omaha that tilts toward Republicans. “I wasn’t supposed to be able to win a State House seat that Trump won twice,” he says in his campaign ads.
Michael Kruse contributed reporting.
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