Paralympian Seeks a Senate Seat in Iowa
Josh Turek is a four-time Paralympian who is vying to become the first Iowa Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in nearly 20 years.
Josh Turek was born with spina bifida, which he links to his father's exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. He underwent dozens of surgeries as a child and entered local politics largely due to frustrations around health care and the poor treatment of people with disabilities.
Turek first made the U.S. Men's Wheelchair Basketball team in 2004, but was cut from the squad six times before finally earning a roster spot again in 2011. He would go on to help Team USA win a pair of Paralympic gold medals (2016 & 2020) and spent nearly two decades playing wheelchair basketball professionally in Europe and Australia.
Running for national office as a Democrat is an uphill battle in Iowa, so Turek has leaned into his athletic identity and basketball bona fides on the campaign trail. Turek for Iowa yard signs feature an illustrated gold medal, and TV ads show brief snippets of highlight-tape from Turek's playing days. Turek even picked up an endorsement from President Obama while shooting hoops against the former commander-in-chief.
Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the Hawkeye state by nearly 200,000 voters, but Turek is used to long odds. He won his first election to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2022 by a mere six votes after literally crawling up staircases and rolling door-to-door to share his vision of "Prairie Populism". Turek now faces Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, a former local television news anchor, in the midterm elections.
The last Democrat to represent Iowa in the U.S. Senate was Tom Harkin. Incidentally, Harkin was also one of the lead architects and sponsors of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 1990, he delivered the first-ever speech in American Sign Language on the Senate floor so that his brother, who is deaf, could follow along. Now, Harkin hopes to pass the torch to Turek.
Read more: After 21 surgeries and two Paralympic golds, Josh Turek is chasing a Senate upset in Iowa (The Athletic)
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