Accessible healthcare focus of Turek campaign

Two months into his campaign for Joni Ernst’s open U.S. Senate seat, Josh Turek made a stop in Creston to tell his story.

Turek, who represents Iowa’s 20th District in the Iowa House of Representatives, focused much of his talk on accessible healthcare. Turek is very familiar with the ups and downs of the U.S. healthcare system due to his spina bifida, which has resulted in life-long wheelchair use.

“My spina bifida was due to my father’s exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. I had my first surgery at one day old. I had 21 surgeries before I was even 12,” Turek said. “In a very deeply, personal way, I have an understanding and empathy for the importance of healthcare and how many people are struggling right here in Iowa and around our country with the lack of affordable and accessible healthcare, one of the things I’ve absolutely spent my life fighting for.”

As the first permanently-disabled member of the Iowa legislature, he said his goal is to bring a voice to others with disabilities.

“One in 5 Iowans are born blind, deaf, intellectually disabled or physically disabled,” Turek said. “At the very least, we deserve a seat at the table, representation, to address all these unnecessary barriers to healthcare and to employment.”

Before becoming a politician, Turek was a professional wheelchair basketball player, earning two gold medals over four Paralympic appearances. He is also a small business owner and has been the director of a non-profit group that provides free summer camps to disabled children. Most recently, Turek has been working in the healthcare space as an assistive technology professional.

“What I found was, since Iowa had privatized its Medicaid system and moved to a managed-care model, they privatized profits over patients’ outcomes,” Turek said. “We were seeing a 1,000% increase in denial rate. I thought this was fundamentally wrong, this was immoral.”

Along with improving healthcare access, Turek hopes to increase the minimum wage and get rid of section 14(c) in the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“Here in Iowa we have far too many workers that are making the minimum wage. We have not raised it since 2008. $7.25 is not a livable wage,” Turek said. “Officially, here in Iowa, we have something that’s more egregious than the minimum wage called 14(c) certificates, which allows a for-profit corporation to pay someone a sub-minimum wage just due to a physical or mental disability. As United States Senator, I will fight to abolish this.”

Other topics Turek covered include an equitable funding model for American schools, bringing tariffs into the hands of the legislature, lowering pharmaceutical costs and campaign finance ethics, the last of which he is incorporating into his own campaign.

“Citizens United was absolutely, without a doubt, one of the the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court,” Turek said. “I’m putting my money where my mouth is on this. I am not taking any corporate PAC money, I’m doing this exclusively off of individual donors because I believe that, as United States Senator, I should be up there representing people, the people of Iowa, not special interest groups, not large corporations, and not lobbyists. I think that we need transparency in our system.”

While campaign events often focus on the negatives, Turek said he likes to end his with two positive ideas. The first focuses on now-retired Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat who served alongside Senator Chuck Grassley for 30 years.

“Had it not been for the work that he did on the Americans with Disabilities Act, I’m not here. The American Disabilities Act provided me an on-ramp to society, to be successful, to be able to have the economic opportunities and educational opportunities and the occupational opportunities to be successful in my life,” Turek said.

If elected, Turek will be taking the seat that once belonged to Harkin, whom Turek described as his hero.

Additionally, Turek reminded attendees how important each vote is. Turek won his Iowa House seat by only six votes in 2022.

“Never doubt that your vote matters,” Turek said. “I want to leave everyone with a six-vote initiative. If on election day, 2026, you talk to six of your family members, just six of your friends, register six people to vote, talk to six people on Facebook... If we all just engage with six people, this will be enough for us to be able to win this election.”

Turek is one of three declared Democratic candidates running for U.S. Senate, dropping from four last week when Jackie Norris ended her bid. The primary election for Iowa’s U.S. Senator is June 2, 2026, with the general election to follow Nov. 3. There are four Republican candidates in the race for now, with Ashley Hinson tapped as the favorite.