Democrat Josh Turek has won Iowa's Senate race, flipping a Republican-held seat in a major blow to President Donald Trump and the GOP's battle to retain control of the chamber.
Turek defeated Republican Ashley Hinson in the race to replace retiring GOP Senator Joni Ernst.
His victory followed a campaign that drew support from prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, who recorded an ad for him.
Trump attempted to save the seat, rallying in the state just two days before the election, oddly commenting on Hinson's recent weight loss.
'I knew Ashley for a long time, and she was a little bit heavier. OK? She was,' Trump told the crowd. 'And she went out - the old-fashioned way too, not with the, you know, give me a shot.'
Tariffs, along with fuel and fertilizer prices driven up by the Iran war, had put in play a seat that was supposed to stay safely Republican.
Turek attacked Hinson for voting five times for tariffs and seven times for the Iran war. At harvest time, he hammered record diesel prices and rising input costs for farmers.
More than $90 million was spent on ads through the end of September, making it the sixth-most expensive Senate race in the country by ad spending.
Iowa Republican Ashley Hinson speaks at President Donald Trump's Sioux City rally last month
Democratic US Senate Candidate Josh Turek speaks to supporters during a campaign stop at the Dubuque Farmers Market in Dubuque, Iowa, on October 17, 2026
Much of the advertising against Hinson focused on how her wealth grew after she went to Washington in 2021.
Democrats said she touted a congressional stock-trading ban while holding up to $5 million in stock in her husband's former insurance agency, which her campaign said he built and sold before she was elected.
Republicans fired back that Turek missed 58 percent of Iowa House votes in 2026. His campaign said he had voted 81 percent of the time since taking office in 2023.
Hinson announced her run on September 2, 2025, just hours after Ernst made her retirement official, and pledged to be Trump's 'strongest ally' in the Senate.
But in a year in which a strong blue wave was consuming the country, Trump's loyal backing turned out to be a detriment.
Source link
