Democrat Josh Turek has won Iowa’s open Senate seat, defeating Republican Ashley Hinson and flipping a seat Republicans had expected to hold. The Associated Press called the race late on election night, and NBC News and Decision Desk HQ followed, making Turek the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Iowa since Tom Harkin in 2008.
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A seat that was supposed to stay Republican
Turek, a 47-year-old state representative from Council Bluffs and a former wheelchair basketball star, won with around 51 percent of the vote to Hinson’s 48 percent in early counts with most counties reporting, according to Iowa Secretary of State figures cited in live reporting. The seat was open because Republican Senator Joni Ernst announced she would not seek a third term, and the race had been rated competitive after starting as a Republican lean.
How Turek won
Turek, who calls himself a prairie populist, campaigned on affordability and fighting corruption, and attacked Hinson for supporting Donald Trump’s 2025 tax law, which included Medicaid and food assistance cuts. Hinson, a former television journalist who had represented northeastern Iowa in the House since 2021, had been seen as a rising star in Republican politics, but struggled against national headwinds facing Republicans in the midterms, even in a state Trump carried in three straight presidential elections, by 13 points in 2024.
Why it decided the Senate
Turek’s win was not just another flip. Reporting after the call said his victory gave Democrats their 51st Senate seat, guaranteeing them a majority in the chamber and, combined with their House win, control of Congress for the next two years. He will serve alongside 93-year-old Chuck Grassley when the new Congress convenes in January, ending more than a decade in which both Iowa Senate seats were held by Republicans.
