DES MOINES— Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson will face off against Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek in the contest for the Senate seat held by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
The congresswoman, endorsed by President Donald Trump, defeated Army veteran and former state legislator Jim Carlin with more than 70 percent of the vote in the primary for the Republican nomination on June 2. The Associated Press called the race at 9:22 p.m. ET.
Turek won the Democratic nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat in a landslide against state Sen. Zach Wahls. The Associated Press called the race at 9:42 p.m. ET.
Ernst decided not to seek reelection for a third term in the Hawkeye State, which Trump won in 2024 with 55.7 percent of the vote. Cook Political Report ranks the seat as “leans Republican.” Democrats are hoping to flip the seat, which has been held by Republicans since 2008.
The Epoch Times visited polling sites in the Republican-leaning Marion County and Democrat-leaning Polk County to get a temperature check of voter turnout ahead of the results.
Election officials in Marion County’s Ward 4, a rural area located southeast of Des Moines, suggested voter turnout was “better than anticipated” compared to previous years.
“There are a lot of options today and many people say the governor’s race motivated them to come in,” an election official from Ward 4 told The Epoch Times.
Trump won 68 percent of the vote in the 2024 presidential election in Marion County.
Election officials in Polk County, which includes Des Moines, said voter turnout was “steady.”
“This is a very heavy Democratic precinct. And the Democrats have a few ballot people on the ballot that they're trying to figure out who's going to run against Republicans, so this precinct does show up for things like that,” long-time Precinct 33 chairman Howard Rescot told The Epoch Times during an interview in the downtown polling station.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris won 54.8 percent of Polk County’s vote in the 2024 election.
Hinson is an Iowa native who worked as a local television journalist for more than a decade until she pivoted into politics in 2016.
The Republican wants to improve childcare access for working families in Iowa, impose federal lobbying bans, and support Trump’s agenda during the second half of his term.
Turek, who is endorsed by former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, ran on a platform to cut taxes for the middle class, ban price gouging on food, raise the minimum wage, and repeal cuts to SNAP.
Turek was born in Iowa with spina bifida after his dad was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.
The Democrat was a two-time Paralympic gold medalist for Team USA and assumed office as a state representative in 2023 after winning a heavily Republican district in Iowa’s House of Representatives.
Wahls, a sixth-generation Iowan endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), currently represents District 43 in the Iowa state Senate and ran on a platform to raise wages, end corruption, protect Social Security, and fix the American healthcare system.
The Democrat spent his final night on the campaign trail attending a laid-back election eve cookout in the backyard of an Iowa City home to meet with supporters and thank his team for their year-long efforts.
Wahs joked that running for the U.S. Senate with a 2-year-old child was “not for the faint of heart” as he praised his wife, mother, and sister for their support during the year-long campaign.
Wahls, who served as the Iowa Senate’s minority leader for more than two years, was already considered a controversial pick for the nomination after acknowledging that his own party successfully ousted him from his high-ranking state Senate position in 2023.
Members of his party wanted him out as the minority leader position after he fired two longtime Senate caucus staffers who did not share his “vision for change.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the Wahls campaign for comment.
Wahls separately criticized Turek over his handling of funds coming into his U.S. Senate campaign, accusing him of accepting “dark money” from a super PAC in the Democratic primary.
He did not name which PAC was being alleged as the source.
The super PAC VoteVets confirmed it spent at least $4.5 million backing Turek’s campaign, including $900,000 spent on television and online ads.
“Josh Turek is a fighter who knows firsthand the costs military families experience when our sons and daughters are sent to war,” VoteVets Senior Adviser Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Paul D. Eaton said in a statement. “It’s families like his that bear the costs of decisions made in Washington. Our nation needs Senators like Josh who will fight for veterans and military families like his.”