Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek has won the Democratic nomination for his state’s open U.S. Senate seat, Jattvibe News projects, advancing from a combative primary to a potentially competitive general election in a state that has favored Republicans in recent elections.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Turek defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls and will face Rep. Ashley Hinson, who won Tuesday’s GOP primary with President Donald Trump’s endorsement, in the general election.“Right now, Washington is broken because it’s full of millionaires looking out for billionaires,” Turek said in a statement issued by his campaign.“This campaign,” he added, “has always been about having a Senator from Iowa fighting for the people of Iowa, not for the billionaires or large corporations.”Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican Senate candidate, in Marion, Iowa, on Tuesday.Stephen Maturen / Getty ImagesThe seat is up for grabs after Republican Sen. Joni Ernst decided not to seek re-election this year. And despite a run of comfortable, double-digit wins for Republicans in Iowa over the last decade-plus, the race has emerged as a sleeper in the battle for partisan control of the Senate. The Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund plans to spend $29 million on the battle.Turek, 47, a former Paralympic gold medalist in basketball, is backed by former Sen. Tom Harkin, whose “prairie populism” was a staple of Iowa politics until his retirement in 2014 led to Ernst’s election.“Iowans feel like they’re pushing uphill, and I know exactly what that feels like, because it’s working-class families like mine paying the price for Trump’s war and Washington’s corruption,” Turek said in a campaign ad that featured him pushing his wheelchair up an incline. “In the Senate, I’ll take on Trump, and no one will push harder for change.”The biggest difference-maker in the primary may have been VoteVets. The outside spending group, which traditionally supports veterans, invested in Turek because of his backstory — he was born with spina bifida attributed to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange while he was serving in Vietnam — and spent $10 million on advertising, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm.“Josh Turek — 21 surgeries by age 12, but he put up 1,000 shots a day to make Team USA,” a narrator says in one of the VoteVets ads, which features video of Turek on the basketball court. “Now Josh is running for Senate to reverse Donald Trump’s healthcare cuts and take on the insurance companies. Iowa families are hurting, but Josh Turek’s got the strength to fight back.”The VoteVets onslaught was substantial, accounting for almost 2 out of 3 ad dollars Democratic groups spent during the primary, according to AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm. Turek’s and Wahls’ campaigns each spent about $1.5 million. Hinson, 42, has represented her eastern Iowa congressional district since 2021. With Trump’s endorsement, she emerged from what, compared to the Democratic primary, was a lower-wattage contest with former state Sen. Jim Carlin. Celebrating her primary win Tuesday, Hinson thanked Trump for his endorsement and spent several minutes praising his agenda, which she has supported in the House.“No one,” Hinson told her supporters, “has fought harder and persevered through more, sacrificed more, just to do the right thing for our country than our president has.”She also characterized Turek as a “liberal” who “has been masquerading as a good old Iowa moderate.” “I know that Iowa needs a fighter,” she said, “and I will tell you this: I will never back down from a fight.”Wahls, 34, first landed on the national radar in 2011, when, as a University of Iowa student, he went viral for his speech defending his moms and marriage equality at the state House of Representatives. In his primary with Turek, Wahls boasted an endorsement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and argued that he was the true progressive in the race. Wahls also railed against the flood of outside money boosting his opponent. Noting how VoteVets has aligned with Senate Democratic leadership in the past, he framed Turek as an extension of a party establishment led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.In remarks at Hinson’s watch party Tuesday night, Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann previewed the general election as “the battle for Iowa values” while picking up Wahls’ baton and tying Turek tightly to Schumer.“You all know exactly who Josh Turek is going to get his orders from,” Kaufmann told the crowd. “It’s going to be Chuck Schumer. It’s going to be the left. It’s going to be California. It’s going to New York. … All you need to know is where he’s getting his marching orders tonight. I will guarantee you, Chuck Schumer was probably the first call that he took.”Despite Wahls’ complaints about what he termed “dark money” groups, hebenefited from outside spending himself, though it was only a tiny fraction of what VoteVets put behind Turek. A group called Iowa Action hit state airwaves last month with a 30-second spot that warned of “D.C. insiders” who were “spending millions to stop” Wahls. VoteVets, for its part, took a victory lap after Turek’s victory.“Josh knows firsthand what it means to fight through adversity. That’s a quality veterans know well — and we are proud to stand behind him,” Paul Eaton, a senior adviser to the group, said in an emailed statement. “If elected, he will fight for working families, veterans, and military family members like his own. With our country at war and prices soaring, our nation needs Josh in the Senate more than ever.”