Described by media sources as a center-left, Turek has described himself as a prairie populist. He was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2022 and reelected in 2024.
Early life and education
Turek was born on April 12, 1979, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. His father, John Turek, served in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War and was a vocational school administrator. His mother, Luellen, was a social worker and community college instructor. The family's first child, a girl, drowned in a pool as a toddler. The couple's third child, Joshua, grew up with three sisters and a brother.
Born with spina bifida, Turek underwent multiple surgeries as a child to improve mobility and has used a wheelchair since childhood. He has linked his spinal condition to his father's exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. In seventh grade, he began playing wheelchair basketball.
After graduating, Turek began playing professionally in Europe. He played for clubs in Italy, France, and Spain for nearly two decades, including Bidaideak Bilbao BS in the Spanish Wheelchair Basketball League.
After his basketball career, Turek worked for NuMotion, a provider of mobility equipment, where he helped fit patients for wheelchairs and dealt with insurance coverage for the equipment. He became concerned about insurance denials and delays affecting people with disabilities, and after learning Iowa had never had a permanently physically disabled legislator, decided to run for the Iowa House.
Iowa House of Representatives
Elections
In March 2022, Turek announced he was running for Iowa's 20th House of Representatives district. After a recount requested by his Republican opponent, Sarah Abdouch, it was confirmed Turek won the election by six votes out of 6,800 cast. He was reelected in 2024, defeating Republican nominee James Wassell, with 52.5% of the vote to Wassell's 47.5%. The district had voted Republican in every presidential election since 1968.
Tenure
Turek took office on January 9, 2023. He is the Iowa legislature's first permanently disabled member. He said he planned to focus on disability-related issues. He led a push for the "Work without Worry" program, bipartisan legislation that removed Medicaid income limits for employed Iowans with disabilities.
In 2024, Turek introduced legislation to remove prescription and in-person doctor-visit requirements for Medicaid reimbursement of wheelchair repairs, arguing that the requirements unnecessarily delayed repairs for people with disabilities. The legislation stalled in the state senate, but the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services removed the requirements administratively that year.
Turek co-sponsored a right-to-repair bill that passed the Iowa House in 2026 but did not advance to the state senate.
Committee assignments
In the Iowa House, Turek serves on the Health and Human Services Committee and the Health Policy Oversight Committee. He previously served on the Environmental Protection and Natural Resources committees. He was ranking member of the Veterans Affair Committee and Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.
On August 12, 2025, Turek announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. He opposed State Senator Zach Wahls in the Democratic primary; as between Wahls and Turek, "Turek casts a more moderate image that his supporters believe will appeal to independents and disaffected Republicans.” Turek defeated Wahls, and went on to face Republican nominee U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson in the general election.
Turek is closely allied with former U.S. President Barrack Obama, about whom Turek says, "Obama is one of my political heroes....He won Iowa twice and he’s still beloved here. When he ran, he was leaning into hope and positivity and inspiration, which is what I’m trying to do." According to Obama’s spokesman, Eric Schultz, "Obama has an attachment to the state of Iowa, and he found Josh a particularly inspiring leader who seems to be answering the call of service of this moment”. Journalist Peter Hamby of Puck writes that Turek and Iowa's Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand, "lay heartland aesthetics over their left-leaning politics...."
Political positions
Turek has been described as a moderate and has called himself a "common-sense" moderate and a "prairie populist".
Turek supports federal right-to-repair legislation requiring manufacturers of agricultural equipment to make parts, tools, and diagnostic software available to farmers and independent repair shops. He has called for ending the Trump administration's tariffs, which he said have increased farmers' input costs and reduced export markets for agricultural products. He also supports year-round E15 blended gasoline and mandatory country-of-origin labeling for agricultural products.
On August 18, 2025, during the Gaza war hostage crisis, Turek said there should be limits to U.S. aid to Israel: "The response at this point has been disproportionate, and I don't think that taxpayer dollars or United States support should be going toward the hurting or killing of children or civilians or certainly not impeding aid going into these areas."
Turek has criticized the 2026 Iran war, in July 2026 calling it an "unnecessary war".
Personal life
Turek is married to Jarolin Turek, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. They live in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He met his wife in Spain while playing professional basketball, and they married in 2018. His brother, John, and sister Elisha were also professional basketball players in Europe.
1234Iowa Legislative Services Agency. "State Representative". www.legis.iowa.gov. Archived from the original on October 9, 2025. Retrieved May 27, 2026.
↑Collins, Terry (September 30, 2026). "Democrats are running against data centers in key Senate races". USA Today. Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek, a Paralympic gold medalist basketball player running for Senate, and Iowa state auditor Rob Sand, the Democratic nominee for governor, both frame their opposition to data centers as holding large corporations accountable. "We want to make sure large corporations are paying their fair share, not getting tax breaks," Turek told reporters on Sept. 21 during a campaign stop in Des Moines. "I think also making sure we've got strong guardrails to make sure they are not driving up the energy rate to the end user."
↑Lemon, Jason; Commander, Anna (October 7, 2026). "Turek, Hinson Clash in Iowa US Senate Debate: Key Moments, Polls". Newsweek. Turek said that AI will fundamentally transform our society. "I agree we should not cede the ground to China," he said, but added that Americans need protections for jobs and more. "I am absolutely in favor of some regulations on data centers," Turek said, while calling for no more tax breaks for companies.
↑"Trump's Iran trap". Politico Playbook. July 22, 2026. Retrieved July 24, 2026. Josh Turek has made the war a touchstone of his stump: "Everywhere I'm going—it doesn't matter, urban or rural areas—people are telling me they're struggling just to keep food on the table, a roof above their head, and now with this unnecessary war in Iran, we're looking at being able to afford gas," he told Playbook.
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