By Eric Bradner
Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek will flip Iowa’s open Senate seat, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, defeating GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson and renewing the state’s battleground status.
The two were vying to replace retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in a state that had been competitive until recently, but where the GOP had dominated since President Donald Trump’s emergence a decade ago.
Turek’s win in part reflects the growing anxiety in farm country over rising diesel and fertilizer prices, tariff battles and more.
Meanwhile, Iowa Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand will win the state’s race for governor, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, defeating Republican businessman Zach Lahn and flipping a GOP-held office.
The victory is a massive moment for Democrats in a state that was a political battleground a little more than a decade ago but that turned red during the Donald Trump era. The two were vying to replace two-term Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican.
Sand is the only Democratic official currently in statewide office, and his campaign carried the party’s hopes of a resurgence — even as Sand himself all but swore off partisan allegiances. His events and rallies were marked by criticism of both parties as controlled by special interests and calls for voters to work together despite partisan differences. He often opened them by asking attendees to participate in a rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
“I’d say it’s time for change, and I’m offering us a return to what Iowa is — people working together, even when they disagree,” Sand said during his first debate with Lahn.
Sand, 44, was born in Decorah in northeastern Iowa — part of a region known as the Driftless Area, a bucolic area untouched by glaciers in the last ice age, covered with hills and river valleys in an otherwise mostly flat portion of the Midwest. He hunts deer, drives a Ford F-150 and leans into his Christian faith as he discusses his political beliefs.
For Democrats in Iowa, he has long been viewed as a rising star. But as Trump-era losses mounted, he became something else: one of the party’s last hopes of reversing its fortunes.
Sand criticized Trump’s tariffs, arguing during the campaign that they were damaging to Iowa’s agricultural interests — differentiating himself from Lahn, who largely defended Trump.
Lahn, 40, who came from the “Make America Healthy Again” wing of the GOP and campaigned against large agricultural corporations, defeated a Trump-backed rival in a competitive primary.
Lahn’s residency was also a flashpoint in the race. Sand pointed out that his GOP rival had long voted in Kansas and registered to vote in Iowa only in 2024. Lahn and his wife, who were both previously married, both previously lived in Kansas, and Lahn has said his children split time between the two states.
The-CNN-Wire
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