Harkin endorses Turek in U.S. Senate race
Former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin today endorsed Democratic candidate for the Senate Josh Turek just days before early voting in the primary.
“I believe both of us care deeply about a lot of the same issues,” Harkin said in an interview with The Iowa Mercury tonight.
Turek, a state representative from Council Bluffs, faces state Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, in the June 2 Democratic primary contest for the open U.S. Senate seat in Iowa. U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Marion, is widely expected to claim the Republican nomination for the race to fill the seat of U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Red Oak, who at age 55 is retiring from the Senate.
The first day of early absentee voting is Wednesday, May 13.
Harkin served in the U.S. House s from 1975 to 1985 and was a U.S. senator from 1985 to 2015.
“I was proud and honored to represent my fellow Iowans for 30 years in the U.S Senate,” Harkin said in a written statement. “Thank you, Iowans, for giving me that opportunity, over five statewide elections, to work for you. I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to win an election, and then to faithfully represent all Iowans, not just those who voted for you. That’s why I am supporting Josh Turek for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary on June 2.”
Harkin’s endorsement comes almost exactly three years to the date after The Iowa Mercury ran a story in May 2023 titled “Council Bluffs’ Turek in conversation as state’s ‘next Tom Harkin’”
Harkin, in his statement, said there’s a saying that “rough weather makes good timber.“
“Josh has had some pretty rough weather in his life, and he is ‘good timber,’” Harkin said. “In fact, Josh is as strong and resilient as a good Iowa Bur Oak.”
Harkin has campaigned for Turek in Council Bluffs in two Statehouse races and the former senator spotted early potential for statewide office in Turek. There are a number of factors that go into an endorsement, Harkin said in the interview, noting that a final consideration is what Harkin says are inaccurate criticisms of the support for Turek from a veterans advocacy PAC, VoteVets.
“I just saw some of this negativity coming, and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this is not right,’” Harkin said in The Iowa Mercury interview.
Harkin, a veteran himself who maintains continued close relationships with several veterans in Congress, served as a pilot in the Navy in the 1960s, the same decade that Josh Turek’s father, John Turek, served in the Vietnam War. John Turek talked to The Iowa Mercury about his service for a story this week.
Josh Turek, a two-time gold-medal-winning Paralympian in basketball, is the first permanently and visibly disabled member of the Iowa Legislature. The spina bifida that required 21 surgeries by the age of 12 for Josh Turek is the result of his father’s exposure to Agent Orange in 22 months of service in the Vietnam War during 1968 and 1969.
“Josh is as much a victim of the Vietnam War as veterans who were out in the field fighting, absolutely,” Harkin said.
Harkin sees VoteVets as a force for good.
“They have really supported some great candidates,” Harkin said.
He specifically referenced U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a Navy and Army veteran respectively, who have been supported by VoteVets.
“It’s not like they are trying to do something they haven’t before and that is to support good, solid candidates who they believe will be supportive of veterans and veterans issues -- that’s their bottom line,” Harkin said.
Harkin said he knows Turek well enough to be confident in continued advocacy on shared foundational values.
“I hope and trust that he will pick up on some of the issues that I care deeply about —retirement security, saving Social Security, supporting small farmers, getting a better tax system so that the wealthy are paying their fair share,” Harkin said.
About The Iowa Mercury
(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )
Harkin and Turek are two men of the same cloth. Respectable, dignified, and a true civil servant.
Great job as always, Doug.