“After 21 surgeries and two Paralympic golds...”

I was recently profiled in The New York Times’ The Athletic, and I’m going to share some snippets of the article with you below. Before I dive in, a quick interlude: my second-to-last weekly fundraising deadline before the general election is tomorrow at midnight. Will you rush $28.10 — my campaign’s average online donation to my campaign — to help my campaign fight back against MAGA attacks in the final stretch?

The clock read 19.3 seconds left when Josh Turek lined up for a free throw. The United States was up 47-45 against Turkey in the wheelchair basketball quarterfinal at the 2021 Paralympics; two made shots would all but seal a spot in the semifinals for the Americans.

“Entire stadium watching, everybody watching back at home, game’s on the line, everything’s on his shoulders,” teammate and five-time Paralympian Matt Scott recalled. “And he delivered every single time.”

The U.S. went on to win its second straight wheelchair basketball gold at the Paralympics. It marked the third medal for Turek.

Five years later, Democrats are hoping Turek can deliver again. He has spent the past year traveling across his home state of Iowa, trying to flip a U.S. Senate seat in a state that President Donald Trump won by more than 13 points in 2024.

Recent polling looks like that U.S.-Turkey game: tight, with Turek and his Republican opponent, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, locked in a race that falls well within the margin of error in every survey.

Athletes have run for national office before, but few in such close races that are drawing as much money and national attention as the one in Iowa.

With early voting already underway in the state and Election Day on Nov. 3, the four-time Paralympian is trying to do what no Democratic Senate candidate has done in Iowa since 2008: Win.

This is a tied battle for the Senate majority and MAGA is spending $100 million to take me down. If you’re as ready as I am to win this election and take our country back, will you invest any amount in my campaign today?

Born with spina bifida after his father was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, Turek had 21 surgeries by age 12 and has used a wheelchair since childhood.

“It’s tough enough to grow up poor, but it’s really difficult to grow up poor and disabled,” the Iowa native said. “Didn’t have a lot of friends, was really struggling with self-esteem [but] wheelchair basketball, really provided me that outlet.”

He comes from an athletic family…and he secured a scholarship to play wheelchair basketball at Southwest Minnesota State University. [He made] his first Paralympic Games in 2004 in Athens, where the U.S. finished seventh.

The team returned home to an overhaul. New coaches, new tactics, new philosophy. When Turek tried out again for the national team, he was cut.

The next year, Turek tried out again. Coaches cut Turek five more times before he made it back on the team in 2011.

“...He lived a really Spartan-esque lifestyle,” his college teammate Ryan Martin said. “… When you see somebody reach that level of work ethic and just the devil in the details of how he approached his work, it was really astonishing.”

Back on Team USA, Turek developed a reputation for single-minded focus, hard work and high scoring. In 2012, he helped the U.S. to bronze at the London Paralympics, its first medal since 2000.

Turek was never cut again. In 2016, he helped the U.S. win gold for the first time since 1988. In 2021, the team went back-to-back, securing gold with a win over Japan at the Tokyo Paralympics.

At age 42, Turek was ready to retire.

Frustrated with the state of healthcare and lack of disability representation in politics, Turek ran for the Iowa House of Representatives in 2022, representing his hometown, Council Bluffs. He won the election by six votes.

In 2024, Turek won reelection by five percentage points during a presidential cycle in which Trump won Iowa by double digits. Last year, Turek announced his run for U.S. Senate, billing himself as a “prairie populist,” with an agenda focused on helping the middle class: raising the minimum wage, growing affordable housing, supporting farmers and improving healthcare access. In June, he won the Democratic primary by 25 points.

For Turek, a two-decade athletic career makes for good preparation for the rigors of the campaign trail.

“When I was playing, I tried to never let my opponents or the fans know how I was thinking or feeling,” Turek said. “...you can write terrible things about me on Facebook or X or all these platforms, it doesn’t matter…I’m just focused on what I’m doing.”

Turek talks about the race like an athlete — “You’re not going to tell me what’s possible and what’s impossible,” he said.

But a Senate campaign is different. Get cut, and there are no tryouts next year.

There are no gold medals, no second chances, in this once-in-a-generation election. This is our do-or-die moment, and I need all the support I can muster before time runs out. Will you chip in right away?

The stakes are significant...For Democrats, Turek’s win could mean flipping the chamber after two years of Republican control of the House, Senate and Presidency. And for Turek, the race means a chance to push at the national level for policies he has advocated for in Iowa, especially on behalf of people with disabilities.

“We’ve got a once-in-a-generation opportunity to be able to win this Senate seat and change the state of Iowa and change this country,” Turek said.

Appreciate you taking the time to read this through.

Let’s win,
Josh Turek