With primary night behind them, Iowa Democrats are 'fired up'
As Sarah Trone Garriott hugged her family and her closest supporters — mere minutes after the state senator officially secured the Democratic nomination for central Iowa's 3rd District — Jason Kerest handed her a $100 check.
“I wanted to be the first one to give you a donation after you got the nomination,” the 50-year-old said.
“Now go kick his butt,” he added, referring to Trone Garriott's opponent this November, Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn. Both Nunn and Trone Garriott ran uncontested for their party's respective nominations.
The check — handed over with smiles and hearty congrats — represented a change of heart for Kerest, of Ankeny, who admitted Trone Garriott wasn’t his first choice when she initially ran for the Iowa Senate six years ago.
Iowa congressional candidate Sarah Trone Garriott greets supporters during an election night watch party hosted by the Iowa Democratic Party, June 2, 2026, in Des Moines.
“She’s really grown on me,” he said. “She's just approached everything as a caring person, as a human, as a mom, and she really understands the struggles that a lot of Iowans are going through.”
“The politics have all been ugly,” he continued. “But she has been a straight shooter.”
Kerest’s story of finding a new kind of fire and passion in this year’s candidates is not an anomaly, said other Democrats gathered at the party’s primary results celebration held in refurbished loft space just north of Des Moines’ city center.
“We are just blessed this time,” said Bill Brauch, 69, of Des Moines, who chairs the Polk County Democrats. “We've got a candidate for governor who is unlike any we've had in a long time, Rob Sand."
"We have an outstanding chance to flip the 3rd Congressional seat and that's a big deal," he said. "In the U.S. House, we don't have to win that many seats across the country to take the majority, and in Iowa we have two excellent and three possible chances out of four. That’s extraordinary.”
Not long ago, in 2018, the Democrats held three of those four House seats, he added.
“I have a feeling this year is a lot like ‘18, and I think we're going to do it again,” he said.
Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek speaks during a primary election night watch party after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Des Moines.
Unifying, electrifying, optimistic: State Rep. Josh Turek's win makes crucial Senate seat more competitive
Less than an hour after polls closed, campaign staffers began to hand out signs for state Rep. Josh Turek, whose lead against Zach Wahls, an Iowa state senator, continued to grow steadily.
When CNN called the race at 9 p.m., the crowd erupted in cheers and applause loud enough to drown out the panelists' analysis, which was being piped through the venue's loudspeakers.
Ultimately, Turek bested Wahls, earning about 63% of the vote to Wahls' 37%, according to unofficial results.
Des Moines resident Mary Riche, 78, has been a Turek supporter for two years, she said, because his views on reproductive freedom, bodily autonomy and education all align with hers.
But, also, because she wants to see a Democrat securely in that seat come next session.
“I want to win in November,” she said. “And when you look at the race that Ashley Hinson will run, we need somebody who is a proven winner and who has the grit and determination and discipline that it will take to work hard every day."
Riche recently hosted a patio fundraiser at her house that netted the candidate a haul in the “significant five figures,” she said. Most who came were already Democrats, Riche added, but Turek was able to excite the attendees in a way they told her they hadn’t been by other recent candidates.
“I get goosebumps,” she said. “A number of people came up to me and said, ‘Oh my gosh, I just had a conversation with him. He listened before he answered my question and he was very motivated. I'm excited to go work for him.’”
“It was very unifying and electrifying,” she added.
Supporters cheer as Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek speaks during a primary election night watch party after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Des Moines.
Awaiting his victory speech with anticipation, the gathered began chanting “Tur-ek! Tur-ek! Tur-ek!” Kira Barker, 39, ushered people to the front of the room, toward the stage, which was dressed with simple black curtains and an expansive American flag.
“I’m extremely optimistic,” said Barker, who is the executive director for Polk County Democrats, echoing many in the room in the immediate wake of Turek’s win. “We could not be luckier to have a candidate like Josh Turek uniting all of us, Independents, Democrats and Republicans. This is going to be a team effort.”
A relative political newcomer, Turek — who was born with spina bifida and is a two-time gold medalist in basketball at the Paralympic Games representing Team USA — got into politics four years ago, he said. Running in Council Bluffs' Republican-leaning district, he won by just six votes and won reelection in 2024 by nearly six percentage points even as President Donald Trump carried the district.
“I wanted to be a voice for the voiceless, for the Iowans who cannot afford a lobbyist,” he said. “I won that first race by dragging my wheelchair upstairs every single day to talk to voters.”
“I won that race because there's more that unites us than divides us,” he continued.
In November, Turek will face Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is serving her third term in Congress representing northeast Iowa's 2nd District.
She won her first term in 2020, defeating a Democratic incumbent to flip the seat to Republican control, and won reelection in both 2022 and 2024.
Iowa Republican U.S. Senate candidate and Congresswoman Ashley Hinson reacts to the crowd after winning the Iowa Senate nomination at her watch party at The Hotel at Kirkwood Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. Hinson will run against Democratic nominee Josh Turek in November for the US Senate seat.
The race — Iowa's first open U.S. Senate contest since 2014 — has drawn national attention, and both Republicans and Democrats plan to spend heavily in Iowa this fall to boost their candidates.
As the race was called for Turek, independent elections analysts at Sabato's Crystal Ball shifted their rating of the race from a "likely Republican" victory to the more competitive "leans Republican." The Cook Political Report followed suit, changing its own rating from "likely Republican" to "lean Republican."
Similarly, in regards to the ticket for governor, Cook has called the race a “toss-up.” Sand, the state auditor, who ran unopposed and did not appear at the watch party, will face businessman Zach Lahn, who won the Republican nod in a stunning upset.
"The overall environment in the Hawkeye State is an increasingly favorable one for Democrats," read the Cook report's analysis, "given backlash to tariffs and rising fuel and fertilizer prices as a result of the Iran War."
Local Democrats lean into renewed state party ground game: 'Worked really well for Barack Obama'
Since taking the Iowa Democratic Party helm about three years ago, party chair Rita Hart said the group has been instituting a stronger and more orderly ground game.
Hart said the statewide party had prioritized partnering with their local level representatives to ensure all 99 county groups had leadership who understood how to work in conjunction with campaigns and how to have fruitful conversations with people who are undecided or identify as looking for change.
Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart speaks to the 2025 Polk County Democrats’ Steak Fry on Sept. 13, 2025, at Des Moines Water Works Park.
“We know we got to do more to win elections,” she said earlier in the evening, before results began to come in. “We got to have good candidates. We’ve got to create the kind of structure that gives those candidates security so they think they can actually win. And that comes from a good organization.”
This cycle, Brauch said the state party was running “a coordinated campaign” that is “actually recognizing everybody's strength.” He and others he's spoken to plan to lean heavily into that ground game setup to help bring voters to the polls come November, he said.
“I mean, that worked really well for Barack Obama, didn't it?” Brauch said.
For example in Polk County, Brauch said the local Democratic party has even smaller neighborhood groups that they are empowering to own the Get Out the Vote campaigns in their areas — while also continuing to help them push early voting, which has been a key strategy for Democrats in previous campaigns.
And as the most populous county in the third district, Polk County Democrats plan to help neighboring counties copy their winning strategies.
Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek speaks during a primary election night watch party after winning the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Des Moines.
“We're going to work together,” he said. "It's going to take coordinated effort, teamwork, but this is a party that is fired up. I've seen that since the beginning of this year.”
“And In Iowa, where we've been, you know, on the short end for a while now, we're fired up again," he stressed.
"It's hard to keep a good Democrat down.”
This report was syndicated from USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.
