The editorial board of prominent Iowa newspaper The Des Moines Register has backed Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek over Republican opponent Ashley Hinson. It published its endorsement on Sunday, arguing that Turek would be “most likely” to remove “some of the external pressure on agriculture in Iowa,” namely through his pledge to “demand that President Donald Trump stop waging war on Iran and stop upsetting the markets for Iowa’s crop exports and inputs.” The economic fallout from Trump’s trade tariffs and rising domestic fuel prices tied to the ongoing conflict in Iran has hit farmers particularly hard, making it a crucial issue in races across America’s agricultural heartland. Democrats, trying to win back control of the U.S.
Senate, hope to turn this frustration into votes for Turek and its other candidates. Although Iowa has voted Republican in Senate elections since 2008, the Cook Political Report lists Iowa's Senate race as a "toss-up." The Hawkeye State also has a history of voting for presidential candidates from both political parties. Trump won Iowa the last three election cycles, but before that, President Barack Obama won Iowa twice.
Republicans are defending the governor's office, left open by GOP Senator Joni Ernst’s retirement, and three competitive Republican-held House districts. Turek responded to the endorsement in a post on Facebook, saying he was “grateful” for it. Newsweek has contacted campaigns for Turek and Hinson for comment.
The editorial board said Turek “is a compelling candidate in any environment,” but it stressed his commitment to improving things economically for Iowan farmers. Both Turek and Hinson have focused on the economic hardship facing Iowans throughout their campaigns, and both have called for an end to the war in Iran. Hinson has tried to distance herself from Trump, positioning herself as willing to work across party lines for Iowa and saying she was not scared to confront Trump over issues they disagreed on.
Hinson called for an “immediate end” to the war in Iran last month, saying “Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn't have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran.” But this was a departure from her own voting record—she voted against bringing an immediate end to the war in Iran four times this year. The board touched on this when it said: “The current Republican-controlled Congress has made plain that only Democrats will push back on President Donald Trump’s damaging policies and his self-aggrandizing whims in any meaningful way.” It also praised Turek’s policy knowledge and ability to connect with people, citing his previous representation of Carter Lake and part of Council Bluffs in the Iowa House since 2023. The Register, which has endorsed political candidates since at least 1912, has backed both Democrats and Republicans, but recent decades have seen it repeatedly swing toward Democrats.
The Register did not endorse either Trump or former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in 2024 because its owner, the newspaper chain Gannett, said none of its outlets would endorse a presidential candidate, but they could still endorse local candidates. Gannett spokesperson Lark-Marie Antón told CNN at the time that the firm had made the decision because “we believe America’s future is decided locally – one race at a time.” Before that, The Register had backed Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden in 2020, Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2008, according to a Noah Veltman compilation of newspaper presidential endorsements. While The Register broke its Democratic streak to support Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012, it endorsed a Democrat in every other election between 1980 and 2004.
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