Iowa Senate 

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Latest news on the Iowa Senate, covering the Iowa Senate race, Democrat Josh Turek, Republican Ashley Hinson, senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, midterms and election results, the Senate majority, the state Senate in Des Moines, and politics across the Hawkeye State.

Iowa sends two senators to Washington, each serving a six-year term. Chuck Grassley, a Republican who has served since 1981, last won re-election in 2022. Joni Ernst, a Republican elected in 2014 as Iowa's first woman in Congress, decided not to seek re-election.

In the midterm elections of 3 November 2026, Democrat Josh Turek, a state representative, was projected to defeat Republican congresswoman Ashley Hinson in the race for Ernst's open seat. The contest tightened despite the state's rightward shift, as trade policy and fuel prices weighed on Iowans. Debate continues over campaign spending and what the result means for the Senate majority.

Iowa politics is rooted in community and place. Iowans from Des Moines and Cedar Rapids to small farm towns weigh agriculture, trade, energy costs, rural health care and schools differently. The state backed Donald Trump by 13 points in 2024, which made a Democratic Senate win a national story. The 50-member Iowa Senate in Des Moines, where half the seats are elected every two years, has been under Republican control since 2016.

Once a swing state, Iowa has shifted right in recent years. Grassley has represented it since 1981, and Ernst became the first woman elected to Congress from Iowa in 2014, a Republican pairing that anchored Senate politics there for more than a decade. Turek's projected win ends a Democratic drought in Senate races dating to 2008.

The NewsNow Iowa Senate feed brings together the latest headlines on Josh Turek, Ashley Hinson, Joni Ernst, Chuck Grassley, Senate race results, state Senate votes in Des Moines and the wider fight for the Senate majority, from reliable sources, so Iowans and anyone following the Hawkeye State can keep up in one place.