CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — When state Rep. Josh Turek dragged his wheelchair up Tracy McPartland’s front steps on Tuesday afternoon, she was an undecided voter in the state’s hotly contested Senate Democratic primary.
Turek quickly got to the meat of his pitch: “The biggest difference” between himself and his opponent, state Sen. Zach Wahls, “is about electability,” he said. He’s won tight elections as the lone Democrat representing rural, Republican-dominant western Iowa, he said, while Wahls represents a Democratic stronghold in the state’s east.
“If you’re going to win statewide, it’s a math problem,” said Turek, a four-time U.S. paralympian and former professional wheelchair basketball player. There’s “something specific” about his life story, he said, that “really resonates with folks in rural communities.”