Iowa picks a Democrat senator

Republican Ashley Hinson and Democrat Josh Turek have campaigned for a U.S. Senate seat in Iowa, and the results are in. Hinson and Turek have been nearly dead-even throughout most of the Senate race, based on data pulled from Blaze News Poll Watch. At times, their popularity skirted past each other, trading places with only a 0.1% difference between them. However, something changed in August. Although their popularity was still closely contested, Turek took a narrow lead and kept it all the way through to election night. After tallying up all the votes, Turek won the Senate race, while Hinson suffered an upsetting defeat. Turek will replace Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, who is retiring this year. His victory ultimately disrupts Republicans' Senate streak, becoming the state's first Democrat senator since Tom Harkin retired in 2015. Iowa resident and BlazeTV host Steve Deace, who followed this race closely, said this about Hinson: "How many conversations [do] you think I've ever had with Ashley Hinson? It's a low number. Like the lowest of them all. Zero. Somehow, I've managed to build the largest media platform ever to come out of the state of Iowa. I happen to have a media platform. [Hinson] wants to run for statewide office, and typically, [politicians] want to pay people like me to get access to the platform. No interest whatsoever. What do you think about your own base if you don't want to talk to your own base?" Both candidates on the ticket have notable political experience. Getting her start as a journalist for KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Hinson later went on to serve as an Iowa House representative from 2017 to 2021, and she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020. As for Turek, he has served as a House representative since 2022. Before that, he was a former professional basketball player, as well as a Paralympic medalist.