Trump Attacks Iowa Democrat Turek Over Missed Votes in Senate Race

Trump amplifies a report that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek missed nearly 60% of Iowa House votes while collecting $20,100 in per diem pay.

First Published: August 10, 2026, 4:23 AM ET

WASHINGTON D.C. — Donald Trump attacked Josh Turek, the Iowa Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee, over a report that the state representative missed nearly 60% of legislative votes during the 2026 session.

Turek, a state representative from Council Bluffs, missed 261 votes in the Iowa House between Jan. 12 and May 3, according to justthenews. He collected $20,100 in legislative per diem payments during the same period, according to the Iowa House chief clerk.

“This is big news! Lazy Senators don’t play well in Iowa,” Trump said. “Iowa Democrats’ U.S. Senate candidate has absentee problem, missed nearly 60% of legislative votes.”

Here is the full post on truthsocial: “This is big news! Lazy Senators don’t play well in Iowa. President DJT Iowa Democrats’ U.S. Senate candidate has absentee problem, missed nearly 60% of legislative votes” on August 10, 2026 at 8:09 AM ET. Trump mentioned the source (see justthenews).

This is Trump’s first message released today, and the last post was 12 hours ago, and it is not part of a thread. On average, Trump produces 18 posts per day since his inauguration on January 20, 2025. The move fits a broader pattern in Trump’s recent messaging, with 125 of his 480 posts over the last 30 days classified as Elections posts.

Turek won the Democratic Senate nomination in June and is set to face Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in November, according to justthenews. The seat is opening because Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is retiring, turning the contest into a battleground race for control of a chamber where every seat carries national weight.

Some of Turek’s absences occurred while he was campaigning and fundraising outside Iowa, according to justthenews. He missed 12 House votes between March 25 and March 31 while his campaign raised roughly $43,000 from donors in Southern California, with hotel expenses recorded in Los Angeles. He missed 16 more votes between Feb. 17 and March 23 while raising roughly $36,500 from donors in Washington, D.C. At one point in March, he missed 30 consecutive votes.

Turek’s team defended the record and turned the charge on his opponent. “Just last week, Ashley Hinson skipped votes on the annual defense funding bill to attend a ritzy D.C. fundraiser,” a campaign spokesperson said, according to justthenews. Hinson’s team said she has held a 98.8% lifetime voting record since 2020.

A candidate’s attendance record shapes how voters judge whether their next senator will show up for the job. Iowa families weigh missed votes on rural health funding, farm policy and veterans programs against the salary and per diem that public office carries.

This kind of fight has happened before. Attendance records surface in nearly every competitive Senate race, where challengers mine roll-call data to paint incumbents and rivals as absent from their duties.

Iowa voters will render the next decision at the ballot box in the November 2026 general election, when Turek and Hinson face off for the open Senate seat.

Missed votes have shadowed White House ambitions before, as happened to sitting senators who ran national campaigns. Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, drew fire for a Senate attendance record that critics tallied at more than 60% of votes missed during his campaign, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. He lost that race to incumbent President George W. Bush by 286 electoral votes to 251, a defeat that kept his party out of the White House for four more years.