Iowa state legislators Josh Turek and Zach Wahls met this month in a debate for the Democratic nomination for the state's open U.S. Senate seat. The seat is open because Republican Senator Joni Ernst is retiring.

Both candidates proposed progressive policies to address what they described as Iowa's affordability crisis, including raising the federal minimum wage, restoring Obamacare subsidies, rolling back tariffs, and fighting corporate greed. Turek said during the debate that he won his legislative seat in a district that Donald Trump carried.

"If we're able to win this race here in Iowa, we're looking at taking back Congress and taking back the U.S. Senate. And I think that gives us an amazing opportunity to be able to get a lot of these across the finish line," Turek said.

Turek, who describes himself as a "prairie populist," was born with spina bifida and won two wheelchair basketball gold medals for the United States in the Paralympics. His campaign logo includes a Paralympic gold medal. His father was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has endorsed his campaign.

Wahls was elected to the Iowa State Senate twice in a district where no Republican candidate ran. In 2011, he delivered a speech at the Iowa statehouse advocating for marriage equality and mentioning his two mothers; the speech went viral. Senator Elizabeth Warren has endorsed his bid for the U.S. Senate.

The Democratic primary is taking place in a state where Trump beat Kamala Harris by thirteen points in the most recent presidential election, and where registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats by nearly two hundred thousand. Trump's approval rating has fallen below forty percent.

Iowa is among the main Democratic target states for the U.S. Senate this year, along with Alaska, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Maine.