If Iowa Democrats Gamble on Zach Wahls Instead of Voting for Josh Turek — They Risk Losing It All

Hear me out...

May 01, 2026

Zach Wahls at the Newton Public Library on April 20th

Note: To be transparent, I have expressed my support for Wahls’ primary opponent, Josh Turek, here, here, and here. In my memory, I have never publicly supported any candidate in Iowa in more than 20 years covering Iowa politics.

This time I have to make an exception. There’s just too much to lose should Iowa Democrats choose Wahls over Turek in the primary election to face Republican Ashley Hinson in the general. My opinion is we can’t risk it. Most of what I share below is in the public realm, but some important information has not, to my knowledge, ever appeared in the Iowa media, so most Iowans don’t know about it. It’s critical they do before the primary on June 2.

Some of what I have to say might seem trivial, but it’s part of a general pattern of behavior that does not speak well of Wahls or his electability. On the other hand, some of what I have to say is crucial for Iowa Democrats to know, because if Wahls is the nominee, he has given the Hinson campaign numerous gifts that she and/or her campaign will use to blow him up like a tiny fishing boat in Venezuelan waters, with the blowback possibly destroying other Iowa Democratic campaign boats along with his. Please hear me out until the end, where I present the most critical information, and then judge for yourself and vote accordingly. If you don’t agree with me, that’s fine. Let’s hash it out in the comments.

I attended a Wahls campaign event in Newton last week on Monday. KCCI has the story. It was a good crowd of maybe 25 people, including leaders of the Jasper County, Iowa, Dems. I saw several friends in the crowd who are dedicated Democratic voters.

Wahls knocked it out of the park. People loved his stump speech. I’ve seen several, and he does a nice job of mixing up his narrative and getting the audience stirred up. He told a troubling story about his fear for his two moms and the rest of his family after hearing Republicans speak for a class assignment when he was very young. I believe it was when he was watching the Republican National Convention on television. Maybe in middle school? It was heartbreaking.

He also told us about his efforts to help people who were driven out of their mobile homes by heartless hedge fund managers. He laid out broad, progressive themes that resonated with the audience, and I presume, most if not all progressive Iowans. He answered lots of questions from the audience, and hung out after, answering more questions and taking selfies.

He spoke with ease, familiarity, and passion, and I agree with almost everything he had to say. When he was the Iowa Senate Minority Leader, I was at first impressed with him and wished him well. I shared some language with him about the Republican school voucher scam that I thought he might want to use in debate, and he shared it on the Senate floor, if I remember correctly. I found his work with people fighting hedge fund managers pricing people out of their mobile homes, valiant. I drove to Indianola, and asked around in trailer parks there and in Knoxville to see if hedge fund managers were screwing people here. I don’t remember if he asked me to, or if I volunteered. Regardless, I was happy to help him with this important work, and I continue to wish him success with it.

As the town hall in Newton concluded, there was a post-meeting happy “glow” among the audience rooted in shared mission and hope. As the kids would say, people were “viben…”

But they didn’t know what I know, what the Hinson campaign also knows, and what you will learn about below.

Hinson wants Wahls to be the nominee

Hinson certainly wants to run against Wahls rather than Turek. From the Iowa Capital Dispatch in March:

Hinson told reporters she believed Wahls was currently positioned to be her likely opponent in the general election.

“Let’s just say I think Zach Wahls seems to be running away with it right now,” Hinson said. “He’s raising the money. He seems to have the momentum…”

NOTUS reports:

The focus on Wahls appears — even to some Iowa Republicans — to be a not-so-subtle effort to influence the Democratic primary, boosting Wahls’ visibility and leveling criticism that might actually endear the candidate to liberal voters…

“I’ve talked to several people close to Hinson, and their preference would be to run against Zach Wahls,” said a longtime Iowa Republican operative, granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal party thinking…”

Another party strategist said the continued emphasis on Wahls over Turek has become a running joke among politicos in the state because it is so unsubtle.

“If you only read the Hinson campaign press releases, you wouldn’t know Josh Turek was even a candidate in this race,” said the second Republican operative, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

The question is, why?

It would be easy to conclude that Hinson would prefer to run against Wahls more than Turek, simply because it would be easy to paint Wahls as an Ivy League-trained millionaire from the “People’s Republic of Iowa City” who is out of touch with Iowans, and because Turek had actually won and retained his seat in the Iowa legislature in western Iowa by defeating Republican opponents. Wahls has never faced a Republican challenger. Turek has, and won.

But it’s much deeper than that. My arguments are presented below, in no particular order, except that the most important information Iowans need to know is presented in the last sections.

Rewriting the History of His Ouster from Leadership

Wahls presents his ouster as Senate Minority Leader in 2023 as a badge of honor in his campaign, emphasizing that the firing of two long-term staffers was part of his vision to turn the party in a new direction that the old guard didn’t want to go. Other Democrats in the legislature say there was more to his removal than the two firings.

As I read it, he was ousted because he wasn’t an effective leader. The fact is that he was unanimously ousted from leadership by his peers.

Dismissed. Repudiated.

He couldn’t find a single Democratic legislator who believed he was leadership material. Not one.

Democrats didn’t want him leading the Iowa Senate just three years ago, and now he wants to fail upward into the U.S. Senate?

Wahls thinks we are easily fooled. Ashley Hinson won’t be.

Promotion of Nate Boulton after Sexual Assault Allegations

Investigative journalist Andy Kopsa, originally from Iowa, on April 23, wrote: “I’ve had it. No more covering up for sexual predators: Zach Wahls needs to answer questions.”

Kopsa is referring to sexual assault allegations against the then-candidate for Governor, Nate Boulton, that were reported on in May of 2018. She provides some background about the allegations, then writes:

…Zach Wahls - yes that one - gave this guy another chance. You bet he did. Bros before hos amiright? Someone needs to ask him why he covered up for Boulton - sorry - why he promoted Boulton - during his catastrophic and short-lived leadership in the Iowa State Senate.

You should read all of Kopsa’s column, as there is much more than I can share here. Among her conclusions are:

To win Iowa someone with moral clarity on sexual assault needs to face Ashley Hinson so they can look at her and without having to blink say “Rep. Hinson, you are covering up for a man adjudicated of rape. How can you live with yourself?”

This may well have also played a role in Wahls’ being ousted from a leadership position. I don’t know for sure, but there are plenty of people who do.

Hypocritical Criticism related to “Dark Money” in the Turek Campaign

Wahls is critical of the Turek campaign for accepting money from the PAC VoteVets. As I have written before:

“Wahls’ criticism of Turek taking PAC money from VoteVets is a red herring. Many Democratic members of Congress who are veterans have received support and endorsements from the group, including Senators Tammy Duckworth, Mark Kelly, and Reuben Gallego, among others. Check out the full list here. These are leaders we desperately need. Criticism of VoteVets is a destructive narrative that only helps MAGA. And in this race, Hinson.”

The hypocrisy, as I see it, is The Next 50, a PAC that Wahls was previously the Executive Director of, and took money from, is the same kind of hybrid PAC that VoteVets is.

So, Wahls thinks it’s OK for him to take “dark money,” but not Turek?

Wahls thinks we are easily fooled. Ashley Hinson won’t be.

To make matters worse—integrity-wise—on Wednesday, the Wahls campaign issued a press release with a message from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has endorsed Wahls, that read in part:

“I’m going to be direct with you: Massive amounts of money are pouring into Iowa’s Senate race right now.

A DC super PAC is spending seven figures to influence the outcome of this primary.

The PAC she is referring to, of course, is VoteVets.

Here, I’m disappointed in Elizabeth Warren. She criticizes VoteVets as part of her support of Wahls, but promoted the organization as a presidential candidate in 2019.

So, super PAC money is good for Wahls, but not for Turek? Puleeeeze. You can watch the ad here. Apparently, Elizabeth Warren thinks we are easily fooled, too…

The Chuck Schumer Line of Attack

Related to the VoteVets issue, one of Wahls’ major lines of attack on Turek is that the U.S. Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, backs him.

There’s not much love in local Democratic circles for Chuckles, which suggests that this line of attack might be successful. Every few days, I get a text from Schumer asking for a donation, and it pisses me off. Is the national party so out of touch that it thinks an appeal from Schumer will work in Iowa? But it must work if they keep doing it, anyway…

This line of attack is fine, but only if Wahls didn’t meet with Schumer or the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. If he did meet with Schumer or the DSCC to seek support, and they didn’t decide to back him, then this is either a contrived attack or sour grapes.

During the press gaggle after a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate forum on April 8, Laura Belin with Bleeding Heartland asked Wahls directly, and he waffled, saying something like, “Well, I’ve met with lots of people.” Here is the video.

He needs to answer Laura—yes or no. To me, his non-answer implies he did meet with Schumer or his associates, and he’s hiding it from us.

Zach Wahls thinks we are easily fooled. Ashley Hinson won’t be.

FTX Cryptocurrency Scandal under Wahls Watch

Andy Kopsa thinks there is something fishy about a cryptocurrency donation Wahls received on behalf of the party. She writes:

Let’s just rip the band-aid off, people. It’s the $250K from FTX (a now bankrupt criminal cryptocurrency exchange) crypto-bros that the IDP (Iowa Democratic Party) is now on the hook for, received under Wahls leadership tenure, that is the elephant in the room. It wasn’t just his firing people off the cuff, people - it was his refusal to even talk about the mechanism for repayment of that money - and apparently, he didn’t tell his colleagues about it until they got a notice from SDNY.

I don’t see ANY evidence of wrongdoing by Wahls or the Iowa Democratic Party, but many questions remain that need to be answered. I reached out to the IDP several times for comment on this issue and other issues presented here in this column, but I received no response. That’s OK. I wouldn’t speak to me either this close to a primary election.

Tom Barton’s reporting for the Gazette, first on January 29, 2026, and updated on April 11, provides background on the FTX crimes and donations to both Iowa Democrats and Republicans.

Barton writes:

State Sen. Zach Wahls, a Democrat from Coralville running for U.S. Senate, was serving as Senate Democratic leader at the time the caucus accepted campaign contributions later tied to disgraced cryptocurrency executives. He was ousted from the leadership post the following June amid broader internal tensions within the caucus.

Wahls did not respond to a request for comment. A staffer who worked with the Senate Majority Fund at the time said party officials had no knowledge of fraud when the donation was accepted.

Why didn’t Wahls respond to Barton, one of the best reporters in Iowa? Does he have something to hide?

Zach Wahls thinks we are easily fooled.

First Class Flights?

A Washington Examiner column by former WOI-TV reporter Samantha-Jo Roth, published on April 1, pointed out that Zach’s flying and hotel expenses while he was Iowa Senate Minority Leader didn’t mesh well with his populist message.

Wahls’ campaign told Roth that they felt the costs were well worth it since he raised over $770,000 during that time period.

That may well be. It probably is.

But, to me, the issue is, did he fly first class? One of the flights itemized cost $2,472. Past Democratic leaders tell me that they never flew first class because they felt it was irresponsible to do so.

I asked the campaign if Wahls flew first class on the donor's dime, and after repeated requests, I reluctantly went off the record for the conversation.

So I know the answer, but I can’t tell you. Why hide it?

Zach Wahls thinks we are easily fooled.

A Millionaire Paying himself from his Campaign

Zach Wahls is a millionaire. Federal filings show he paid himself from his Senate campaign. Between October and December 2025, he received roughly $17,700 in salary from campaign funds, more than most of his staff did over that period.

I kept thinking about this at the Newton event. I believe that there were at least four staffers there, but I could be wrong.

While nearly $18,000 isn’t much to a millionaire, even $500 or $1,000 could be life-changing for a lowly staffer busting their asses for him. Wahls’ campaign emails ask people pinching pennies to donate, $5, $10, $25, $50, while he draws a salary, and while he could afford to pay his staff more, instead he pockets what he can.

Surely this money could be better spent elsewhere in the campaign. It also draws attention to his apparent wasteful spending as minority leader in the Iowa Senate.

Pocket the money when you could pay your staff more instead? That’s clueless, and part of a pattern of privilege.

Millionaire Wahls Cosplays as being Working Class

I admit I have a working-class chip on my shoulder, growing up as a carpenter’s son who was taught the trade, and I resent anyone who acts like they are working class when they aren’t. People should just be who they are. Don’t fake it.

I’ve gone on a rant about this before, and here is just a bit of it:

Have you ever lived paycheck to paycheck, pounded a bazillion nails, busted your knuckles day in and day out turning wrenches, waited tables until you dropped, stacked shelves until you can’t raise your arms anymore, or had a bad back and carpal tunnel syndrome from being chained to a keyboard all day?

With this attitude, agree with it or not, I read every one of Zach’s press releases and statements through the lens of him being a millionaire, acting like he is one of us who feels our pain. Maybe he does, but it comes across as fake.

For example, in a Wahls campaign press release from April 11:

Childcare shouldn’t be the biggest expense in a family’s budget. It forces parents to make impossible choices: cut back hours, take on extra jobs, or leave the workforce altogether. For lower-income families, it’s not just a burden, it’s a barrier.

I see it in my own life. Right now, childcare for my son costs more than my mortgage.

While what Zach says is true for lower-income families, looking at childcare costs and average mortgage payments after a 20% down payment in the Coralville area, the Wahls family must live in an extremely modest home, or had a hell of a down payment most of us couldn’t afford.

I’ve written before that I’m probably over-analyzing this, which is what I do, but when I saw this campaign ad of Zach on a farm, his Carhartt jacket was so crisp and clean that it looked like it was just pulled off the rack at Farm and Home, Fleet Farm, or Tractor Supply. Other people have told me the same thing, unsolicited.

It’s working man cosplay.

He should just be himself.

To be fair, millionaire Ashley Hinson is even worse, whining in the Des Moines Register on Monday:

I’m a working mom — whether it’s filling the minivan or feeding two teenage boys, high prices hit our family just like families across Iowa.

That’s B.S.

Both Zach Wahls and Ashley Hinson think we are easily fooled.

Wahls Posts About His Pornography Preferences on Reddit from 2011

The Washington Examiner has a story about it here, and the New York Times here.

I don’t care what Wahls posted on Reddit in 2011 when he was a young man. I was tempted to grab screenshots of his posts and share them here, but decided against it. It just seemed wrong. Please go to the Examiner or Times stories if you want to see them.

I only bring it up for two reasons.

First, I’d ask you to sit back and take a moment to imagine what the relentless multimedia attack ads about an even younger Wahls’ porn preferences might look like as pushed out by the Hinson campaign or MAGA super PACs.

Really think about it. Please. Imagine the worst-case scenario, because that is what we are going to get. I’m purposefully not telling you what I think the attack ads might look like, because I think we all need to consider what they might look like for ourselves, and draw our own conclusions about the potential damage.

Can you imagine the kinds of ads millions of dollars could buy? Ashley, of course, will stay above the fray, playing the average suburban mom just trying to raise her kids and make America great again.

They will also cross-populate these ads with the stories and images of other problematic actions by Wahls I’ve documented above. Those attacks will appear reasonable, because they are.

I fear they’ll hammer him so hard there will be nothing left of Wahls but a greasy spot on the floor of some hotel meeting room in Iowa City on election night.

Wahls’ response to the New York Times column that mentioned his Reddit posts was troubling. He thinks he’s invulnerable, and again, it speaks to his privilege and ego:

In an interview on Monday, Mr. Wahls said he was unconcerned.

“I think it’s a little funny that some folks are worried about Democrats’ ability to connect with American men, while others think that old Reddit posts by me as a college kid, talking about Playboy and porn like a normal guy would do, would scare me off from running,” he said.

He thinks it’s “a little funny?”

I think he’s delusional.

While this might be shrugged off in Iowa City, I doubt it will in rural Iowa.

And despite what “normal guys” do, I suspect that there are plenty of people around who would find fault with the objectification of women’s bodies and with politicians who celebrate it, telling us, effectively, that “boys will be boys,” to a reporter for the New York Times.

And the New York Times column was printed less than a year ago, on June 10 of 2025, not when he was a kid in 2011.

The second reason I brought up the Reddit posts is that I don’t think most Iowans are aware of them, and people should know about them, and consider their potential impact on the race before they vote in the primary. While I may be wrong, I don’t believe the Iowa media have covered the issue.

Why haven’t they covered it? Probably because we are midwesterners, who don’t like talking about these kinds of things, while reporters in D.C. and New York City are perfectly comfortable with it.

I talked to a respected member of the Iowa media, and asked her if she thought anyone was going to tell this story. I admitted to her that I was reluctant to do so, for a variety of reasons. She told me she didn’t think anyone else was going to cover it, and that I should write it, and let her know when it came out.

I talked to another respected member of the media and he agreed. “Write it,” he said.

So here we are.

The Cascading Effects

Now it gets even worse. If, as the facts about Wahls come out, and Hinson drives her attack ads home, should Wahls win the primary, it could well negatively impact not only voter turnout and vote tallies for the Senate race, but also the winnable races for Governor, for House seats, particularly in the First, Second, and Third districts, and down ballot.

Hinson wants Wahls to be her opponent, for the reasons I shared above and probably more. If Wahls wins the primary, and the attack ads start to take effect, I fear that as polling shows Hinson pulling away from Wahls, millions of dollars directed at the Hinson campaign will be diverted from her Senate race to be used against other Iowan Democrats running for office. The money could also be diverted to help defeat Democrats in races in other states.

We could lose it all.

I’m told that prominent Democrats advised Zach Wahls not to run for Senate for the reasons I lay out here and more. He should have taken their advice. He has placed so much at risk. He apparently doesn’t see it that way.

With the return of the successful Artemis mission around the moon and back, I have just one question for the crew.

Can you see Zach Wahls’ ego from space?

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