Iowa Senate candidates zero in on cancer crisis as key race tightens

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The Hill's Headlines - Sunday, August 23, 2026

The Hill's Headlines - Sunday, August 23, 2026

Candidates for Iowa’s open Senate seat are zeroing in on the state’s high rate of cancer diagnoses as the race emerges as one of the most unexpectedly competitive contests this cycle.

The race features Democratic state legislator Josh Turek challenging Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson (Iowa) for the seat held by retiring Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst (R). The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analyst, last week moved the state’s Senate contest from “lean Republican” to “toss-up.”

Turek, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist in basketball, is emphasizing his bipartisan record, trying to pitch himself as an independent voice. His latest ad notes that he has voted with Republicans in the statehouse 700 times. Hinson, a former broadcast journalist, is leaning on her record leading bipartisan bills and overseeing appropriations in the House. She also carries an endorsement from President Trump.

But an X factor is each candidate’s approach to Iowa’s cancer rates, which are some of the worst in the country. Iowa has the second-highest incidence rate for cancer in the nation, behind only Kentucky, and that rate is rising while most of the country’s incidence rates are stable or decreasing. 

Kerri Johannsen, the senior director of policy and programs at the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC), said knowing many people with cancer was common around the state when she and her team started researching the crisis last summer. 

“We all knew a lot of people, of course, who had cancer,” Johannsen said. “But I think that there was an idea that it was kind of just normal.” 

The biggest culprits, according to IEC’s research, are environmental contaminants, especially PFAS, nitrates, radon and pesticides — the levels of which are higher in Iowa than other states. 

“You can’t ever say like, ‘This thing caused this cancer,’ but we do have what we call kind of a skyscraper of risk factors,” Johannsen said. “And when you........

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