Blue Wave on the Prairie? with Josh Turek

The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart interviews Iowa Senate candidate and Paralympian Josh Turek about the economic and social crises facing the American heartland.

Key takeaways

• Josh Turek is a four-time Paralympian running for U.S. Senate in Iowa.
• Iowa has seen the closure of 842 healthcare entities, including 160 independent rural pharmacies.

Main topics

• Iowa Senate Race
• Rural Healthcare Crisis

Notable quotes

I am a common sense prairie populist.

Conclusion

The episode highlights the deep-seated economic anxieties in rural Ame

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:07) Hey, folks. Speaker 4 (0:08) Welcome to the weekly show with Jon Stewart. And I am aforementioned Jon Stewart. Today's program, a little bit different. So Tuesday, September 29. Originally, we had scheduled one Senator Bernie Sanders, a young gentleman, you may not be familiar, a senator from the great state of Vermont, who has some ideas about economic populism that I don't know if. They're reflective of a change in his thinking, but it may be something he has consistently proffered for many, many years. But he is unable to join us today, unfortunately. So we do look forward to being able to feel the burn at a later episode. But, but. But we are sticking with our senatorial theme instead of going with an actual senator right now. We are going with an aspirational Senate candidate from the great state of Iowa. We're taking a little turn. This is a little view. This is an opportunity for our audience to learn a little something about what's happening out there electorally in the heartland. And so we're going to get to. our guest for this week, who is running for the United States Senate in Iowa. He is a four-time Paralympian and candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa. Josh Turek joins us. Speaker 4 (1:32) Today, we welcome a prairie populist to the program. He is running to be the senator for the great state of Iowa, Josh Turek, who is a candidate, as we were saying. First of all, Josh, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. It's quite the honor to join you. Oh, truly, truly, Josh. You know, I'm curious. What's your last name again? Turek. Josh, is it? Is that? I can't. Yeah, Turek. No, I'm just, I'm just. I'm responding to the fact that you are surrounded by Turek wallpaper. If the people can't see on the thing, Josh is right now sitting in, they've got him in a corner and he's got the Iowa state flag to his left. And he appears to be in a kind of AI generated Turek box. We'll call it. It's real. We call it the Turek dimension. And it's because Speaker 3 (2:19) far too often when I do these interviews, I forget to say the website. So it's there. Turek for Iowa. Speaker 4 (2:25) How is it? You're now, this is the final stretch, man. This is, what do you got now? A month and a half? 35 days to the finish. How long have you been on this road for running? You were in the state legislature in Iowa. Speaker 3 (2:39) Yeah, yeah, still am. It sounds like I'm going to be going into a special session here on Friday, actually. 405 days, 410 days. It's been quite the journey. In one year, we've taken this race from solidly R. to toss up to leading in the polls. It's been an incredible Speaker 4 (2:57) journey. Well, let's get some background for those because your race, as important as it is in Iowa, you and your opponent are running to replace Jodi Ertz. Is that correct? She dropped out after... mentioning to everyone in Iowa that we're all going to die. We're Speaker 3 (3:14) all going to Speaker 4 (3:14) die. No matter what she does in terms of policy, we're all going to die anyway. So what difference does it make? Speaker 3 (3:18) We're all going to die in the very smug, condescending apology in the graveyard. Yeah, that was a political albatross for her. Speaker 4 (3:25) I would agree. So you're both running to do that. You know, it doesn't have the national profile that like El-Sayed has gotten, you know, that where people can really dig in on sort of bigger personalities or these kinds of things. So just give us a little a brief run on what, you know, Iowa has not had a Republican senator for 30 years. Is that. Speaker 3 (3:49) Oh, no, we've got we've got two Republican senators right now. I Speaker 4 (3:51) mean, a Democratic senator. I apologize. Democratic senator. Speaker 3 (3:54) Yeah, the last one that we had was Tom Harkin, the father of the American with Disabilities Act and my political hero. Right. And it's basically a much more rural state. Yeah, pretty even divide between urban and rural. But I would say that, you know, one of the modern political divides is urban versus rural. And so, yeah, I think that that's one of the reasons why we have shifted more to the red than almost any other state over the last decade. But I think at our essence, we have always been a common sense state. I've been saying that for a year, that we're a common sense state that's masqueraded more red than what we actually are. 30 years we elected Senator Harkin, along with Grassley. And we've twice voted for Obama, three times for Trump. More Obama-Trump counties than any other state in the union. And in Trump's last midterm, we ended up winning three of the four congressional races, almost won all four. And so I think we're a common sense state. Speaker 4 (4:50) Seems to be moving back into a sort of more purple direction. Is that the feeling out there? Speaker 3 (4:57) Angeline is certainly swinging back our direction. And it's because Iowans are hurting and uniquely hurting. Speaker 4 (5:02) Let's talk about that for a second, because that's and then we'll dig in on the common sense aspect of it. But what is it about the economy in Iowa? Because it is not growing. It is it is in a difficult place. I think it's like. I don't want to say wrong, but you're last. I think you might be last. We're Speaker 3 (5:21) fighting for the last for a lot of things. Yeah. Forty eighth for income growth. Forty eighth for personal income growth. One of three states already seeing our economy contract basically dead last for nearly every health care metric. OBGYNs, mental health providers, mental health supports, Medicaid reimbursement, Medicare reimbursement. Just in the last six years since Ashley Henson went to Congress. We've closed 842 healthcare entities in Speaker 4 (5:47) a state of only 3.2 million. You've closed 842 healthcare entities in the state of Iowa. And by the way, state of what, 3 million? Yeah, 3.2 million. That's correct. 3.2 million. Okay. So you've closed 8, Speaker 3 (6:00) wow, okay. We've closed 160 independent rural pharmacies. We've got a cancer crisis. We have the second highest rates of cancer behind only Kentucky. Only state with a growing cancer rate. Is that based on pesticide use? Is that a farm-related statistic? There's a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons would be the nitrates in the water. And that comes off of the runoffs? That's correct. Yeah. Right. But I mean, look, we've got a lot going against us, at least on the cancer side. Older state, poorer state, massive healthcare deserts, particularly in the rural areas. Some of the highest levels of binge drinking. higher levels of smoking, highest levels of radon of any state. And then we've got this nitrate issue that we're not addressing the water quality issue at the state or the federal level. And then we've got public education, which was the point of personal pride for all Iowans, essentially the gold standard, including being on our quarter foundation in education. We've dropped to the bottom half. And now we lead the nation in farm foreclosures. largely due to tariff policy and because of this war in Iran. So, uh, Iowans are hurting Speaker 4 (7:12) and uniquely hurting. And is that a turn that happened? You know, you, you, you're a lifelong Iowan. You were born and raised there. That's right. Yeah. Born and raised in Council Bluffs. So tell me a little bit about. How the atmosphere turned, you know, it's is it that it's always been at least, you know, in in the time that you've been sort of more sentient and cognizant, a difficult place because, you know, it is not, you know, we talk about now it's the Gilded Age and and tech is coming in and all that. But it's always been a kind of hands on state. And so union work, really important. Blue collar work, really important. Farm work, really important. All of those industries have suffered over these last 40 or 50 years of kind of the Reagan era on forward. Yes. Yeah, I would say that. I would say, you Speaker 3 (8:04) know, certainly we're living through some form of a second Gilded Age and you're just not going to amass that amount of wealth, particularly in like an agrarian, you know, ag community. And then I would say over the last 40 years as well. We had the first farm crisis when I was just a little kid in the 80s. And we ended up losing half of our small family farms then. At that time, basically, farmers were told, get big or get out. And now we're heading towards what I've been calling a farm again, a second farm crisis. But 70 of our 99 counties, the rural communities, have lost population. We're essentially the only state that hasn't doubled in size in the last hundred years. It's in zero population Speaker 4 (8:52) growth. I mean, we're not keeping our young people. And so what, you know, in your mind, it seems like it's not unreasonable to think, OK, they turned away from Democratic policies because they felt like that exacerbated the crises that were going on there. And they think they're going to we're going to place this bet now on Trump and Republicans. But that clearly has not. Not only is it not paid off, it seems to have sunk the state further underwater. Speaker 3 (9:20) Yeah, I think so for sure. I think that's why you're seeing, you know, all these farms close. I mean, the big, the big, big issue, I think, I actually believe that Iowa has not shifted on economic policy. Like when I'm out there, I call myself a commonsense parade populist, and I'm out there saying we need a livable wage, affordable housing, driving private equity out of housing, health care. nursing homes. I say healthcare is a human right. You need to do something about the water quality crisis, public education. Everyone agrees with me on that. And they particularly agree with me on driving out the naked level of corruption that we're seeing. Where I think Iowa has shifted is shifted culturally. I think, look, I understand. I come from the reddest district that's represented by a Democrat. Right. What did Trump win your Speaker 4 (10:09) district by, the one that you Speaker 3 (10:11) are now the representative of? Yeah, the community of Carter Lake, he won by 18 points. My community of Council of Bless, he won by 10 points. I was able to win my district by six points. So the only way I was able to win was by going out and dragging my wheelchair upstairs to have conversations with independents and Republicans. Speaker 4 (10:29) Let's also make clear, and for those who are not familiar with your story, and it probably would make sense to grab a quick biography, you are in a wheelchair due to a condition known as spina bifida, I believe. That's correct, yeah, due to my father's exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Yeah, people don't realize the downstream effects of those kinds of toxic exposures. Speaker 3 (10:49) I say I'm an example of the generational consequences to these forever wars that we find ourselves in. And when you say you drag your wheelchair up, is it not ADA accessible? Well, personal residences are not required to be ADA accessible. And then I know that people will think about a state like Iowa and say, oh, that's a... That's a very flat state, but know where I live is in the low, one of two places on earth that has what's called the Los Hills. And so where I live is very hilly. And so to be able to get out there and talk to essentially anyone, I am dragging my wheelchair up 10, 20, 30 stairs. And always when I would get up to the top of the stairs, the very first question I would get would be, how in the world did you get up here? And I would say, well, that's how important your vote is to me. And especially in the reelection, what I would say is, look, I only won my first election by six votes. Six votes. That's true. Yeah, I was the only Democrat to win a competitive election on the western side of the state, won by six votes. Yeah. Speaker 4 (11:51) That's wild. How crazy was the recount process? Speaker 3 (11:55) You know what? Honestly, it went really smoothly. We brought in one R, one Speaker 4 (12:00) D, one independent, went through. And you cooperated? Wait, did the other side storm the capital of Council Bluffs? They just let it go? They let it, and it came back exactly. Six Speaker 3 (12:12) came Speaker 4 (12:12) back six. That's incredible. And did your opponent concede? Yeah, she did, actually, shockingly. What is going on in Iowa? Speaker 3 (12:21) Hey, it's, you know, there's a real Iowa nice. There is a kindness and a genuineness and an authenticity to the people in Iowa that exist almost no other place. Speaker 4 (12:36) Look, the algorithm is killing us. The algorithm, the way that it incentivizes the hostility and weaponizes ideology and all these, it just, it's not right. But the antidote, the antidote is information. And that's where Ground News comes in. Ground News, it's this website and app. It's designed to give readers a better way, an easier way to navigate the news. It pulls together every article. about the same news story from all outlets all over the world and puts them in one place and not incentivized for like the worst, most hostile, most partisan take. It tells you where it's coming from. You can see starkly in black and white how these different organizations and algorithms are manipulating the information that we get. They show you how reliable the source is and who's funding it. Who's funding it? Follow the money. Know who's behind the headline. Oh, who is this Rupert Murdoch fella? He seems delightful. He seems to have a somewhat pointed view of the world. I'm telling you, man. The Nobel Peace Center has even mentioned that ground news is an excellent way to stay informed. Nobel Peace Center. That's, I think, the one that Trump started. I think it 3D prints Nobel Peace Prizes and just hands them out. The platform's independently operated. supported by its subscribers. So they stay independent and they stay mission driven. They don't get sucked into this slop. If you want to see the full picture, go to Ground News. They can help you through the noise and get to the heart of the news. Go to groundnews.com slash steward. Subscribe for 40 % off the unlimited access Vantage subscription. Discount available only for a limited time. And this brings the price down to like $5 a month. That's groundnews.com slash steward. Or scan the QR code on the screen. Speaker 4 (14:43) I'm curious, Josh, how you said it shifted culturally. Do you think was that the biggest and let's not pardon the pun, the hill for you to climb? Was it to convince people you weren't a cultural liberal or is it that you weren't? What is it they needed to hear from you that made them feel comfortable? giving you their vote? Speaker 3 (15:10) A variety of things. Well, first, I, you know, even if I was speaking to the most ardent Republican, I would always find that even if it was just out of sympathy, they would say, okay, well, I'm going to give you five minutes of my time because you crawled up here. Okay. And then I would tell them my story. I would say, look, this is who I am. This is where I come from. This is what I'm fighting for. I got involved into politics because. The privatization of Medicaid in Iowa was leading to a thousand percent increase in denial rates. I was working in healthcare. I was assessing and providing power wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs for people with progressive conditions. So conditions like muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig's disease. And I would say, you know, I think we need representation up there and for the average person. Like I don't come from wealth or privilege. My family grew up really humbly, went to the goodwill for the clothes, shared clothes. And I said. I think we got a lot of people from privilege. I don't think we have enough people up here with life experience that have gone through real struggle, both economically and health care. And I would find that, you know, a five minute conversation, people would agree with me. But I also wasn't afraid to say, look, I don't think that Biden did a particularly good job on the border. And we need to have safe and secure borders, along with having an easier pathway to earn citizenship, because I'm married to an immigrant and I've gone through the process myself. But that's Speaker 4 (16:27) still an economic argument. I mean, basically. You know, if the difficulty of Democrats to get traction was cultural and I don't imagine in Iowa, I don't know if you have the kind of let's let's caricature them as the DSA Democratic Party wing where they're saying defund the police and or or whatever caricature is being put out there. Was it you selling your biography along with your economic message that you thought? made them comfortable hearing the message to give you a chance? How did you counter whatever misconceptions or prejudgments they might have had on democratic cultural issues, whether it's religion or LGBTQ? You know, we've been told that the country, that the Democrats have shifted so far left that they are no longer in any way connecting to the common sense good people of the heartland. Is would you say that's that's accurate? I would say the Democratic brand Speaker 3 (17:32) is certainly damaged. And, you know, there certainly were houses and groups of people that I would speak to where just even the term Democrat is a pejorative. So, yeah, I think being willing to to say that, you know, like for example, the border or saying, you know, I believe in the Second Amendment. I think that we can have common sense. gun regulations in place and also protect communities, but also protect the Second Amendment. So I think showing some distance between the party and then also even the way I define myself, I would say, you know, you define me as a Democrat. I define myself as a common sense prairie populist. And they would say, what does that mean to you? I'd say, well, everything through the guise of what is best for the people, what is best for the workers, what is best for the middle class is being hollowed out. And people would say to me all the time on the doors, you know, I'm not going to vote for every Democrat. You might be the only one I vote for, but I like your kind. You're a JFK Democrat. You're an FDR Democrat. You're, you know, a Tom Harkin prairie populist. And so I think making that distinction allowed them. But, you know, what we've lost in places like Iowa is we've lost blue dog Democrats. Speaker 4 (18:44) You know, it's so it's it's interesting to me because the way you describe your positions doesn't actually sound. that different from the Democratic Party platform. I mean, I think that generally, like even ardent liberals would say like, well, the Second Amendment is Second Amendment, but we could use some common sense goals there. So I'm curious. It's so interesting to me that, and I don't know if it's from where they get their information, but that you have to set yourself apart from Democrats to earn their trust. If that makes sense. Speaker 3 (19:22) Yeah. Well, and I think that oftentimes we this it's overly simplified to. Yeah. That I mean, by the very nature of having a binary system, you're going to be you're going to be a big tent party. And so you're going to have why? I mean, I say oftentimes, especially up at the Iowa legislature, there are times where I have more agreement with my moderate Republicans on issues than on my most extreme left wing. you know, Democrats. And so then they end up putting us into overly simplified buckets of, well, this is the progressive or this is the moderate or this is the establishment. So that's why from the very beginning, I said, I am a common sense and common sense might be the most important part of this. I think that's