# Josh Turek Missed Most of His Iowa House Votes While Running for Senate ## Turek missed 261 votes while collecting more than $20,000 in taxpayer-funded per diem payments ## About this report - Author: Transparency Report Staff - Report type: candidate_issue - Published: 2026-08-17T15:27:46.828Z - Last updated: 2026-08-19T14:35:17.851Z > Iowa Democratic Senate nominee Josh Turek is asking voters to promote him to the U.S. Senate, but his final legislative session in Des Moines raises questions about how seriously he treated the office he already held. During the 2026 Iowa legislative session, Turek missed 261 Iowa House votes between January 12 and May 3 — roughly 58% of the chamber’s votes during that period — according to a review of legislative records. At the same time, Turek received $20,100 in taxpayer-funded per diem payments, the maximum available to most Iowa legislators during the 100-day session. Some of those absences coincided with Turek’s U.S. Senate campaign and fundraising trips outside Iowa. He missed votes during periods in which his campaign reported fundraising from donors in California and Washington, D.C., and campaign expenditures indicate he traveled to both places. At one point in March, Turek missed 30 consecutive votes. The attendance record has drawn criticism even from inside Iowa. Republican state Rep. Taylor Collins wrote in a July Gazette guest column that he could recall few occasions during the session when he interacted with or even saw Turek at the Capitol, accusing the Senate candidate of campaigning for a new job while neglecting the one taxpayers were already paying him to perform. ## Key findings 1. Turek missed 261 Iowa House votes from January 12 through May 3, approximately 58% of the votes taken during that period. 2. Despite that attendance record, Turek received $20,100 in taxpayer-funded legislative per diem payments — $201 per day for 100 days. Iowa law provides legislators with per diem payments during session, capped at 100 days in even-numbered years. 3. Some absences coincided with Turek's Senate fundraising outside Iowa. His campaign reported fundraising from Southern California and Washington-area donors during periods when he missed votes, with campaign spending indicating travel to those locations. 4. Turek missed votes touching rural healthcare, education and other state priorities. His Republican opponent has also highlighted absences on the Iowa Farm Bill, veterans funding and child-abuse investigations. 5. Turek's campaign argues the criticism is hypocritical because other candidates also miss legislative business while campaigning and says Turek remained an effective bipartisan legislator. ## Full report ## Full Report ### Turek Missed Nearly 60% of House Votes Turek entered the 2026 election portraying his state legislative experience as one of his central qualifications for the U.S. Senate. His campaign describes him as a state legislator capable of winning Republican-leaning territory, and during the Democratic primary Turek repeatedly argued that his record in a district won by President Donald Trump showed he was “battle-tested” and capable of working across traditional partisan lines. But during the same year he was making his Iowa House record a selling point, Turek was absent for more votes than he cast. A review of legislative records reported by Fox News found Turek missed 261 votes between January 12 and May 3, nearly 60% of the Iowa House votes taken during that period. Official Iowa House journals independently document repeated days when Turek was listed as “absent or not voting.” On April 8, for example, Turek was absent for a series of votes, and a subsequent House Journal recorded an explanation of how he would have voted had he been present. On April 27, he was again listed among absent members across numerous votes taken that day. It is not unusual for lawmakers to occasionally miss votes because of illness, family obligations, travel or other official responsibilities. But missing a majority of votes over several months goes considerably beyond an isolated absence. ### Taxpayers Still Paid Turek More Than $20,000 in Per Diem Turek's absence is particularly notable because Iowa taxpayers continued providing him with legislative expense payments. Iowa lawmakers who live outside the Des Moines area can receive daily per diem payments while the General Assembly is in session. Iowa law provides those payments for up to 100 days during the second year of a General Assembly, regardless of whether the session ultimately lasts longer. The 2026 rate was $201 per day, and records provided by the chief clerk of the Iowa House showed Turek received the full $20,100 available over those 100 days. In other words, Turek collected the full allotment of taxpayer-funded session expense money during a period when he missed more than half of the chamber's votes. The per diem itself was not contingent on Turek casting every vote, meaning receiving the money while absent does not by itself establish a violation of Iowa law. The more significant question is one of priorities: taxpayers were providing the expenses intended to support his service as a state legislator while Turek was simultaneously spending substantial time pursuing another office. ### Campaign Fundraising Overlapped With Legislative Absences Some of the absences came as Turek's Senate campaign was raising money far outside Iowa. Between March 25 and March 31, Turek's campaign received roughly $43,000 from Southern California donors, according to a review of campaign-finance records. Campaign expenditures for Los Angeles-area lodging indicated the campaign was in California during that period. Turek missed 12 legislative votes around the same stretch, including a vote involving rural healthcare and medical licensing. Turek also raised approximately $36,500 from Washington, D.C.-area donors between February 17 and March 23, while campaign records showed an event-venue payment at Washington's Wharf. He missed 16 votes during a related period, including consideration of education legislation. At one point during March, Turek missed 30 consecutive House votes. Those records do not prove every absence was caused by fundraising, and the broad contribution windows should not be treated as evidence that Turek was physically outside Iowa for every missed vote. But the combination of travel-related campaign spending, out-of-state fundraising and repeated legislative absences reinforces the broader question of whether his Senate campaign had become the greater priority. That contrast is particularly striking given Turek's campaign rhetoric against wealthy political interests and his effort to cultivate a populist image. Turek's Senate bid itself benefited from an extraordinary influx of national political money. VoteVets spent more than $8 million supporting him during the Democratic primary — an unusually large investment for the organization and substantially more than Turek's own campaign was spending on advertising at the time. ### He Missed Votes on Issues He Says Matter to Iowans The missed votes were not limited to procedural matters. Turek was absent for votes involving rural healthcare and medical licensing as well as education standards, according to legislative records reviewed by Fox News. His Republican opponent Ashley Hinson's campaign has also accused him of missing votes concerning the Iowa Farm Bill, Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs funding and child-abuse investigations. That creates an obvious vulnerability for a candidate campaigning heavily on healthcare, veterans and working families. Turek frequently points to his own family's experience with veterans benefits. Born with spina bifida, which he attributes to his father's exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam, Turek has said VA healthcare and other government programs helped give him opportunities that eventually allowed him to become a Paralympic gold medalist. VoteVets has made that story central to its multimillion-dollar campaign on his behalf, arguing that Turek understands the lasting costs borne by military families despite never serving in the military himself. But while national groups spent millions promoting Turek's connection to veterans' issues, he was absent for a state House vote that Hinson's campaign says funded Iowa's Department of Veterans Affairs. ### Turek Has Missed Important Votes Before The attendance issue also predates the heaviest stretch of his Senate campaigning. During Iowa's 2023 special legislative session on abortion, Turek missed the vote on legislation banning most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy — despite strongly opposing the measure. Turek later explained that he had experienced a serious medical complication associated with his disability and apologized to constituents for being unable to vote. That absence therefore differs substantially from campaign-related absences and should not be characterized as Turek simply choosing not to attend. He was also absent for another abortion-related vote while attending a disability legislative summit in Washington, according to his campaign. Those explanations demonstrate why raw missed-vote totals require context. Not every absence is evidence of neglect. But they do not explain Turek's much larger 2026 attendance problem, which encompassed hundreds of votes while he simultaneously ran a statewide campaign and traveled for political activity. ### Conclusion Josh Turek wants Iowa voters to judge him by his experience as a state legislator as they decide whether to send him to Washington. His 2026 attendance record deserves to be part of that judgment. From January through early May, Turek missed 261 Iowa House votes — approximately 58% of the total during that period — while receiving the maximum $20,100 in legislative per diem payments available during the 100-day session. Some of Turek's earlier absences had legitimate medical or disability-related explanations. But the scale of his 2026 absenteeism coincided with an increasingly national Senate campaign that took him beyond Iowa and brought in money from donors around the country. Turek has built his Senate pitch around being a hardworking, pragmatic Iowan capable of delivering results where other Democrats cannot. Missing most of his state House votes while taxpayers continued footing his legislative expenses leaves him with a basic question to answer: If running for the U.S. Senate made it this difficult for Turek to show up for his current job, why should Iowans promote him to a bigger one? ## Related candidates - [Josh Turek](https://transparencyreport.io/candidates/josh-turek-iowa-d-2026.md) --- Source: Transparency Report — https://transparencyreport.io/reports/josh-turek-missed-iowa-house-votes This is the Markdown version of the page. Cite the canonical URL above.