Josh Turek has represented America on the international stage and now he’s set to represent his hometown in the Iowa Legislature.
The 43-year-old, two-time gold medalist Paralympian was born and raised in Council Bluffs and is the Democratic candidate for Iowa House District 20, covering northwest Council Bluffs and all of Lake Carter.
Iowa House District 20 has nearly identical boundaries to the former Iowa House District 15, and longtime Rep. Charlie McConkey chose not to run again. He encouraged Turek to enter the race.
Turek and Republican Sarah Abdouch will face each other in the November 8 poll.
One of Turek’s motivations for getting into the race is to improve healthcare for everyone, but especially people with disabilities.
Turek was born with spina bifida – a birth defect that occurs when the spine and spinal cord do not form properly – and has used a wheelchair for most of his life. He works full-time as a specialized account manager for Numotion, the largest US provider of mobility products.
Before entering politics and returning home to Iowa, Turek enjoyed a successful international wheelchair basketball career.
“I was blessed to be able to piggyback on that gold medal and that basketball story with a happy ending and use that name recognition in that space,” Turek said.
Turek is the all-time leading scorer in men’s wheelchair basketball at Southwest Minnesota State University and has turned those skills into a global career that began in Italy and has seen him play professional basketball on every continent but the United States. ‘Antarctic.
He’s lived and played all over the world – he considers Madrid, Spain, his second home and it’s where his wife, Jarolin is from – but he wanted to return to Council Bluffs.
“I wasn’t going to buy a house in Omaha, Nebraska, where a lot of people go,” Turek said, referring to his larger, more prosperous hometown neighbor just across the Missouri River.
“I said I’m going home to Council Bluffs, Iowa, because that’s really my home — it’s my people — and I want to try to make a positive difference in my community and be able to inspire some people. I don’t didn’t know I was going to do it that way.
Turek’s journey back to Council Bluffs began in 2018. He was two years away from the first U.S. Men’s National Wheelchair Basketball Team to win Paralympic Games gold since 1988 and was preparing for his next movement.
“My wife and I got married and, as an early honeymoon gift for her, [we] went to Australia to play in their league, which I had never done, and then we went to Bali, Indonesia,” Turek.
After this escapade, they found themselves in Spain where Turek, even in the twilight of his career, was still performing at a high level. He even managed his team, Bidaideak Bilbao BSR, in the rating.
The U.S. national team lost in the 2018 IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championship final and asked Turek if he would return to the team for two more years, spanning the 2019 Parapan Am Games to Lima, Peru, and the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. .
Turek agreed to do so, knowing that Tokoyo was going to be his last hurrah as a basketball player and he began to plan the next phase of his life. So, while balancing time between the U.S. national team, his Spanish team, and his new wife, Turek also took online classes to earn his master’s degree.
“Well, everything’s on track, you know, playing great,” he said. “Like maybe I had my best season in 2019 as old as I was.”
Things were also going well with his Spanish team at the start of 2020. Turek led the league in scoring, was named All-Star 5, and then the pandemic hit.
“Everything stopped, all leagues were closed,” Turek said.
With his basketball career on the hiatus, Turek and his wife moved to Council Bluffs and he started his job at Numotion.
“So now for the first time I’m working full time, also finishing my master’s degree and also trying to train for the Paralympic Games without having access to organized basketball because everything has been shut down here,” said said Turek.
“Basically it was 5 a.m., I was leaving and shooting a thousand shots, pushing home, working all day, coming back at night to do a lift, do cardio, do chair work on my own , and then on the weekends or whenever I could, I was trying to finish my master’s,” Turek said.
He then competed in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, where he won his second Paralympic gold medal. In total, he has two Paralympic gold medals and one bronze; a silver medal at the World Championships and three gold medals at the Parapan American Games.
Between his work at Numotion, serving on the National Wheelchair Basketball Association’s High Performance Committee, and serving on the board of the Ryan Martin Foundation, a nonprofit that provides free summer camps and equipment free basketball adapted sports for children with disabilities, Turek is a busy person.
So why would he add running for public office to the mix?
“I’ve always had a peripheral interest in politics and government — I have an inquisitive mind — and I’ve always been fascinated by this space,” Turek said.
Turek noted that he even ran for student body president at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs at the time. However, he says the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol building reinforced his decision to enter politics.
“Democracy is at stake, the soul of the nation is at stake,” Turek said. “It really feels like we’re kind of at this pivotal point in our nation’s history, which direction are we going to go? What kind of nation will we become?
Turek’s other reason is that the disability community is barely represented in government, leaving many elected officials unaware of some of these daily challenges.
“I’ve been in a wheelchair all my life,” Turek said. “I knew the personal level of difficulty in procuring equipment and obtaining medical supplies, and the cost and difficulty of doing so.”
Although he uses a wheelchair to get around, Turek said his work at Numotion — particularly when he works at the company’s clinic in Lincoln, Nebraska — has shown him just how much the American healthcare system is flawed and seemingly unfair, especially when compared to the government-provided healthcare system. care he has seen in other countries.
“You have a lot of people in this country who will say, ‘America is the greatest country on this Earth.’ Well, I would actually agree with them in that sense, but I would put it with this caveat that “America is the greatest country on this Earth if you have the money,” Turek said. .
“We actually provide the fewest social safety nets for the poor and less fortunate.”
At Numotion, Turek said he saw people unable to meet their basic needs due to the cost or lack of coverage in their health care plan and he thought, “Someone has to step up and do something. something about it.”
He initially thought of running for council in Council Bluffs, but after a phone call from McConkey and a meeting with their two wives, Turek decided State House was his next step.
For his part, McConkey said he saw how ambitious and determined Turek was and felt he would be the perfect person to represent the district next. McConkey even got the Iowa House to pass a resolution earlier this year honoring Turek for his work as a Paralympian.
“It was time for me to let someone else take over,” McConkey said. “With his story, his heart and what he believes in, I’m really excited for him. I mean, I’d be running if it wasn’t for him; if he didn’t run, I would run again because I wouldn’t let that seat go to anyone else.
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES:
If elected in Iowa House District 20, Josh Turek has three key priorities:
- Education: “Access to quality education is the best predictor of future success in life. And Iowa, not too long ago, even when I graduated from high school, we were the gold standard; we were No. 1.” He wants to increase funding for public schools.
- Making healthcare affordable: Turek has lived in several countries with universal healthcare systems and he talked about how much of a game-changer that is for people. “Seeing the freedom it gives to individuals and seeing the burden it takes away from them, especially for the disability community, the ease for them to be able to get wheelchairs and see their doctors in a reasonable amount of time. We just need to make changes in this country, especially in the state of Iowa.
- Turek’s last priority is to take care of the workers and the middle class by then expanding social security. “America, we are the only country without two weeks of government mandated vacation, maternity or sick leave; all of these things are increasingly significant as the middle class continues to shrink and we move towards this style of oligarch where the 1% has all the money and power.
IN ONE LOOK :
Name: Josh Turek
Position: Democratic Candidate for Iowa House District 20
Age: 43 years old
Residence: Council Bluffs
Education: Graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs in 1997; earned a bachelor’s degree from Southwest Minnesota State University at Marshall in 2002; earned a master’s degree from Keller University in 2021.
Experience: Account sales manager at Numotion, and former international wheelchair basketball player.
Family: Wife, Jarolin.
Interests: Traveling, spending time with family and friends, playing chess, bowling.
by Ty Rushing
10/09/22
To contact editor Ty Rushing for advice or story ideas, email him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter @Rushthewriter
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