Election and Paralympics winner from the USA: Fighters for a better life

T he election night of the midterms in the USA was barely over, the country and the world were still wavering between disbelief and euphoria when the new stars of the big “blue wave” were already emerging. Abdul El-Sayed from Michigan was on everyone's lips, the good preacher James Talarico, who freed Texas from the Republican stranglehold, and of course the ultra-cool Jon Ossoff from Georgia. However, much less attention was paid to Josh Turek, who reclaimed the Senate seat for the agricultural state of Iowa for the Democratic Party for the first time in 21 years.

That's actually a shame, because Turek has by far one of the most exciting stories among the new senators who want to thoroughly ventilate the musty halls of the Capitol in January. Just five years ago, the 47-year-old won Olympic gold with the US para-basketball team. That alone is a historic first. However, Turek's path there is at least as unusual and impressive.

There has been a lot of talk during this election campaign in the USA about the country's underdogs, the forgotten and left behind, who have fewer and fewer opportunities in an increasingly cruel society. If one candidate truly embodies this underdog status, however, it is Josh Turek.

Turek grew up in real poverty. His father, a Vietnam veteran, worked in administration at a vocational school and his mother was a social worker. No jobs that still allow one to support a family of six in America. Especially when one of the children, Josh, is born with a severe disability and insurance doesn't even come close to covering the medical bills. The family got their clothes from old clothing collections, and the children had to go to the city soup kitchens for lunch after school.

Josh was born with spina bifida, a birth defect in which the lower part of the spine is not completely complete. The disability could be directly attributed to his father's exposure to the infamous defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam. Turek had to undergo 21 operations before the age of twelve. An ordeal that plunged the family into great financial hardship. He was excluded and teased at school. He only found self-confidence and friendship when he attended a wheelchair basketball camp as a teenager in the neighboring city of Omaha.

But his sports career didn't go smoothly either. He was a little undersized for a pitcher, a deficiency he compensated for with an iron work ethic. The thousand throws he made every morning in college, according to his teammates, earned him a professional contract in Italy and a spot on the national team. But after the US team's disappointing seventh place finish in Athens in 2004, he was left out of the lineup.

But Turek didn't give up. He trained even harder and tried again until he was reinstated to the team in 2011. In 2012 he was the best thrower on the team that won bronze in London. Looking back, it was the best and most beautiful tournament of Turek's career, even if the American para basketball players won gold in 2016 and 2021.

His political work followed practically directly from the professional activity that he had begun while he was still active. As a contact between a manufacturer of special wheelchairs and the health insurance companies, he saw how more and more applications were rejected year after year. Decisions that often had catastrophic consequences for families. That's why he ran for the Iowa State Senate in 2022.

So Iowans can now be confident that they are sending a fighter to Washington, and one who may be able to help build bridges in a new Washington. Turek is proud that he often voted against the party line and for his beliefs in the Iowa Senate. Some of his positions, for example on the issue of immigration, give his democratic comrades a slight stomach ache. But when it comes to the party's core issue in this election campaign, a better life for ordinary Americans, they can be sure of a steadfast fighter in their lineup.