United States Senate election in Iowa, 2026 (June 2 Democratic primary)

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U.S. Senate, Iowa
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: March 13, 2026
Primary: June 2, 2026 General: November 3, 2026
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting in Iowa
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Likely Republican DDHQ and The Hill: Pending Inside Elections: Likely Republican Sabato's Crystal Ball: Likely Republican
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
U.S. Senate, Iowa U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th Iowa elections, 2026 U.S. Congress elections, 2026 U.S. Senate elections, 2026 U.S. House elections, 2026 Alabama U.S. Senate raceAlaska U.S. Senate raceArkansas U.S. Senate raceColorado U.S. Senate raceDelaware U.S. Senate raceGeorgia U.S. Senate raceIdaho U.S. Senate raceIllinois U.S. Senate raceIowa U.S. Senate raceKansas U.S. Senate raceKentucky U.S. Senate raceLouisiana U.S. Senate raceMaine U.S. Senate raceMassachusetts U.S. Senate raceMichigan U.S. Senate raceMinnesota U.S. Senate raceMississippi U.S. Senate raceMontana U.S. Senate raceNebraska U.S. Senate raceNew Hampshire U.S. Senate raceNew Jersey U.S. Senate raceNew Mexico U.S. Senate raceNorth Carolina U.S. Senate raceOklahoma U.S. Senate raceOregon U.S. Senate raceRhode Island U.S. Senate raceSouth Carolina U.S. Senate raceSouth Dakota U.S. Senate raceTennessee U.S. Senate raceTexas U.S. Senate raceVirginia U.S. Senate raceWest Virginia U.S. Senate raceWyoming U.S. Senate raceSubmit

A Democratic Party primary takes place on June 2, 2026, in Iowa to determine which Democratic candidate will run in the state's general election on November 3, 2026.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
March 13, 2026	June 2, 2026	November 3, 2026

Heading into the election, the incumbent is Joni Ernst (Republican), who was first elected in 2014.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. In Iowa, state law provides for a closed primary where every voter must be affiliated with a party in order to participate in its primary. However, a voter can change his or her political party affiliation on the day of the primary.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Iowa's United States Senate Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the state's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

• United States Senate election in Iowa, 2026 (June 2 Republican primary)
• United States Senate election in Iowa, 2026

Candidates and election results

Note: The following list includes official candidates only. Ballotpedia defines official candidates as people who:

• Register with a federal or state campaign finance agency before the candidate filing deadline
• Appear on candidate lists released by government election agencies

Democratic primary

Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Iowa

Chris Henry (D), Nathan Sage (D), Josh Turek (D), and Zach Wahls (D) are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Iowa on June 2, 2026.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Chris Henry
		Nathan Sage
		Josh Turek
		Zach Wahls

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Jackie Norris (D)
• J.D. Scholten (D)

Candidate profiles

There are currently no candidate profiles created for this race. Candidate profiles will appear here as they are created. Encourage the candidates in this race to complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey so that their profile will appear here. You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:

• Nathan Sage
• Zach Wahls
• Josh Turek

Voting information

See also: Voting in Iowa

Ballotpedia will publish the dates and deadlines related to this election as they are made available.

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Chris Henry	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Nathan Sage	Democratic Party	$1,349,828	$1,263,488	$86,339	As of December 31, 2025
Josh Turek	Democratic Party	$1,686,398	$1,287,925	$398,474	As of December 31, 2025
Zach Wahls	Democratic Party	$2,045,589	$1,312,108	$733,481	As of December 31, 2025
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. *** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates in Iowa in the 2026 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Iowa, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates, 2026
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
Iowa	U.S. Senate	Ballot-qualified party	3,500, including at least 100 signatures from at least 19 counties.	N/A	3/13/2026	Source
Iowa	U.S. Senate	Unaffiliated	3,500, including at least 100 signatures from at least 19 counties.	N/A	6/2/2026	Source

See also

• United States Senate election in Iowa, 2026 (June 2 Republican primary)
• United States Senate election in Iowa, 2026
• United States Senate Democratic Party primaries, 2026
• United States Senate Republican Party primaries, 2026
• United States Senate elections, 2026
• U.S. Senate battlegrounds, 2026

External links

Suggest a link

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

[show]

Iowa's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Joni Ernst (R)

Chuck Grassley (R)

Representatives

District 1

Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R)

District 2

Ashley Hinson (R)

District 3

Zach Nunn (R)

District 4

Randy Feenstra (R)

Republican Party (6)

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