Jason BeetsAs you read this thread, ask yourself if this is a story you would have heard about anywhere else.
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Two candidates with fascinating life stories are running for the Democratic nomination in the senate election in Iowa.
https://jasonbeets.blogspot.com/2026/05/a-fascinating-iowa-senate-race.html
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Josh Turek, who has Spina Bifida, trained hard to become a wheelchair basketball paralympian who won two gold medals, before he was elected to serve in the Iowa House of Representatives.
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#Sports #Olympics #Paralympics #Disability #Wheelchair #Basketball
Iowa will hold its primary on June 2.
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The US Senate election in Iowa is for an open seat, because Republican Senator Joni Ernst chose not to run for reelection.
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The 2026 Iowa Senate Race has received little national attention, despite the captivating life stories of the two rising stars running in the Democratic primary.
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So let’s learn about these candidates, and their fascinating biographies, as we explore the most interesting Senate Race you’ve likely never heard of.
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Section: Fighting for Equality
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Zach Wahls was raised by his two mothers, Terry Wahls and Jackie Reger.
Both Zach Wahls and his sister were conceived via artificial insemination, from the same anonymous sperm donor, which means they are full biological siblings.
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Zach Wahls advocated for gay rights as the US debated whether same-sex couples should be allowed to legally marry.
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In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a state law that banned gay marriage.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/us/04iowa.html
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Republicans in the Iowa House of Representatives attempted to overturn the State Supreme Court decision by amending the Iowa State Constitution to ban gay marriage.
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The Judiciary Committee of the Iowa House held a hearing on January 31, 2011, as the legislature considered whether to approve the proposed state constitutional amendment.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-tale-of-two-moms-a-teenage-sonand-a-video-that-wouldnt-die/
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Zach Wahls, who was a 19-year-old college student at the time, eloquently advocated in favor of marriage equality and against the proposed amendment.
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His arguments were so well reasoned that The Economist magazine introduced video of Wahls’s testimony by stating, “This is what it looks like to win an argument.”
https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2011/02/04/the-iowa-house-v-zach-wahls-and-his-moms
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Wahls told the committee that his family isn’t that different from any other Iowa family.
“When I’m home, we go to church together. We eat dinner, we go on vacations,” he said. “But, we have our hard times too; we get in fights. Actually, my mom, Terry, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000. It is a devastating disease that put her in a wheelchair. So, we’ve had our struggles."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01DcBxsOyIw
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Zach Wahls Speaks About Family
“But we’re Iowans,” Wahls continued. “We don’t expect anyone to solve our problems for us. We’ll fight our own battles. We just hope for equal and fair treatment from our government.”
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Wahls said the topic of same-sex marriage came up frequently during class discussions at his university.
“The question always comes down to, ‘Can gays even raise kids?’ And the conversation gets quiet for a moment, because most people don’t really have an answer,” he said. “And then I raise my hand and say, ‘Well actually, I was raised by a gay couple, and I’m doing pretty well.’ ”
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Wahls reiterated that his family was not that different than any other.
“My family really isn’t so different from yours,” he said. “After all, your family doesn’t derive its sense of worth from being told by the state, ‘You’re married, congratulations!’ No. The sense of family comes from the commitment we make to each other to work through the hard times so we can enjoy the good ones. It comes from the love that binds us. That’s what makes a family.”
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Wahls argued against amending the Iowa constitution to discriminate against families like his.
“So what you’re voting for here is not to change us,” he said. “It’s not to change our families, it’s to change how the law views us, how the law treats us.”
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“You are voting for the first time in the history of our state to codify discrimination into our constitution, a constitution that but for the proposed amendment is the least amended constitution in the United States of America,” Wahls added.
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“You are telling Iowans, ‘Some among you are second-class citizens who do not have the right to marry the person you love,’ " Wahls continued.
“So will this vote affect my family? Would it affect yours? In the next two hours, I’m sure we’re going to hear plenty of testimony about how damaging having gay parents is on kids. But in my 19 years, not once have I ever been confronted by an individual who realized independently that I was raised by a gay couple.”
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Zach Wahls’s testimony before the committee lasted only three minutes, but it is worth watching in full.
A YouTube video of Wahls’s testimony went viral.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-tale-of-two-moms-a-teenage-sonand-a-video-that-wouldnt-die/
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Nevertheless, despite Wahls’s moving argument, the Iowa House voted to advance the proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. But the amendment was blocked in the Iowa Senate.
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Wahls delivered a petition to the Boy Scouts of America advocating against the organization’s ban on gay and lesbian scout leaders.
https://abcnews.com/US/eagle-scout-challenges-boy-scouts-anti-gay-policy/story?id=16459135
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At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Wahls praised President Barack Obama for being willing to “put his political future on the line” to support same-sex marriage.
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Iowan, at convention: "Mr. Romney, my family is just as real as yours" (AUDIO) - Radio Iowa
A man from Iowa City who drew national attention for testimony at the statehouse last year spoke for a few minutes tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. “My name is Zach Wahls. I’m a sixth generation Iowa, an Eagle Scout,” he began, “and I was raised by my two moms: Jackie and Terry.” Delegates […]
Wahls was elected to the Iowa State Senate in 2018, and he was reelected to the Iowa Senate in 2022.
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