Barack Obama endorses Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek with a game of basketball

The former president teamed up with the state lawmaker and Paralympian for a basketball-themed campaign video ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Former President Barack Obama endorsed Iowa Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek with the campaign equivalent of an alley-oop: a basketball game and a closing appeal to voters, according to the Associated Press. Obama’s latest stop and endorsement follows the his recent basketball appearance with WNBA All-Stars and his Texas campaign stop with Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico.

In a video published July 29 on Turek’s YouTube page, he and Obama play “I-O-W-A,” a variation of H-O-R-S-E, while discussing the Republican-held U.S. Senate seat that will open when Sen. Joni Ernst retires. Turek is an Iowa state representative and two-time Paralympic gold medalist who represented Team USA in wheelchair basketball at four Paralympic Games.

Obama jokes that he knows something about winning Iowa, referring to the 2008 Democratic caucus victory that helped launch his first presidential campaign. He later carried the state in both the 2008 and 2012 general elections.

The former president also recalls the energy of regular people organizing during his Iowa campaign. The basketball campaign video lets Turek connect his political bid to the athletic career that took him to four Paralympics and brought him gold medals in 2016 and 2021.

Turek is running against Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who has President Donald Trump’s endorsement. The contest is one of the difficult races Democrats are targeting as they seek a Senate majority. Trump won Iowa by double digits in the 2024 presidential election, and the state has not elected a Democratic senator in more than a decade.

Obama has started supporting Democratic candidates months before the November midterms. In May, he appeared at an Austin restaurant with Talarico and Texas gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa, encouraging voters to back both candidates.

On the court, however, the former president conceded the advantage. Obama said Turek “whooped” him in their game, giving the candidate a victory before the campaign message arrived.

“Now the ball’s in your court, Iowa,” Obama says near the end of the video before urging voters to send Turek to the Senate.