Iowa Democrat Josh Turek’s $20,000-plus haul in per diem checks for 261 missed floor votes is more than a bookkeeping footnote—it’s a textbook case of taxpayer-funded absenteeism that 2A voters should file away for November. While Turek was cashing daily stipends meant to offset the cost of serving, the Iowa House was moving bills on everything from permitless carry expansions to restrictions on local gun-control ordinances. Every skipped roll call is a missed opportunity to defend or expand those measures, and the per-diem meter kept running regardless of whether he showed up to cast a vote.

For the firearms community the takeaway is straightforward: candidates who treat legislative service as a part-time gig with full-time paychecks are unlikely to treat the right to keep and bear arms with the urgency it deserves. Turek’s record already includes support for magazine restrictions and red-flag proposals; pairing that policy stance with chronic absenteeism suggests both philosophical opposition and practical disengagement. Iowa’s gun owners have spent years building a legislative firewall against coastal-style gun control—sending someone to Des Moines who literally gets paid to stay home undercuts that progress before the next session even begins.