艾奥瓦州苏城——民主党参议员候选人乔什·蒂雷克（Josh Turek）正在投放呼吁加强边境安全的广告。他在广告中大力宣传自己在州议会中与共和党人投过票的经历。
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek is running ads calling for border security. He’s touting his votes with Republicans in the statehouse.
蒂雷克批评本党阻挠农业和数据中心立法，并表示自己对谈论弹劾“毫无兴趣”。他甚至欣然接受了一个民主党人如今很少使用的词汇。
Turek is criticizing his party for obstructing farm and data center legislation and says he has “no interest” in talking about impeachment. He even embraces a term that Democrats rarely use these days.
蒂雷克在密苏里河畔接受《塞马福尔》网站采访时表示：“在政治上，‘温和派’这个词可能会带有贬义。但我说，我自豪地是一名温和派。在社会和文化层面上，你也可以把我定义为温和派。”在这个全美选情最胶着的参议员选举之一中，身为州众议员的蒂雷克与共和党众议员阿什利·欣森（Ashley Hinson）正在争夺一小部分思想独立的艾奥瓦州选民，正是这些选民将决定这场选举的结果，并进而可能决定参议院的多数党归属。
“Politically, the term moderate can be pejorative. And I say that I’m proudly a moderate,” Turek told Semafor on the banks of the Missouri River. “Socially, culturally, you could define me as moderate.”In one of the country’s closest Senate races, state Rep. Turek and GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson are competing for a small slice of independent-minded Iowans who will decide their race — and with it, potentially, the Senate majority.
两人都是顶尖候选人：欣森曾是一名艾奥瓦州电视记者，在2020年击败了一位在任的民主党人；蒂雷克则是一位获得过金牌的残奥会运动员，他以六票之差赢得了自己的首场州议会选举。
They’re both blue-chip recruits: Hinson is a former Iowa TV reporter who ousted a Democratic incumbent in 2020; Turek is a gold medal-winning Paralympian who won his first statehouse race by six votes.
两位候选人的诉求也很相似：我才是真正的务实派，而我的对手只是在装模作样。值得注意的是，欣森在竞选启动时曾誓言要做特朗普的“头号盟友”，随后才与特朗普保持了一定距离。
And the appeals from each candidate are similar: I’m the real pragmatist, and my opponent is just pretending to be one. Notably, Hinson launched her campaign with a vow to be Trump’s “top ally” before putting distance between them.
更重要的是，如果蒂雷克以及同为大平原地区民主党人的亚当·汉密尔顿（Adam Hamilton）等候选人获胜，将会把该党参议院党团的重心拉向近年来不断失势的中间立场。因此，共和党人正在投放广告，一方面证实蒂雷克与左翼保持了距离，另一方面又将其描绘成无力遏制左翼的人：“我知道乔什·蒂雷克不是社会主义者，但我们能相信他对自己的党说不吗？”一个名为“为了繁荣美国人”的组织在广告中这样问道。
What’s more, if Turek and candidates like fellow Great Plains Democrat Adam Hamilton win, it would tilt the center of gravity in the party’s Senate caucus toward a center that’s lost ground in recent years. So Republicans are running ads that affirm Turek’s distance from the left, while casting him as unable to hold it back: “I know Josh Turek isn’t a socialist, but can we trust him to say no to his party?” asks an Americans for Prosperity ad.
艾奥瓦州共和党参议员查克·格拉斯利（Chuck Grassley）对《塞马福尔》网站表示，“即使他是另一种民主党人”——他着重强调了“即使”一词——蒂雷克与本党领导层的关联依然具有破坏性。
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Semafor that “even if he is a different kind of Democrat” — emphasizing the “if” — Turek’s association with his party leadership is still damaging.
“等他到了华盛顿特区——这不会发生——他就会面临很大压力，不得不投票支持许多这种非常疯狂的计划，”格拉斯利说。
“When he gets to Washington, DC, which isn’t going to happen, he’s going to get a lot of pressure to vote for a lot of these really wild schemes,” Grassley said.
欣森将她对手的竞选活动描述为“特雷克两面派的故事。在初选中，他把总统批得一无是处，而现在他说他想与总统合作。我知道艾奥瓦州人一眼就能看穿这一点。”
Hinson describes her opponent’s campaign as a “tale of two Tureks. In the primary, he was trashing the president, and now he’s saying that he wants to work with him. I know Iowans are going to see right through that.”
这一指控显然激怒了特雷克，他说欣森在“伪装。我的意思是这对我来说是个问题。我真诚地是一个跨党派的人，”他补充说。“她一直具有党派倾向。……做你自己就行了。”
The charge clearly irks Turek who said Hinson’s “masquerading. I mean that’s a problem for me. I’m genuinely a bipartisan person,” he added. “She has been partisan. … Just be who you are.”
在特朗普最近访问艾奥瓦州的那天，苏城报纸的读者们看到了一则广告，上面吹嘘特雷克“700多次与共和党人投了相同的票”。特雷克称，将他的竞选描绘成在赋能左翼是“贩卖恐惧”，并承诺会“百分之百”地遏制他所在党派的自由派冲动。
And on the day of Trump’s latest Iowa visit, Sioux City newspaper readers were greeted with an ad bragging that Turek “voted with Republicans 700+ times.”Turek called it “fearmongering” to portray his candidacy as empowering the left, vowing to “100%” be a check on his party’s liberal impulses.
“‘你对弹劾怎么看？’毫无兴趣。我认为我们应该向前看，而不是向后看，”特雷克说。
“‘What do you think about impeachment?’ No interest in that. I believe we should look forward, not backwards,” Turek said.
特雷克过去曾是一个孤立无援的民主党人：多年来，他与艾奥瓦州民主党州众议员J·D·舒尔滕是艾奥瓦州众议院中仅有的两名代表艾奥瓦州西部的民主党人。舒尔滕对《semafor》杂志表示，这段经历使特雷克处于能够争取对现状不满的共和党人的有利地位。
Turek’s been a lonely Democrat before: He and state Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Iowa, were the only Democrats representing Western Iowa in the Iowa House for years. Scholten told Semafor that experience positions Turek to convert frustrated Republicans.
“我们在艾奥瓦州西部没有只跟民主党人对话的奢侈，”舒尔滕说。“你必须跟所有人对话，我认为这给他带来了巨大的好处。”“他是自[前参议员汤姆·]哈金以来我们最好的候选人，”舒尔滕补充说。
“We don’t have the luxury of talking just to Democrats out here in Western Iowa,” Scholten said. “You have to talk to everybody, and I think that has benefited him in a huge way.”“He’s our best candidate since [former Sen. Tom] Harkin,” Scholten added.
民调显示，这场竞选基本上势均力敌，几个月来几乎没有什么实质性变化。在僵局之中，欣森正在为争取中间派采取自己的行动。
Polls show the race as essentially tied, with little real movement for months. Amid the deadlock, Hinson is making her own play for the center.
“那是艾奥瓦州的传统，”格拉斯利解释说。“他们指望我们代表艾奥瓦州的利益，而不仅仅是美国总统的利益。”她是一名现任众议院共和党人，拥有支持总统议程的投票记录，其中包括减税法案。在冲刺阶段，她还在为特朗普助选，尽管她曾批评过俄亥俄州共和党州长候选人的一则两极分化的广告，而特朗普为该广告进行了辩护。
“That’s a tradition in Iowa,” Grassley explained. “They expect us to represent Iowa interests and not just the interests of whoever’s president of the United States.”She is a sitting House Republican, with her own voting record in support of the president’s agenda, including the tax cut law. She’s also campaigning with Trump down the stretch, even as she criticized a polarizing ad by Ohio’s GOP gubernatorial nominee that Trump defended.
在几次众议院投票中对其表示支持后，辛森现在反对特朗普的伊朗战争，并正在与他的俄罗斯交易路线分道扬镳。当被问及她是否本应在有机会时投票反对伊朗冲突时，她说：“我向前看。我一贯如此行事。当你看看我们现在的处境时，我已经要求总统结束这场战争。”
After supporting it in several House votes, Hinson now opposes Trump’s Iran war and is breaking with his Russia dealmaking. Asked if she should have voted against the Iran conflict when she had a chance, she said: “I look forward. That’s how I always operate. And when you look at where we are right now, I’ve asked the president to end the war.”
当被问及图雷克指责她为了政治方便而在最后关头向中间派靠拢时，辛森抨击图雷克在州议会缺席投票，并称“事实恰恰相反”。她预测：“他会有百分之百的时间跟着查克·舒默投票。”图雷克表示，在决定谁应领导该党之前，他会与任何领导层候选人会面。
Asked about Turek’s charge that she’s making a late tack to the center for political expedience, Hinson whacked Turek for missing votes in the statehouse and said “it’s exactly the opposite.”“He’s going to be voting with Chuck Schumer 100% of the time,” she predicted. Turek said he’d meet with any leadership candidates before making a decision on who should run the party.
图雷克批评特朗普的关税、战争、到期的医疗保健补贴以及医疗补助削减对艾奥瓦州造成了过度的伤害。他还逐一列举了他与总统“意见一致”的领域。
Turek criticized Trump’s tariffs, the war, expired health care subsidies, and Medicaid cuts as inordinately harming Iowa. He also ticked off the areas on which “I agree” with the president.
“让我们把私募股权驱逐出住房领域。让我们把它驱逐出医疗保健领域。让我们把它驱逐出疗养院。……我们不应对小费、加班费和社保征税。有很多事情我们是可以达成一致的，”图雷克说。
“Let’s drive private equity out of housing. Let’s drive it out of healthcare. Let’s drive it out of nursing homes. … We should have no tax on tips, overtime, and Social Security. There’s a lot that we can agree on,” Turek said.
他说，他本会支持《莱肯·赖利法案》，这是一项收紧对被控犯罪的非公民限制的法律，该法律至今仍在民主党内部引发痛苦的分歧。他还反对民主党对一项共和党数据中心法案的参议院冗长辩论阻挠，并表示他的党派在封锁一项农业法案上犯了错误。
He said he would have supported the Laken Riley Act, a law tightening restrictions on non-citizens accused of crimes that still painfully splits Democrats. He also objected to the Democratic filibuster of a GOP data center bill and said his party erred in blockading a farm bill.
图雷克说：“农业法案并不完全是我所希望的那样。但我认为我们不应该让完美成为进步的绊脚石。如果我当选，我会投赞成票。”艾奥瓦州正饱受高油价和萎靡不振的农业市场之苦，这导致了对长期执政的共和党的不满。三个由共和党把持的众议院席位正面临争夺，而民主党人罗布·桑德在州长竞选中处于领先地位。
“The farm bill isn’t exactly as written as exactly what I would want. But I don’t think we should let perfection stand in the way of progress,” Turek said. “If I’m up there, I will vote for it.”Iowa is reeling from high gas prices and a moribund agriculture market, causing dissatisfaction with the long-ruling GOP. Three Republican-held House seats are up for grabs, and Democrat Rob Sand is favored to win the governor’s race.
但无论图雷克如何跨越党派界限进行拉拢，共和党人认为，该党选民最终还是会像2010年以来的历次参议院选举那样，归队支持欣森。
But no matter how much Turek appeals across the aisle, Republicans feel that the party will come home for Hinson as it has in every Senate race since 2010.
来自亚拉巴马州的共和党参议员凯蒂·布里特在与欣森共同出席一场活动后表示：“我相信我们已经缩小了这个差距。我们将在其中的许多州取得胜利，艾奥瓦州名列榜首。”放眼艾奥瓦州双方阵营的攻击之外，你会看到这里有一场老式的中间路线争夺战。这让人想起了特朗普时代的政治过去是什么样子——也许，未来也可能如此。
“I believe we’ve closed this gap,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., after an event with Hinson. “We’ll prevail in a number of these states, Iowa being at the top of that list.”Look beyond the attacks from both sides in Iowa, and you’ll see a good old-fashioned race for the middle here. It’s a reminder of what pre-Trump politics used to be like — and, perhaps, what they might be in the future.
我在2013年首次开始报道的那群红州温和派民主党参议员，曾帮助引导该党的议程走向中间路线并缓和进步派的优先事项。今年在艾奥瓦州、堪萨斯州和北卡罗来纳州，民主党人可能正开始重建其党内的那一翼。
The bevy of red-state centrist Democratic senators whom I first started covering in 2013 helped steer the party’s agenda to the middle and temper progressive priorities. Democrats might be starting to rebuild that wing of their party this year in Iowa, Kansas, and North Carolina.