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Iowa Republican Senate nominee Joni Ernst told a local news outlet she's "appalled" that her husband once called former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano a "traitorous skank" on Facebook. As reported by the Des Moines Register, Democrats took a screenshot of Gail Ernst's written comments, which had been up since April 2013, and seized on them. That prompted him to delete that and other inflammatory posts and apologize for them before Ernst denounced them. "I'm appalled by my husband's remarks," Joni Ernst said, according to the Register

With the departure of Eric Cantor as majority leader, it's time to replace him with someone with strong conservative values. My choice is Steve King of Iowa. Steve is not looking for votes, but is looking for solutions to problems.

=Joni Ernst, candidate for U.S. Senate in Iowa, was forced to apologize after her husband's Facebook posts calling Hillary Clinton a 'hag' surfaced this week.A week after easily winning the Iowa Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, Joni Ernst has found herself defending her husband's "inappropriate" Facebook posts. Democratic operatives in Iowa found posts on Gail Ernst's Facebook page, which was public and mostly used to promote his wife's campaign, that they accused of being sexist. The posts, from 2013, were revealed Monday and deleted Tuesday. "I'm appalled by my husband's remarks," Joni Ernst said in a statement. "They are...

A word for the wise: If you're a male candidate running against a woman hoping to make history as the first female federal officeholder in her state, you might want to refrain from comparing her to a baby chick in your campaign advertisements. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, who's battling Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst for Iowa's open Senate seat, criticized his opponent's record in a new ad, showing a baby chick onscreen as the narrator says Ernst never made a "peep" about wasteful spending as a state lawmaker. "When Joni Ernst had the chance to do something in Iowa, we...

Des Moines – Iowa Republicans forged a unified plan of attack Saturday to seize opportunities in Iowa’s fall election and begin assessing their choices looking ahead to the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating process in 2016. Nearly 1,450 delegates to the Iowa GOP state convention heard rallying cries from U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst, Gov. Terry Branstad and three presidential hopefuls before finalizing a conservative platform and nominating Kim Reynolds as lieutenant governor, Sam Clovis as their state treasurer candidate and Adam Gregg for his attorney general bid. “I think we’re going to have a very strong and unified party and the...

In the midst of all the foreign affairs stories it was probably easy to miss a bit of domestic political news coming out of the Hawkeye State yesterday. At the 2014 Iowa GOP state convention, political activists loyal to Governor Terry Branstad essentially ousted all of the “dissidents” loyal to Rand Paul, securing control of the state party for the perceived establishment. Establishment forces officially wrested control of the Iowa Republican Party from supporters of Rand Paul on Saturday, a development the victors said would help save the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucus from being marginalized and possibly spell the demise...

Presidential hopefuls Sen. Rand Paul, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Sen. Rick Santorum are in Iowa to deliver their prescriptions for how to unite the Republican Party. […] It is Paul’s third trip to Iowa since the 2012 election. The Kentucky senator says the GOP should maintain its core message but make the party more attractive to black and Hispanic voters. …

U.S. Senate primary runner-up Sam Clovis plans to accept a nomination for state treasurer at this Saturday’s Iowa’s GOP convention, TheIowaRepublican.com has learned. Clovis, a professor and the chairperson of the Department of Business Administration and Economics at Morningside College in Sioux City, confirmed the news Thursday evening. “This all developed in the last 24 hours or so,” he said. Clovis has received a lot of encouragement to run over the past couple of days, which at first he shrugged off, but after hearing how serious people were about him running, the former Air Force pilot started giving the idea...

Rep. Steve King said Thursday GOP leaders are “stacking the deck” with a snap election to replace Eric Cantor as majority leader and urged the Republican Conference to slow down and elect an “anti-amnesty” majority leader. “At a time when Republicans in Congress are fighting the Obama Administration to oppose snap elections for unions on American employers, Republican Leadership is trying to do the same in the United States House of Representatives,” the Iowa Republican said in a statement. “This snap election has the effect of stacking the deck. “Unfortunately, while both current candidates benefit from the hasty timeframe prescribed...

The Mount Vernon Assembly – Indianapolis FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Skip Brown skip.brown@iga.in.gov 317-232-9521 The Mount Vernon Assembly to Meet at Indiana Statehouse June 12 and 13 INDIANAPOLIS (June 9, 2014) – More than 100 state legislators representing 33 states will meet at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis on June 12 and 13 to continue establishing the rules and procedures needed for a future state-led convention for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as authorized by Article V of the Constitution. The meeting is a continuation of efforts that began in December 2013 at George Washington’s historic Mount Vernon estate...

If “scorched earth circular firing squad” were an Olympic event, the Republican Party establishment would win the gold medal every time. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than in my home state of Iowa, where the undocumented Democrat known as Republican Governor (for life) Terry Branstad, and the corporatist shills surrounding him, could be poised to put the finishing touches on a complete rout of their own base. The end result could be the Republican Party of Iowa electing its third chairman in the last 28 months. Then nominating for Congress an agri-business lobbyist who finished fourth in the primary....

Just three days after her victory in Iowa’s Republican primary, Senate candidate Joni Ernst has taken a big lead over Democrat Bruce Braley in a poll conducted by the state’s Loras College. The poll, which surveyed 600 likely Iowa voters, found 48 percent of voters backing Ernst and 41.7 percent backing Braley, with 10.3 percent undecided. That’s a swing of nearly 14 points from Braley’s peak. That poll, by far the best Ernst has yet seen in the race, was balanced by a larger one published by Rasmussen Reports on the same day which showed the race as a dead...

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Iowa Voters finds Republican Joni Ernst, the winner of Tuesday’s crowded party primary, with 45% support to Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley’s 44%. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate in the race, while nine percent (9%) are undecided.

The U.S. Senate race in Iowa is a dead heat. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Iowa Voters finds Republican Joni Ernst, the winner of Tuesday’s crowded party primary, with 45% support to Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley’s 44%. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate in the race, while nine percent (9%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. The survey of 750 Likely Voters in Iowa was conducted on...

It appears that the barnyard theme in the U.S. Senate race will continue into the general election.  Braley found himself in hot water on Wednesday after releasing an ad that referred to Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst as a “chick.” It actually got worse for Braley on Thursday when Democrat State Senator Steve Sodders said that the common practice of castrating hogs is equated to “mutilating animals” at a Braley press conference.Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey quickly released a statement on the issue. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today issued the following statement after Bruce Braley’s campaign...

Great new political ad for the Branstad Reynolds ticket. If you would like to see exceptional marketing in action, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDuA2QHgBVI

Joni Ernst is now a step closer to becoming the first female U.S. senator in Iowa’s history. blowing away her opponents in the five-way primary Tuesday night, winning with 56 percent of the vote. A relatively unknown candidate when she declared in July 2013, Ernst surged into the national spotlight in late March with a TV ad titled “Squeal,” in which she detailed how her experience castrating pigs as an Iowa farm girl would help her “cut pork” in Washington. She will face Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) in what could be a very close and expensive general election. So...

RED OAK, IA, June 3, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two former Planned Parenthood abortion facilities are set to close this month, just six months after the abortion giant quietly laid off all but a single employee and stopped offering telemed abortions at both locations. Iowa Right to Life announced the impending closures in an email to pro-life activists, which featured a photo of a sign on the door of the Red Oak facility informing clients that the center is being “consolidated” with another facility in Council Bluffs effective June 18.

Joni Ernst only needed 35% of the vote to avoid a convention fight against her four competitors for the Republican nomination to the US Senate. Instead, she gained a clear majority of 56% and put herself in position to consolidate GOP support across all factions to face Rep. Bruce Braley, the uncontested Democratic nominee for the seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Tom Harkin: Joni Ernst, who highlighted her ability to shoot guns and castrate hogs to overcome disinterest in a sleepy primary election, dominated the field to become the first female GOP U.S. Senate nominee in Iowa history.The...

Joni Ernst parlayed her unusual support from establishment Republicans and conservatives to win Iowa's GOP Senate nomination outright on Tuesday, surpassing the 35% threshold needed to avoid a June 14 nominating convention, where nothing would have been guaranteed. The Associated Press called the race after Ernst had 53.7% of the vote with just under 20% of the precincts reporting. She will face Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), who won the Democratic nomination uncontested, to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). Ernst will try to become the first female to be elected to federal office in Iowa. Perhaps giving 2016 GOP presidential...