Free Republic

Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst has opened up an 18-point lead and is on pace to win the nomination on Tuesday, according to the results of a Des Moines Register poll three days before the primary. Ernst, who has been endorsed by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and became a household name with her hog castration ad, has 36% in the poll, which was released on Saturday evening. Mark Jacobs, the more liberal businessman who has poured millions of his own money into the race, has 18%. A candidate needs to receive more than 35% of the vote to...

Iowa State Senator Brad Zaun (R-Urbandale) is in the primary race for U.S. Congress and says he often carries "a 9mm handgun" with him because of the attack on Gabrielle Giffords.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives approved two immigration enforcement amendments offered by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Act. The bill includes funding for the Justice Department, and Rep. King's amendments addressed the recent report of more than 36,000 criminal illegal aliens being released from custody and sanctuary cities. SNIP Nine Republicans voted against the amendment, including pro-amnesty supporters Mario Diaz-Balart, Peter King, David Valadao, and Jeff Denham.

HIAWATHA, Iowa (AP) — Behind Texas Gov. Rick Perry's visit to Iowa this week to campaign for local politicians is a careful effort to remake his image from the 2012 Republican presidential candidate who couldn't remember a key message during a debate, to a more polished and prepared contender. While he denies it is a dress rehearsal for a second presidential run, Perry is studying policy, traveling and meeting with key activists as he campaigns for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and U.S. Senate candidate Matt Whitaker in the state expected to host the first presidential caucus of 2016. "This hasn't...

Some Republicans say state Sen. Joni Ernst's recent campaign ad featuring her firing a handgun will not sit well with some swing voters when Democrats resurrect it. Likewise, others say former Reliant Energy CEO Mark Jacobs' past public statements supporting climate-change legislation make him indistinguishable from likely Democratic nominee Bruce Braley. In what is their best chance to win the Senate seat in 30 years, Republicans have accepted the risks of focusing on GOP-favored issues in the June 3 primary after failing to convince the state's better-known Republicans to run once Sen. Tom Harkin, a six-term Democrat, announced he wouldn't...

Conrad Gregor sent a special thank you to his parents for making a five-hour drive to see him play baseball this weekend: He launched a home run that led his team to a comeback win — and his father caught the baseball after it soared over the right-field wall. "It's a little unbelievable," Gregor tells the Quad-City Times in Iowa, "but I'm glad my parents were here to see it and when I got back to the dugout, I heard he made a pretty good catch." The against-all-odds moment came at Quad Cities' Modern Woodmen Park, where Gregor plays for...

Last summer, the University of Iowa earned the Princeton Review’s annually awarded title of "No. 1 Party School" in the United States. But I am emerging from my four years of undergraduate studies at Iowa with more than a bachelor’s degree: I’ll be leaving with a changed perspective on the lifestyle of the American college student. As a Catholic woman, the real highlight has come in these final months of my time in Iowa City, when three years of floundering led me beyond the stereotype of a partying college student and toward a deeper calling. Being "in the world but...

Republican Senate hopeful Joni Ernst got a boost Sunday with the endorsement of The Des Moines Register in Iowa. Ahead of the state's GOP primary on June 3, the newspaper's editorial board argued Ernst, a state senator, is a "smart, well-prepared candidate who can wrestle with the details of public policy from a conservative perspective without seeming inflexible." Ernst is facing four opponents in the GOP primary. She has recently emerged as a top contender and made national headlines with unusual TV ads - one of which highlighted her hog-castrating skills while another showed her riding up to a gun...

Challengers see themselves in the Texas senator, even in races where their odds of an upset are considered steeper than Cruz’s surprise victory over a GOP establishment figure two years ago. He’s made endorsements in the Oklahoma and Nebraska Senate races, plus the Nebraska gubernatorial race, and sent almost $26,000 to federal candidates through his leadership PAC. “Ted Cruz would be extremely helpful as an endorser and a fundraiser,” said C. Edmund Wright, a consultant to longshot South Carolina Senate hopeful Lee Bright, in an email. “Rand Paul and Mike Lee would be great also.” But, he said, “the reason...

Gun control supporters appear poised to force New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, often discussed as a potential presidential candidate in 2016, to show where he stands on the Second Amendment. On Monday, the state's Senate passed A2006, legislation to lower the state's magazine-capacity limit from 15 rounds to 10 rounds, by a vote of 22-17, mostly along party lines. The bill will be sent to Christie for signature or veto after the Assembly, which previously approved it by a vote of 46-31, approves technical changes made to the bill by the Senate. Once the bill reaches Christie's desk, he...

Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst, who was catapulted onto the national stage in March with a viral campaign ad claiming she had Washington pork-cutting skills from her days castrating hogs, has more than a 10-point lead over her nearest primary rival, a new poll has found. According to a Loras College Poll conducted May 12-13 of 600 likely Iowa voters, Ernst has 30.8 percent of the support, compared to businessman Mark Jacobs who has 19.3 percent support with less than three weeks to go until the June 3 election. Each of the three other candidates has less than 10...

THIS IS FOR THE SOUTH AND MIDWEST (NORTHEAST, WEST, AND CALIFORNIA are in separate threads and updates are coming, see links below) This is an update of previous threads. There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. Georgia:...

The National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsed Jodi Ernst for U.S. Senate in Iowa on Tuesday, USA TODAY reported. "Joni Ernst has consistently opposed all attempts to restrict gun rights and has been a true friend of the Second Amendment," said Chris W. Cox, chairman of the NRA's Political Victory Fund. Ernst, an Iowa state senator and lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard, initially made headlines for her first TV advertisement where she touts her experience castrating pigs. "I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I come to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork," Ernst...

War veteran Joni Ernst claims to have vague, secret knowledge that contradicts every public report.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Iowa state senator and US Senate candidate Joni Ernst captured national attention when her campaign's first TV ad featured the candidate talking about castrating hogs (a subsequent ad featured Ernst at a gun range, implying that she'd shoot Obamacare to bits). But if the Sarah Palin-approved Republican wants to enter national politics, she may need to brush up on some of her facts. Ernst still thinks Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction when the US invaded Iraq, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary. On...

THIS IS FOR THE MIDWEST (NORTHEAST and SOUTH is in a separate thread and West coming later, see links below) There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. West Virginia: ALEX MOONEY, WEST VIRGINIA-2, May 13th .... Open...

On the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, decried the Obama Administration’s proposed rule giving work permits to the spouses of certain H-1B visa holders. He said Congress did not authorize the Administration proposal. “They act on their own,” Sen. Grassley said. “And, they do it to the detriment of American workers.” Sen. Grassley argued the proposal will allow more foreign workers “to come, work, and compete with U. S. workers in high-skilled fields despite the well-documented fraud in the H-1B program.

Is it possible to be the anti-establishment candidate in a Republican primary for the U.S. Senate and be the choice of the Republican establishment in your state at the same time? By definition, this would seem impossible. Yet, State Senator Joni Ernst has managed to be the establishment backed, anti-establishment candidate in Iowa’s Republican U.S. Senate primary. Iowa’s Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds was an early endorser of Ernst’s campaign, and Governor Terry Branstad has reportedly been helpful behind the scenes, especially in the fundraising department. Ernst has also been backed by national Republican establishment figures like Mitt Romney, Sen. John...

It might be time to reconsider that license plate frame boasting your allegiance to your favorite baseball team, charitable cause or alma mater, especially if you’re driving in The Hawkeye State. The Iowa Supreme Court just ruled that drivers whose cars display the frames can be stopped if they obscure the small print below the plate numbers. The decision ended a five-year court battle stemming from the 2009 traffic stop of a man suspected of dealing drugs based on information from a confidential informant. The court ruled 5-2 last week that a 1984 law requiring drivers to “permit full view...

Sen. Marco Rubio jumped into Iowa’s contested Senate primary on Monday, throwing his support behind conservative candidate Joni Ernst. After indicating in recent weeks that he would stay away from GOP primary season, the Florida senator decided to wade into one of the most consequential Senate races in the country by backing Ernst. Not only does Iowa hold the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus in 2016, but the state also will be central to the battle for the Senate this fall — unlike contested primaries in red states such as Oklahoma and Nebraska. Rubio made the announcement through his Reclaim America PAC...

Joni Ernst, a Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, was made in the Sarah Palin mold — her first TV ad focused on her experience castrating hogs. Perhaps high off the buzz and Palin endorsement that that ad generated, Ernst just released another TV spot that is beyond parody. The 30-second spot, titled "Shot," features Ernst at the shooting range, "unloading" on Obamacare. The narrator's lines sound like a Palin speech run through the shredder. As Ernst rides into the frame on a Harley, we hear, "Conservative Joni Ernst: Mom, Farm Girl, and a Lieutenant Colonel who carries more than just...