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As Iowans headed to the polls Tuesday, the Huffington Post made a last-second bid to sway them by suggesting Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst's pro-Second Amendment convictions could be "designed to appeal" to "extremists." Perhaps not surprisingly, this suggestion came at that same time that Ernst and the rest of America awoke to see that her lead over pro-gun control candidate Bruce Braley (D) growing. According to HuffPo, Enrst said, "I believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family--whether it's from an intruder, or whether it's from the government, should...

Republican once considered an obscure one-term state senator has the momentum in Iowa despite suffering the ridicule of her rivals. Joni Ernst became famous by gazing into a camera and boasting of castrating hogs on the Iowa farm where she grew up. “So when I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork,” she said. The campaign ad Squeal showed images of pigs, then came her punchline. “Washington is full of big spenders. Let’s make ‘em squeal.” Even Democrats laughed. Late-night comedians spoofed it. Few, initially, took it seriously. This was back in March. Ernst was an obscure, one-term...

A Quinnipiac University poll published Monday shows a dead heat in the Iowa Senate race, with Democrat Bruce Braley and Republican Joni Ernst tied at 47 percent among likely voters. The news buoys the Democratic argument that the Des Moines Register poll out this weekend, which had Ernst up 7 points, is an outlier. Continue Reading Text Size -+reset Latest on POLITICO Counting JDA Frontline's departures Pelosi raises over $100 million SCOTUS hears Israel passport case Grimes paid $17K to fly Clinton in Hyundai, Kia get $100M EPA fine Colorado poll: GOP slightly ahead It also shows a slightly closer...

... Quinnipiac University released a poll today showing Ernst and Braley split 47-47 with 4 percent of voters undecided. ...

Retiring Democratic Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin says that Iowa voters shouldn’t be fooled because Joni Ernst is “really attractive” and “sounds nice.”

NARAL Pro-Choice America’s president, Ilyse Hogue, said in a recent fundraising email that she’s “seriously starting to panic.” No, it’s not because she’s suddenly realized how her organization makes life easy for sexual predators. Rather, it’s because “[a]nti-choice Republicans are about to take over the Senate–and Mitch McConnell has already said that one of the very first things he’ll do is pass a ban on abortion after 20 weeks.” For evidence of the impending takeover, Ms. Hogue pointed to the Iowa senate race, where “polls say the anti-choice candidate is ahead by 2.5 points.” That “anti-choice candidate” would be Joni...

New Polls Show Republicans Pulling Away In Key Senate Races November 02, 2014 Republican Senate candidates are pulling away in the final days of key races, according to polls released this weekend. Republicans are either leading in Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana or will likely win runoff elections, according to a NBC/Marist poll released Sunday. In addition, the Republican nominee in Iowa, Joni Ernst, now has a 7-point lead over Democratic challenger Rep Bruce Braley, according to a Des Moines Register poll released Saturday. Most polls have shown until now that the four races have essentially been deadlocked in the closing...

This started as a top ten list.Let's face it, with President Obama's awful approval ratings and the unfortunate consequences of Obamacare felt like a sting around the country, Democrats were already vulnerable in this year's midterm elections. These gaffes certainly won't help. Let's take a look at some of the worst mistakes Dems have made on the campaign trail so far:1.) That awful/insensitive/shameful and now infamous ad from the Wendy Davis (D-TX) gubernatorial campaign. 2.) Those colorful campaign memos from Michelle Nunn’s (D-GA) campaign, in which her own campaign referred to her as a “lightweight.” 3.) Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) saying he was...

Des Moines Register 10/28 - 10/31 701 LV 3.7 51 44 Ernst +7

REBECCA KAPLAN November 1, 2014 Harry Reid: Senate Control Hangs On One Key Race Republican takeover of the Senate will likely depend on the outcome of the Iowa Senate race. "What Joni Ernst would mean, coming to the United States Senate, is that Mitch McConnell would be the leader of the Senate, someone who agrees with her on virtually everything. Think what that would mean to our country," Reid said Saturday, according to Roll Call. Republican Joni Ernst is neck and neck with Rep. Bruce Braley, the Democratic candidate. Reid was participating in a conference call organized by the Progressive...

Democrats may be making their last stand in Arkansas. At the beginning of the cycle, Democrats touted a dream ticket that could help rally the party back to relevance after a series of stinging losses in the state. They cheered Sen. Mark Pryor’s (D) centrist profile and strong family name. In the governor’s race, they hoped former Rep. Mike Ross’s long string of successes in conservative southwest Arkansas would boost him. But months later, Pryor has trailed freshman Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for much of the summer in the Razorback State and former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) has had a...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Saturday urged progressive activists to get out the vote for Bruce Braley, calling Iowa crucial to Democratic hopes to keep the Senate. “If we win Iowa, we’re going to do just fine,” Reid said on a call organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Iowa is a key for what we do.” During the call, Reid said Joni Ernst, the GOP Senate nominee in Iowa, would be a disaster for issues key to progressives, like protecting Social Security and raising the minimum wage. Ernst, a state senator, and Braley, a four-term congressman, are...

Fox News Poll: 1-Point Margin in Iowa, Kansas and North Carolina Senate Races By Dana Blanton October 31, 2014 “It all comes down to turnout.” That’s one of the biggest clichés in politics. It’s also true in one-point races. Welcome to Iowa, Kansas and North Carolina. According to the latest round of Fox News Senate battleground polls, none of the front-runners in those states hits the 50 percent mark. That means these races will be decided by late-deciding voters -- and campaigns competing furiously to get their voters to the polls. One thing that is baked into the cake: President...

In a poll released Wednesday by the Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group [Link at URL], Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) holds a commanding lead with early voters in Iowa's open Senate race compraed to his Republican opponent Joni Ernst. While the poll shows the race to be a dead heat, which is consistent with recent polling [Link at URL], Braley holds an impressive 15-point lead with those who have already voted. The poll also shows that Braley has a 10-point lead with independent voters. ...

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (CNN) -- Hillary Clinton swiped at Republican Senate hopeful Joni Ernst on Wednesday for canceling a meeting with the Des Moines Register editorial board last week, telling a labor audience that not answering "tough questions" is "disqualifying" in the state. "I have concluded that Iowans take politics really seriously," Clinton said. "You test your candidates, you actually force them to be the best they can be and they have to be willing to answer the tough questions." Democrat Bruce Braley "has been willing to do this, and his opponent has not," she said. ---snip--- Clinton also knocked...

At first glance, it’s tempting to think that Mark Leibovitch is calling various Republican candidates stupid in his New York Times article, The Bumpkinification of the Midterm Elections. It would be an easy and understandable mistake to make, given that the introduction focuses almost entirely on Joni Ernst, with a generous sprinkling of Sarah Palin and other, almost exclusively GOP figures throughout the piece. But a closer reading reveals that even though the author might be thinking the candidates are toothless, drooling hicks, he’s really casting stones at those of you stupid enough to fall for their homespun, down on...

Joni Ernst, the Iowa state senator and Iraq War veteran, was standing in a barn in a purple flannel shirt and an unzipped vest. Beside her, various swine burrowed in the hog lot; two small pigs spooned; there was copious squealing. When Ernst, who grew up on a farm castrating hogs, opened her mouth to speak, she drew the inevitable connection between her upbringing and her current role as a Republican candidate for the United States Senate. “When I get to Washington, I’ll know how to cut pork,” Ernst said, smiling. Title cards reinforced her credentials. (“Joni Ernst: Mother. Soldier....

Joni Ernst, U.S. Senate candidate, has a banana, a cup of coffee, and a 31-foot RV painted with American flags, landscapes of corn, and hogs. She also has Iowa stretching vastly out in front of her. Seven counties today, eight counties yesterday, 99 counties in 44 days, and a tour she’s calling “Iowa Knows Best” that is intended to persuade Iowans to send her to Washington so she can show the federal government a better way: “the Iowa way.” The Iowa way is fiscal responsibility, she has been telling the people on this tour. The Iowa way is cutting taxes...

Joni Ernst is back to “hogging” Iowa airwaves, as she barrels into Election Day with another pig-themed ad, a slight edge over her Democratic rival in the polls and a significant fundraising advantage. Whether that’s enough to carry the Republican nominee to victory in the hard-fought Iowa Senate race remains to be seen. But GOP operatives, some of whom have flocked to her campaign after she emerged from a crowded field to snag the nomination earlier this year, are touting her chances in the final days of the race. The latest good omen for Republicans was in early voting and...

(AUDIO-AT-LINK)There's a woman running in the tight race for the Senate in Iowa — one of the contests that will decide who controls the Senate next year. In the 21st century, a female candidate for Senate may not sound historic. But in Iowa, it is. The state shares a rare distinction with Mississippi: It has never elected a woman to the Senate, to the House, or to be governor. Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst is trying to change that in her race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley — a race in which the role of female voters is central....