Free Republic

The Iowa Republican Senate primary is over and the results were stunning. The winner is state Senator and National Guard Lt. Col. Joni Ernst with an astonishing 56.2 percent of the vote in a five-candidate primary. Conservative talk show host and professor Sam Clovis came in second with 18 percent. Analysts agree that what’s most amazing is the third-place finish of Mark Jacobs with 16.8 percent. Jacobs was born in Iowa but lived in Texas most of his life. In Texas he took over a troubled energy company and “fixed” it. When he was done, most employees had been fired...

Imagine winning a U.S. Senate debate when you did the following: Admitted you didn’t know what the current immigration law was. Flip-flopped on the marriage issue from a previous debate. Flip-flopped on subsidies during this debate. Said the first thing that differentiated yourself from your opponent was you were female. Gave probably the single most wretchedly-awful example of pandering in modern Iowa political history. No one would expect to win a debate, and likely the Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate, committing these kinds of gaffes. But “no one” isn’t Joni Ernst, who is living the semi-charmed kind of life....

The last time Rick Santorum was in Iowa, political reporters suspected that an endorsement in the Republican U.S. Senate contests was eminent. Santorum endorsed his longtime friend Secretary of State Matt Schultz, who is running for congress in Iowa’s third Congressional District on his trip to Iowa in back in March, but he refused to endorse U.S. Senate candidate Sam Clovis at the time. Clovis was an early and influential supporter of Santorum in the 2012 presidential race. This morning Santorum got of the sidelines and officially backed Clovis in Iowa’s U.S. Senate race, but in doing so called out...

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...

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...

The Loras College Poll released its inaugural results Monday showing a U.S. Senate GOP primary that is deadlocked at the top, with nearly half of likely voters undecided with less than two months to go.   “The Iowa GOP Senate Primary race looks to be in for an exciting finish with Mark Jacobs and Joni Ernst competing aggressively for the heart of the Republican Party,” said Christopher Budzisz, Ph.D., associate professor of politics and director of the Loras College Poll. “With nearly half of the voters surveyed saying they were undecided, there is still a lot of work to be...

Iraq War veteran Joni Ernst emerged as the Republican frontrunner this week in the race to replace retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa). Ernst, who served as a company commander in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and is a mother of three, gained a slight advantage over the other four candidates for the GOP Senate nomination in a Suffolk University poll. Ernst has 25 percent support among likely primary goers, followed closely by wealthy businessman Mark Jacobs with 23 percent. The other three candidates received less than 10 percent, while 40 percent are still undecided for the June 3 primary....

After more than a year of running a textbook campaign for U.S. Senate with an emphasis on fundraising and a gradual introduction to voters, Braley was suddenly hamstrung by comments seen as insulting to farmers and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). The result of Braley's gaffe is a sped-up campaign in which he has been thrust into the spotlight sooner than his team expected. "I think it will accelerate the competitiveness" of the race, acknowledged Braley campaign adviser Jeff Link. For months, the combination of a weak Republican field without a standard bearer and Braley's steady hand made a GOP...

Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley holds a slight lead over his three top Republican challengers in Rasmussen Reports’ first look at the 2014 U.S. Senate race in Iowa. A new statewide telephone survey of Likely Iowa Voters finds Braley with a 41% to 38% lead over businessman Mark Jacobs. He leads State Senator Joni Ernst 40% to 37% and runs four points ahead – 40% to 36% – of former U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker. Braley posts a 13-point lead – 44% to 31% – over another GOP contender, conservative talk show host Sam Clovis. The survey of 750 Likely Voters in...

One day after her “Squeal” TV brought her national attention, Joni Ernst picks up the endorsement of Sarah Palin. The former Alaska governor, 2008 vice-presidential nominee and conservative firebrand calls Ernst a “champion for life, small government, and lower taxes.” Here is what Palin had to say when announcing her support for Joni Ernst in Iowa’s U.S. Senate race: “If Nebraska’s Deb Fischer can see through the bull in Washington, then Iowa’s Joni Ernst can help her cut through the pork. Growing up on a hog farm in Southwest Iowa, Joni has taken her “pork cutting” skills to the Iowa...

The only Democrat running in the primary for the open Senate seat in Iowa made a spectacular gaffe before a roomfull of trial lawyers in Texas. Standing next to a table full of booze, Rep. Bruce Braley insulted farmers, praised lawyers, and belittled the second most popular political figure in Iowa. Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat running for Senate, was caught on videotape disparaging fellow Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” — comments that later drew an apology from the candidate. The video, posted online Tuesday afternoon by GOP opposition...

Mitt Romney waded into the crowded Iowa Senate race Wednesday, throwing his support behind state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) in the contested GOP primary. "As a mother, soldier and proven conservative, Joni has the kind of experience, skillset and discipline it will take to not only win this important seat, but to also take Iowa values to help turn around the mess in Washington," Romney wrote in a fundraising e-mail sent Wednesday morning... This is not Romney's first endorsement of the 2014 cycle. He is also backing Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who faces tea party challenger Bryan Smith (R).

Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) will run for retiring Sen. Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) seat, she announced Wednesday afternoon. "As a mother, soldier, and a conservative, the values I hold dear, and have fought more than 20 years to protect, are being threatened by the failed policies of this president," she said in a statement on her new campaign website. "Washington has failed us. We need and deserve better leadership. And that's why I am running for U.S. Senate." Ernst, a lieutenant colonel in Iowa's national guard and first-term state lawmaker, has received encouragement from Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R)...

Rep. Bruce Braley, D, is running for Senate in Iowa, for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, D. Braley, a trial lawyer before he came to Congress, needs votes from a lot of farmers and a lot of people who have never gone to law school, as well as people who also like Iowa’s other senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, currently the state’s most popular politician. So this America Rising video of Braley at a fundraiser for trial lawyers in South Texas is just priceless. He talks about Grassley as if the guy just came in from slopping...

Joni Ernst, a Republican candidate in the GOP Senate primary in Iowa, is touting her experience “castrating hogs on an Iowa farm” to underscore how emphatic she will be about ending pork barrel spending in the U.S. Senate. “I'm Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm. So when I get to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork,” Ernst says in the ad, followed by the sound of a pig squealing. The ad, which was provided exclusively to Breitbart News, will appear in television spots in Iowa. Ernst ends the ad saying, “Washington's full of big...

Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, apologized for his critical comments of Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, that were posted online Tuesday by a Republican research group. Speaking at a fundraiser, Braley, who is running for the Hawkeye State’s open Senate seat, said the Senate could end up with “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school, never practiced law, serving as the next chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee,” before identifying that person as Grassley. “I apologize to Senator Grassley and anyone I may have offended,” Braley said in a statement released a couple of hours after the video...

Iowa Rep. Bruce Braley, a Democrat running for Senate, was caught on videotape disparaging fellow Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” — comments that later drew an apology from the candidate. The video, posted online Tuesday afternoon by GOP opposition research firm America Rising, shows Braley speaking to what the group described as a group of lawyers at a fundraiser in Texas. “If you help me win this race, you may have someone with your background, your experience, your voice — someone who’s been literally fighting tort reform for 30 years...

Mark Jacobs knows his competition for the 2014 GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate has a head start on him, but the former energy company CEO promises to be “working seven by 24 from now until the primary” to catch up and pass his rivals. Jacobs, 51, of West Des Moines is the most recent Republican to join the race to succeed Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who announced he will retire at the end of his current term. “I know it’s going to be a lot of tough work, but one of the things I’ve done over the past couple...

The party has an outside chance of winning the five or six seats it needs to retake control, but needs to find top-tier recruits in several states and is running out of time to do so. ....Here are five states where the party needs to land strong candidates to broaden the battleground and have a hope of winning back the Senate. Michigan Iowa Montana Arkansas New Hampshire