Free Republic

(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....

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is returning to the early presidential caucus state of Iowa on Saturday where he is slated to speak at two events. The potential 2016 Republican presidential contender is scheduled to speak at a luncheon for Rep. Steve King's (R-Iowa) annual pheasant hunt north of Akron before keynoting a birthday fundraiser for Gov. Terry Branstad (R) in Clive. King's weekend hunt, held at the Hole ‘N the Wall Lodge, has in the past attracted potential Republican contenders such as Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Christie, who will...

Early voting is looking good for Iowa Republican Joni Ernst. In fact, it’s looking better than usual. Kirsten Hunter of the Washington Free Beacon reports that even CNN is acknowledging the trend: CNN: Iowa Early Vote Data Shows Unprecedented Republican Numbers Elated Republicans are celebrating the unprecedented success of U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst (R) in Iowa’s early voting. Iowa Republicans banked a surge of early voters this week, a practice usually dominated by Democrats in the state. Ernst’s unprecedented success is also the result of her opponent, Rep. Bruce Braley’s, failure to mobilize Iowa Democrats despite receiving support from...

Regular readers will know that I’m a critic of the “My opponent said something objectionable and I’m outraged!” school of campaigning, not to mention the “Candidate said something objectionable!” school of campaign coverage. One of the most important rules in assessing “gaffes” or outsized statements is that if the moment was extemporaneous, out of character, instantly regretted, and not repeated, then we should give it a pass, because it probably reveals next to nothing about the person who said it. Having said that, there’s a new statement we learn about today from Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst that deserves some...

Senate candidate Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has canceled her meeting with the Des Moines Register editorial board Thursday as the paper works to finalize its Senate endorsement. “Recent editorials in the Des Moines Register make their position in this race perfectly clear, and it’s one that many voters across our state seem to disagree with,” Ernst campaign spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier in a emailed statement. “With less than 12 days to go, time is precious and Joni wants to spend every minute talking to undecided voters, hearing their concerns, and demonstrating why we need a change in...

The picture of IA GOP SEN nominee Joni Ernst that’s emerging from exposure of her pre-2014-general-election utterances is of a standard-brand Constitutional Conservative embracing all the strange and controversial tenets of that creed. There’s Agenda 21 madness. There’s Personhood advocacy. There are attacks on the entire New Deal/Great Society legacy—and perhaps even agricultural programs—as creating “dependency.” And now, inevitably, there’s the crown jewel of Con Con extremism: the belief that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to enable “patriots” to violently overthrow the government if in their opinion it’s overstepped its constitutional boundaries. Sam Levine of HuffPost has that...

Senate Democrats are pleading with donors to give to Rep. Bruce Braley’s campaign as they struggle to pull off a victory in Iowa and save their endangered majority. But there’s one key player holding onto his campaign cash: Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin. Despite direct appeals from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and other top Democrats, Harkin has refused to transfer money from his $2.4 million campaign account to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to sources and campaign finance records....

Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst said she would support a federal bill that gives legal personhood rights to fetuses from the moment of fertilization, effectively wiping out legal abortion in the United States. Ernst voted for a fetal personhood amendment in the Iowa State legislature in 2013, and she told the Sioux City Journal editorial board on Wednesday that she also would support a federal personhood measure if she were elected to the U.S. Senate. "I will continue to stand by that. I am a pro-life candidate, and this has been shaped by my religious beliefs through the years,"...

Word salad of left wing buzz words will leave you laughing. (VIDEO-AT-LINK)MSNBC's Ed Schultz has been increasingly, visibly, sweatily desperate as the day count down to the election, and his choices in topics and guests reflect that. On Tuesday's show, Ed's guest, radio host Mike Papantonio delivered just what the doctor ordered for the poor, overwrought Ed: a blazingly useless word salad of left-wing buzz words and scare phrases all wrapped up in a neat Koch bow. Harry Reid would be proud (if he were capable of positive emotions). “"The Joni Ernst candidate is the perfect mental and moral blank...

Joni Ernst ✔ @joniernst Deeply saddened by tragic news of Dr. Doug Butzier. Gail&I will keep Doug’s family in our thoughts&prayers as they mourn their untimely loss 12:09 PM - 14 Oct 2014 32 Retweets 16 favorites Doug Butzier, Libertarian Party candidate running against Bruce Braley and Joni Ernst for U.S. Senate, lost his life yesterday in a plane crash. The wife of Doug Butzier confirmed Tuesday morning to KCRG-TV that it was Butzier who was killed in a plane crash Monday. … Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said the Piper PA-46 crashed around 11 p.m. Monday on approach...

Full disclosure: I feel awful today. Vaguely half-nauseous, having what we will gently call ‘digestive issues,’ generally logy and possibly congested: it seemed like an excellent time to take it easy. It would take a definite electoral disaster to pierce this fog of illness, in short. And Michelle Obama delivered. Jimmy @JimmyPrinceton Bruce Braley never even served. How does FLOTUS think he's a USMC vet? 4:18 PM - 10 Oct 2014 8 Retweets 4 favorites Here’s the video of the event: it autoplays and I can’t turn it off, so skip ahead to 3:28 – where, indeed, the First Lady...

Dems freaking out. Remember Joni Ernst? She’s the pig-castrating, conservative candidate for Senate out of Iowa who took the internet by storm earlier this year with her campaign video claiming she’ll “make big spenders squeal” when she gets to Washington. Since she kicked off her campaign, Ernst has been seen as a long-shot to take the seat that had been held for 30 years by Democrat Tom Harkin, but a recent poll shows that her Dem opponent Bruce Braley is now running defense. Via the Des Moines Register: Ernst leads 44 percent to 38 percent in a race that has...

DES MOINES — Republican Joni Ernst leads Democrat Bruce Braley by 6 percentage points in Iowa’s open-seat U.S. Senate race, a new Iowa Poll published Saturday night reveals....

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)TRANSCRIPT JUDY WOODRUFF: A quick look at the calendar reminds us that today is just seven weeks away from this year’s midterm elections, when voters across the country will be deciding ballot issues and choosing state and local officeholders and members of Congress. With control of the U.S. Senate up for grabs, I headed to Iowa this past weekend, the site of one of the closest contests in the nation. If you love college football, the place to be in Iowa this past weekend was Iowa City, the home of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes, as they hosted the Iowa...

After coming in third in the Iowa caucuses in 2008, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton does not have much love for Hawkeye State Democrats. The feeling, it seems, is mutual. Over the weekend, Clinton traveled to Iowa to attend retiring Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-IA) “steak fry,” an event which has become an institution in the pivotal Midwestern electoral battleground. NBC News sent Andrea Mitchell along with her where the reporter spent some time speaking to prospective Democratic caucus-goers. Mitchell found what so many know in their hearts to be true: Clinton’s support among Democrats is a mile wide and...

Iowa Democrat continues to support plan despite years of congressional opposition.Rep. Bruce Braley (D., Iowa) continued to vote in favor of transferring terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to a U.S. facility even after the plan collapsed due to congressional opposition, according to government records. Republicans have blasted Braley this week for supporting an initial proposal in 2009 to move the detainees to an Illinois correctional center near the Iowa border. The criticism comes as polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans view the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), the al Qaeda offshoot that...

How did Iowa state senator Joni Ernst become a threat to Harry Reid’s Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate? “The Democrats have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at Ms. Ernst, and at the best this race is a tie, it’s still a pure toss-up in what should be a marginally Democrat environment in Iowa,” a GOP pollster told NRO. This race was not supposed to challenge Democrats or drain their resources. “I was confident Rep. Braley would win the day he announced,” state Democratic-party chairman Tyler Olsen said in February, “and I’m only getting more confident every day.” What...

Hillary Clinton is heading to Iowa as the politician that most Democrats would choose as their 2016 presidential nominee. According to a new CNN/ORC poll, 53% of all registered Democrats contacted in Iowa said they would support Hillary Clinton if the 2016 caucuses were held today. That number far outpaces the 15% that would opt for Vice President Joe Biden, 7% who would choose Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 5% who would pick Sen. Bernie Sanders. Clinton will be visiting Iowa for the first time in six years on Sunday when she headlines the last Harkin Steak Fry. Biden, likewise, will...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

Jesse Benton, the campaign manager for U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, will resign his post as a bribery scandal from the 2012 presidential campaign threatens to envelop Benton and become a major distraction for McConnell's campaign. Benton told the Herald-Leader that he met with McConnell Friday afternoon and offered his resignation, which McConnell "reluctantly accepted." Benton said he offered his resignation, effective Saturday, with a "heavy heart." He maintained his innocence, faulting "inaccurate press accounts and unsubstantiated media rumors." "This decision breaks my heart, but I know it is the right thing for Mitch, for Kentucky and for the...