The Untold Truth Of Joni Ernst
Joni Ernst is one of the country's most powerful women. The senator from Iowa is one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the Senate, but she is in a tight race. The incumbent senator is battling Democratic candidate Theresa Greenfield to retain her seat in the 2020 election.
According to the Oct. 31, 2020 data from The Cook Political Report, the Iowa senate race is a toss-up; the seat could go to either Ernst or Greenfield. In the past, Iowa has voted consistently Republican, but 2020 is a different story. One challenge for Ernst is her alignment to GOP incumbent President Trump, who is down in polls in late October 2020. FiveThirtyEight showed Ernst voting with Donald Trump 91.1% of the time.
Another problem is that Ernst flubbed a question during an October 2020 debate with Greenfield. When asked to name the break-even price of soybeans, Ernst offered a cost of $5.50, almost half the actual price of $10.50. In a farm state like Iowa, every representative must know crop prices. It wasn't a good look for U.S. Senator Ernst.
Even worse, the debate gaffe was gold for her opponent. Greenfield tweeted Ernst's debate misstep with the message: "A Senator from Iowa should know the price of soybeans." The senator's debate blunder continued to damage her because it went viral on social media, per Daily Beast.
Read on to find out the untold truth about Ernst.
Joni Ernst hung her hat on 'castrating hogs'
In 2014, Joni Ernst was an unknown candidate until she began talking about castrating hogs. Then-candidate Ernst created a TV testimonial (via USA Today), telling voters how she "grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm." The Washington Post noted the ad promised Ernst would "cut the pork" and "make them squeal" in Washington. According to the Post, the hog ad transformed Ernst's campaign, helping her gain enough momentum to win the race.
In 2020, the incumbent senator is finding her home state a little less receptive to her message. Rekha Basu of the Des Moines Register blasted the senator just days before the election: "Ernst has never shown Iowans who or what she stands for, beyond her own ambitions. When she says the right things, she doesn't follow through in the Senate — and several times, she's had to answer for offensive or outlandish remarks." Another interesting race during the 2020 election!