Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, skewered politicians like Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti who pander to voters in her home state ahead of each presidential election cycle, given the importance of the Iowa caucuses to the primary process.
“And he was talking about how we need to create jobs,” Ernst said at California’s state GOP convention in San Diego, Calif., Saturday night, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“And you know what, mayor, you are absolutely correct. And with a Republican governor in Iowa, two Republican United States senators, a Republican legislature and a Republican president, that’s exactly what we have done in Iowa,” Ernst continued.
Garcetti traveled to Iowa for two days in April, attending a raft of events and spawning speculation he was considering a bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
A win in the Iowa caucuses is often perceived as a way for outsiders to gain momentum early in their campaigns for president.
“Iowa and Los Angeles have a ton in common, not just because we have the U.S.S. Iowa battleship in our port,” Garcetti told a crowd at a pub in Beaverdale, Iowa, per multiple reports.
“It’s false that people wake up and say, ‘Oh, I’m a coastal person, I’m a heartland person,'” Garcetti also told reporters during his visit, according to the Associated Press. “We struggle with the same things here and we have the same victories.”
