U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst, a Republican, continues to outpace her Democratic challenger, Bruce Braley, posting a 48-45 percent lead in a new Rasmussen Reports poll.
The survey, which was conducted Oct. 8-10, 2014, shows continued momentum for Ernst, an Iowa state senator, war veteran and Iowa National Guard lieutenant colonel.
“The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Iowa Voters finds Ernst picking up 48% of the vote to Braley’s 45%. One percent (1%) like another candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided,” Rasmussen reported.
The polling firm surveyed 957 likely voters in Iowa. Braley and Ernst faced off again Saturday for another debate. The Republican’s performance was less than stellar, according to the Washington Examiner’s Byron York.
Braley “matched or outshone Ernst on topic after topic in [the] one-hour faceoff. Ernst had her moments, but there’s no doubt Braley recovered nicely after a poor performance in the pair’s first debate two weeks ago,” York reported.
Meanwhile, Braley’s campaign spent part of the weekend dealing with the fallout from a video released Saturday showing the Democratic candidate dinging young entrepreneurs in the Hawkeye State for supposedly being undisciplined.
“When I go to start-up companies in Iowa, I do not see what I saw when I walked into factories in Iowa 20 years ago,” Braley told a group of Iowa manufacturers last week. “I see people sitting around in a large space with white boards. It may be 3 o’clock in the afternoon and they’re drinking beer and brainstorming. And coming up with lots of ideas, some of which are going nowhere.”
The Republican Party needs to pick up a net six seats if it wants to pry control of the U.S. Senate from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Ernst’s and Braley’s battle over the seat currently held by outgoing Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, could very well decide whether Democrats or Republicans control Congress after the November midterm elections.
