Upstart Republican candidate Joni Ernst delivered another crushing blow to the Democratic Party in 2014, beating Rep. Bruce Braley on Tuesday in an Iowa election that liberals had considered theirs to lose.
On a night in which Republicans took control of the Senate, Ernst had a 6-percentage-point lead over Braley, with three-fourths of precincts in Iowa reporting, according to CNN.
Ernst, a state lawmaker and Iraq War veteran, emerged from the GOP primary in June with a surprising amount of momentum, having united the establishment and Tea Party wings of the party.
And Braley suffered from some self-inflicted wounds, including separate comments that were seen as insulting to farmers and women.
Democrats tried to paint Ernst as an ideologue whose likable personality camouflaged extreme beliefs, but Iowa voters apparently disagreed.
Braley’s defeat is a major blow to the Obama White House, as first lady Michelle Obama campaigned multiple times for the Democratic representative. The president’s political rise is most directly tied to his shocking upset of then-Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Iowa caucuses.
Ernst appeared to separate herself from Braley in the final days of the campaign to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, with the Des Moines Register giving her a seven-point lead over her Republican opponent just ahead of Election Day.
The Republican was a relative unknown until she debuted an ad about her history castrating hogs, promising to “make ’em squeal” in Washington.
