In what had to be one of the brightest spots for Republicans anywhere Tuesday night, conservative Republican Brenna Bird deposed the most venerable of Iowa Democrats.
With near-final results in, the Guthrie County attorney had edged Tom Miller, the Hawkeye State's attorney general for 40 years and longest-serving attorney general of any state.
Known as the "eternal general," Miller, 80, was first elected as Iowa's top law enforcement official in 1978 and, with the exception of a four-year stint in private practice from 1990 through 1994, has held the office.
The Iowan is considered a role model for other Democrat attorneys general in terms of pursuing cases involving consumer protection, gay rights, and other major liberal causes.
While campaigning in the Iowa caucuses in 2020, President Joe Biden singled out Miller as a close friend and mentor to his son, the late Delaware attorney general Beau Biden.
"Brenna was everywhere," said former Polk County (Des Moines) GOP chairman Kim Schmett of Bird. "She attended dinners, county GOP meetings, parades, and community events all while tying herself as closely as possible to Governor [Kim] Reynolds, who also helped her raise large amounts of money."
Reynolds and seven-term GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley were big winners Tuesday, and their margins of victory at the top of the ticket inarguably helped Bird.
Few doubt that Bird will be a swashbuckling conservative attorney general in the mold of Indiana's Todd Rokita or Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and she is expected to follow their lead in filing suits against the Biden administration on environmentalist excesses and heavy-handedness of the federal government toward to the states.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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