Republicans in Iowa and Washington, D.C. got a big jolt last week, as a just-completed Public Policy Polling survey showed Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in a near-tie with Democrat and businesswoman Theresa Greenfield.
The results showed conservative Ernst with a lead of 43 to 42 percent among likely voters in the Hawkeye State.
This was stunning, as Ernst is almost never on the list of vulnerable Republican senators. Morever, the same poll showed Ernst with a six-point lead over Greenfield in December.
Some Iowa Republicans we spoke to are skeptical of the survey and the conclusion Ernst is somehow “on the ropes.”
“The Senator has already been targeted by millions of dollars of out of state attack ads and she still is leading,” former Polk County (Des Moines) GOP Chairman Kim Schmett told Newsmax.
Schmett pointed out that although “Greenfield has been handpicked by [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck Schumer and the national Democrat organization to receive millions of dollars for her primary campaign, she has still failed to break out of the pack of lesser funded candidates.”
He also noted that the “Des Moines Register” endorsed one of her opponents (retired U.S. Navy Admiral Mike Franken) and another of her opponents dropped out of the race and endorsed a candidate other than Greenfield.
“Greenfield is a flawed candidate who is primarily known for being forced to drop out of her last campaign [for the U.S. House in 2018] because her nomination signatures were forged,” said Schmett. “Perhaps she wasn’t personally dishonest, but it certainly doesn’t say much about her management abilities. If Greenfield wins her primary, and that is a big ‘if’, the free ride is over. She will then be targeted by an avalanche of attack ads similar to what Senator Ernst has already survived. I doubt she will emerge as well.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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