In case you missed it over the weekend, Republican Joni Ernst is up by seven points over her Democrat opponent Bruce Braley in Iowa's U.S. Senate race according to a new poll from The Des Moines Register.
Joni Ernst has charged to achieve a 7-point lead over Democrat Bruce Braley in a new Iowa Poll, which buoys the GOP's hope that an Iowa victory will be the tipping point to a Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate.
Ernst, a state senator and military leader, enjoys 51 percent support among likely voters. That's a majority, and it's her biggest lead in the three Iowa Polls conducted this fall. Braley, a congressman and trial lawyer, gets 44 percent, according to The Des Moines Register's final Iowa Poll before Tuesday's election.
"This race looks like it's decided," said J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the poll for the Register. "That said, there are enormous resources being applied to change all that."
Further, the Real Clear Politics average shows Ernst up in overall polling by 1.8 percent.
As a result of these new numbers, Iowa's outgoing Democrat Senator Tom Harkin is resorting to sexism and name calling as the final hours of campaigning start coming to an end.
During a campaign event for Braley over the weekend, Harkin explained to voters that he's been watching ads put out by the Enrst campaign and warned people not to be fooled because she looks and sounds "really nice."
Buzzfeed picked up the story and has the video.
"You know in this Senate race I've been watching some of these ads and there's sort of this sense that [people like] Joni Ernst," Harkin said. "She is really attractive and she sounds nice, but I got to thinking about that and I don’t care if she’s as good looking as Taylor Swift or as nice as Mr. Rogers, but if she votes like Michele Bachmann, she’s wrong for the state of Iowa."
As we all know, if a Republican had described a Democrat woman in this way, all hell would break lose and every conservative running for Senate would be held accountable for the statement and expected to issue a condemnation.
Since Harkin mentioned Ernst's political ads, here's a reminder of the one that put her on the map.
With ads like that one, it's no wonder Democrats like Harkin don't have a proper comeback. Ernst is a solid candidate who has been running a phenomenal campaign free of gaffes and errors. We can't say the same for Bruce "Chuck Grassley is just a farmer from Iowa who didn't go to law school" Braley.
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