Sen. Joni Ernst was already facing a tough reelection fight in Iowa – and then came the soybean question.
At a televised debate late last week, when asked to state the price of soybeans in Iowa, she initially delivered a long response about trade policy, but didn’t answer the question. A veteran Iowa news anchor pressed her, saying: “You grew up on a farm, you should know this.”
Ernst hesitated another moment before finally responding: “Probably about $5.50.”
“Well, you’re a couple dollars off, I think, because it’s $10.05,” said Ron Steele, a longtime anchor of a Waterloo TV station, who was among the moderators of the debate. “But we’ll move onto something else then.”
It’s an open question whether that uncomfortable moment, which unfolded during the middle of Iowa’s harvest season, will complicate the race for Ernst. And it may be difficult to tell, considering she is already locked in an unexpectedly tough challenge with her Democratic rival, Theresa Greenfield, who nailed an answer about the price of corn during the same debate.
Two weeks before the voting ends in Iowa, a bigger challenge for Ernst could be the headwinds she is encountering from President Donald Trump. He won the state by 9 percentage points, but is now locked in a tight race with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Republican fortunes – and their Senate majority – are tied to the President. Party officials in Iowa are keeping an anxious eye on the suburbs in the state, just as their counterparts are doing across the nation, as Trump’s shaky support threatens his party’s control of the chamber.
A week before the soybean episode, Ernst made clear she was in for a difficult race, telling supporters at a campaign stop: “It is a tough, tough, tough year, but you know what? I’m going to finish first!”
The voters, of course, will decide that.
Brendan Conley, a spokesman for Ernst, said the debate had several technical difficulties. Ernst appeared remotely from Washington, where she had spent the week in Supreme Court Confirmation hearings.
Earlier in the debate, viewers could plainly see Ernst struggle to hear when the audio clearly wasn’t working. Yet the problem seemed to be resolved during the corn and soybeans question because the senator did give an answer when asked at what price farmers could break even.
“There were countless issues throughout the debate, as both candidates experienced, and it was clear Joni wasn’t able to hear the question well,” Conley said in a statement. “As Joni said, the breakeven price depends on each farmer and what their operations looks like. Joni is a relentless and proven fighter for our farmers which is why she has the full backing of the Iowa Farm Bureau, the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, and the Iowa Corn Growers.”
Iowa is the second-highest soybean producing state in the country, so a question about commodity prices is hardly out of left field during a political debate, particularly for two candidates like Ernst and Greenfield who have talked extensively about their farm roots.
For Ernst, it’s been a central part of her political biography, since first gaining national attention in 2014 by airing a television ad comparing the castration of hogs to cutting spending in Washington.
“Let’s make ‘em squeal,” Ernst famously said in one ad, which was among the most memorable political spots of the election cycle.
During her first month on the job, Republican leaders selected her to deliver the party’s response to the State of the Union Address in 2015. In that nationally televised message, she introduced herself to the country, saying at one point: “As a young girl, I plowed the fields of our family farm.”
It was in that context that the question – and answer – reverberated.
Greenfield pounced, saying on Twitter: “A Senator from Iowa should know the price of soybeans.”
But over the weekend as false information spread on social media that the Iowa Farm Bureau was rescinding its endorsement of Ernst, the agriculture group came to her defense and released a statement amplifying its support.
“Senator Joni Ernst understands agriculture and works tirelessly to increase the economic opportunities for Iowa farmers and rural America, and that is why the Iowa Farm Bureau was proud to designate her as a Friend of Agriculture,” a Sunday statement said. “She continues to have our full support.”
Ernst has run a farm-focused campaign. During the hearings last week for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, she spoke in support of Iowa’s corn growers, bringing up a case decided in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that found the Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its authority in granting Renewable Fuel Standard-related waivers to some oil refiners. She joked that the “really sexy topic” of agency rulemaking was important to her state. “The problem here, bottom line, is that the EPA wasn’t following the law,” she said. “They took the law that Congress passed, they twisted it, and interpreted it for the benefit of oil producers, and that harmed our Iowa farmers.”
Democrats have tried to undercut Ernst’s Iowa-centered image by airing ads charging that she bought a condo in Washington, DC, and is now beholden to special interests.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is airing a television ad calling Ernst an “utter failure” for Iowa’s seniors, saying she would undermine Medicare, Social Security and protections for those with pre-existing conditions – health care attacks the Ernst campaign has rejected. In it, an actor squeezes the udders of a cow, while a narrator says the senator is “milking Iowa seniors for everything they’ve got.”
Greenfield has a slight advantage in the race, according to recent polls by CBS and Quinnipiac, but she has recently dominated the fundraising battle. In the last financial quarter, Greenfield raised more than $28 million, more money in three months than any Iowa Senate candidate has raised in an election cycle, compared to Ernst’s nearly $7.2 million.
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify that false information was spread over the weekend regarding the Iowa Farm Bureau’s endorsement of Sen. Joni Ernst. The organization reiterated its support of Ernst on Sunday.
