Sen. Ernst's sarcasm won't help her keep her seat

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Patricia Lopez / Bloomberg Opinion

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst lobbed a verbal grenade into her town hall on Saturday with one heedless, heartless comment.

Confronted by an audience member who shouted that without Medicaid, “people will die,” the Republican replied, “Well, we all are going to die. For heaven’s sake, folks.”

That would once have been a career-ending gaffe for a senator seeking re-election, as Ernst will in 2026. But we’re in the MAGA era now. So instead of backpedaling, she followed up with a video of her strolling through what appears to be a graveyard, face full of faux concern, saying she had made “an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that yes, we are all going to perish from this Earth … So I apologize.” Then came the sarcastic kicker: “And I’m really, really glad I didn’t have to bring up the subject of the Tooth Fairy as well.”

The harsh comment can’t change the state’s harsh reality: Its economy has been slow to recover from the covid pandemic, in part due to an aging workforce and in part due to its shrinking agricultural sector. The state’s economy contracted last year, making it one of only two U.S. states to see declines in GDP in 2024.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-sen-ernsts-sarcasm-wont-help-her-keep-her-seat/

[kimbutgar]

1. She will be easily re elected

The Sinclair broadcasting will be airing pro Ernst ads constantly Neurolinguistically programming them and the people of IOWA are too far gone magaloons and will giddily vote for her again.

[moose65]

2. I don't know - maybe

But I looked it up: in 2020, the year when the MAGAs crawled out of the woodwork to vote for Trump, Ernst was re-elected and she won by a 52 - 45 margin, and by about 110,000 votes. To me, that's not some great landslide.

Next year, Trump won't be on the ballot, and the hardcore MAGAs won't vote for anyone but him. With the national mood likely to be very anti-MAGA, the right candidate certainly has a chance in Iowa.

In her first election in 2014, Ernst got about the same percentage of the vote: 52.1% in 2014 versus 51.74% in 2020. She won that first election by about 94,000 votes, compared to 110,000 in 2020.

She is certainly beatable if she keeps pissing people off!

[Skittles]

3. hard to say

because cruelty, lack of empathy and indifference seem to be required of repuke politicians these days