There are growing concerns among Republican party leaders that Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) may be the next lawmaker to decide to walk away from Congress after having what Politico's Rachel Bade called a "rough" year.
Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to expand upon her report for Politico that Ernst is showing a general lack of enthusiasm for another campaign, Bade told the hosts that several battles Ernst has endured in the past year have soured her on staying in office after 2026.
"She has sort of gone through some of the motions suggesting that she could run again, she just hired a campaign manager, she's raised about $1 million for her reelection effort, which is not super impressive, but it's also not nothing," Bade began. "But behind the scenes, I'm hearing from Senate Republicans that they just don't see the fight in her anymore."
Pointing out that the Iowa Republican "has told people recently that she hasn't even decided whether she wants to run again," she added, "Number one is that she previously was in leadership. [Sen.] Tom Cotton (R-AR), who is actually a close friend of hers, ran against her and totally ousted her from that position. I'm told that she actually felt rather betrayed, and that was a huge sore point for her for a while."
"Then remember back in January, she totally got dragged by MAGA influencers online when she was sort of holding out her support for Pete Hegseth ––obviously had a lot of concerns about him," she continued. "Ultimately, she voted for him, but that was after this really ugly campaign where she was basically made an example of by the White House and White House allies."
"They even suggested that she wanted the job herself, which, I was told at the time was totally false and a smear campaign against her," she elaborated. "And that has sort of stuck with her. I mean, even her Senate Republican colleagues saw that and were like, wow, okay, we don't want that to happen to us, we're going to get in line. And so between both of those things, you know. It hasn't been exactly a great year for her."
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