‘Bring it on’: Republican senator fires warning shot ahead of big 2026 announcement

Sen. Joni Ernst says Democrats can ‘bring it on’ in 2026 election

by Robin Opsahl, Iowa Capital Dispatch
August 13, 2025

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst has not officially said if she plans to run for reelection in 2026 — but she told a GOP audience Wednesday that Democrats should “bring it on” in the 2026 midterm elections.

“Every day we get a new Democratic member of the House or Senate that decides to run for this Senate seat — bring it on,” Ernst, a Republican, said at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale. “Bring it on, folks. Because I tell you, at the end of the day, Iowa is going to be red.”

The race for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat has become a crowded over the past few months. There are five Democrats running to become their party nominee — state Rep. Josh Turek, D-Council Bluffs, who announced his race Tuesday, as well as Iowa Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville; Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City; Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris and former Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Director Nathan Sage. Two Republicans, former state lawmaker Jim Carlin and Joshua Smith, a previous Libertarian candidate, have also announced their campaigns for the seat.

But Ernst, who is serving her second term, has yet to say whether she plans to run for reelection. During her visit to the Iowa State Fair, over the weekend, she told reporters an announcement would be “coming soon.”

Some speculated that Ernst was considering retirement from Congress. While she raised more than her Democratic challengers who had entered the race in the second quarter Federal Election Commission filings, she raised less in the period than she had at this point in her 2020 reelection campaign. Politico also reported in July there were concerns among Senate Republicans that she would not run for reelection, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune telling a reporter he was “doing everything I can to encourage her to run for reelection.”

In recent months, Ernst has faced criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Her town hall comment in May, “well, we all are going to die,” when responding to a person who shouted to her about Medicaid cuts in the budget reconciliation bill gained national attention and pushback. Among Republicans, she has been criticized for expressing concerns about U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during the nomination process, though she voted to confirm him.

Ernst touts cuts in taxes, spending

In addition to talking about the upcoming election season Wednesday, Ernst also celebrated some of the GOP wins since President Donald Trump was elected. Though she did not talk about Medicaid and SNAP provisions in the budget reconciliation law, she said provisions like updated reference prices for farmers and tax exemptions for overtime will help Iowa families, farms and businesses.

She also said the measure will provide “a lot of tax relief for a heck of a lot of people across the United States.”

“Right here in Iowa, if we had not supported the one big beautiful bill, an average household here in Iowa would have seen their tax bill increase by $2,060. $2,060. We avoided that,” Ernst said. “Think about all the Democrats — they voted for a $2,000 tax increase for Iowans, and we’re not going to have that.”

Turek, in an interview Wednesday, said Ernst’s support for measures like the budget reconciliation bill are one of the reason why many Iowans who have previously supported Republicans are looking to Democrats in the upcoming election.

“In the urban areas and in the rural areas, we are getting turnouts like we haven’t seen, with a lot of buyers’ remorse, of people that have said, ‘I voted for Trump, I voted for Ernst, but this is not what I signed up for’ — not for cuts to health care to poor kids and the disabled, not for cuts to food assistance, just to give billionaires tax breaks,” Turek said.

In addition to highlighting tax cuts in the budget reconciliation bill, Ernst said her work to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government has come to pass through the rescissions bill, canceling previously approved federal funding for U.S. Agency for International Development and public broadcasting, as well as through the federal DOGE service.

Ernst said heading into 2025, she met with billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy as they prepared to lead the Department of Government Efficiency initiative in the Trump administration to discuss areas for savings in the federal government identified through work like her “squeal awards.”

“I was able to present them with an eight-page document that outlined $2 trillion of savings in our federal government,” Ernst said. “Now, trying to get to that $2 trillion mark is pretty darn hard. We’ve got a lot of pushback coming from the Democrats and the unions that exist within federal government. So we’re running into a number of roadblocks, but we will continue to build upon that success.”

Neither Ramaswamy, who is running for Ohio governor, nor Musk is still affiliated with the federal DOGE service, with Ernst lamenting the “big, beautiful breakup” between Trump and Musk. But she said “we still are very committed to DOGE work in the United States Senate and in the House.”

In addition to her statements signaling a campaign announcement, Ernst is scheduled to hold her annual “Roast and Ride” fundraiser Oct. 11, and hired a campaign manager in June.

Ernst said “Republicans are going to rule the day” in the 2026 election cycle, calling for GOP voters to vote and keep Iowa Republicans in power. Iowa has an all-Republican federal delegation, in addition to a GOP trifecta at the Statehouse.

“This is going to be a very big election year for us coming up in this next year,” Ernst told the Westside Conservative Club members. “So I am asking all of you, turn out, turn out, turn out. … After all of those choices have been made through the Republican primary, then we all come together as Iowa and support our Republican candidates, and we turn out in November, and we put the Democrats in their place. Because, let me tell you, I got a lot of years under my belt, and I’ve got a lot of confidence, not just in me, but all of our candidates up and down the ticket.”

Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.