Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa will not seek reelection next year, three sources confirmed to NOTUS, opening up another competitive Senate race with an already crowded primary on the Democratic side.
CBS News first reported that Ernst was likely to opt out of running, citing sources close to the senator who said she always planned on serving only two terms.
Ernst’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Had she run, she likely would have faced attacks from Democrats over her support for the Republican spending bill. In May, she delivered Democrats a potent talking point when she told voters, “We are all going to die,” in response to a constituent’s question about people dying due to Medicaid cuts in the bill.
Since Ernst’s Medicaid cuts town hall comments, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the race from “solid Republican” to “likely Republican.”
Over the summer, Ernst remained noncommittal on whether she would run again but continued to emphasize that Iowa’s Senate seat would stay firmly in Republican hands.
“Bring it on, folks,” she said at an event in mid-August, referring to new Democratic candidates joining the field. “Because I tell you, at the end of the day, Iowa is going to be red.”
Multiple Democrats had announced plans to run for Ernst’s seat, including state Rep. Josh Turek, state Sen. Zach Wahls and Nathan Sage.
Iowa Democrats were bolstered by a surprise upset in a special election earlier this week, when a Democrat flipped a state Senate seat, breaking Republicans’ supermajority.
Ernst has been the junior senator from Iowa since 2015. Her time in Congress has been marked by her support for cutting government spending. She was a founder of the Senate DOGE Caucus, which partnered with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in the early months of President Donald Trump’s administration.
As a veteran, she was also a prominent voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee and on foreign policy matters, particularly regarding China.