Now that the Iowa Caucus is nearly one month behind us, it is nearing time for Iowa voters to direct their attention to a few critical races in the Hawkeye State.
One of those is Sen. Joni Ernst’s re-election bid in 2020. It remains to be seen which Democrat she will face.
Her colleague in the Senate, Sen. Chuck Grassley, has served in the United States Senate since 1981. He served with fellow Republican Roger Jepsen for his first four years and then spent the next 30 serving with Democrat Tom Harkin.
Serving with a fellow Republican from Iowa has been nice the past handful of years.
“It’s important from the standpoint that we’ve got a dramatically opposing philosophy of government — that government’s got the answer to everything and the answer of the opposition is more taxes, more government, more regulation,” Grassley said of Democrats. “And a Republican-controlled Senate has the principle of limited government and that would dictate that the government is not the answer to every problem that needs to be solved and that we have confidence in the competitiveness of the market system.
“And, we want to encourage maximum opportunities for every American to reach the American Dream, according to their own abilities. Whether it’s the ability of their labor or the ability of their mind or both. Republicans reflect confidence in the individual whereas the opposing faction has more confidence in government.”
Grassley continued discussing the differences in philosophy.
“If you accept the philosophy that the government has an answer to it, what you’re saying is a President and 535 members of Congress know more what’s good for the country than the intelligence of the, I’ll say, the 330 million Americans, but better yet, let’s narrow it down to the 170 million people who are in the workforce, working to create jobs, doing the work and making decisions on their own,” he said. “We Republicans think the individual judgment of 175 million Americans working is better than the judgment of 535 members of Congress. In fact, you have to say isn’t that a great chutzpah that Congress has that they can be smarter than everybody else.”
While Grassley said he’s always gotten along with his colleagues, Ernst has been a welcome addition to the Senate and been someone he has been able to work with on a wide range of issues.
“My personal relationship with Ernst is very similar to my personal relationship with Harkin,” he said. “The difference is that Harkin and I voted together about 10 percent of the time. I think Ernst and I vote together 95 percent of the time. I find it more comfortable when my colleague and I can work together on legislative issues other than what Harkin and I tended to work on things that were very central to Iowa, but not much on national issues.”
We asked Grassley to talk about Ernst’s ability to follow his lead with a 99-county tour.
“Let’s say it this way, if people think I work hard to keep in touch with Iowans, Ernst works just as hard and maybe, if you talk to her, she’d tell you she works harder — and that’s OK with me,” he said. “It’s very necessary for the principle of representative government to keep in touch with your constituents.”
Ernst has done a fine job of representing the grassroots of Iowa constituents. And, Grassley said, she wouldn’t be able to do that if she didn’t stay in constant contact with Iowans.
“She also works hard as a member of Congress,” he said. “She serves on four very important committees.”
She sits on the Armed Services Committee, and Grassley said national defense is the top interest. She serves on Judiciary, which means she is able to appoint strict constitutionalist judges. She’s on the Agriculture committee, which is Iowa’s No. 1 industry. And she serves on Environmental and Public Works, so she’s on the frontline working for people impacted by, for example, the flooding of the Missouri River.
The senior senator is confident in Ernst’s chances.
“She’ll be re-elected because she works so hard and represents the people of Iowa well,” Grassley said. “If I had to add anything about her uniqueness in the United States Senate, it’s the fact that she’s the first female combat veteran to be a member of the United States Senate and she is respected for that. She’s a big voice with things dealing with defense.”
Grassley also talked about President Donald Trump, who is up for re-election in 2020.
“He runs on a platform,” Grassley said. “A lot of politicians run on a platform, but they don’t stand on that platform. He stands on that platform and he tries to keep his promises to the people of Iowa. I think people ought to applaud him for that, even if they’d disagree with him. If you don’t like some of the things he’s done, you shouldn’t be surprised because he said he was going to do them.”
