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Seven new members of Congress to watch

With the 2014 midterm elections all but wrapped up, the Monitor looks at which new members of Congress could make the most waves.

4. Joni Ernst

Charlie Neibergall/AP
Republican Senate candidate state Sen. Joni Ernst casts her ballot in the general election Tuesday in Red Oak, Iowa. Ms. Ernst won her race for Senate Tuesday.

Joni Ernst's campaign was launched this spring by what was perhaps the most memorable campaign ad of this election season.

"I’m Joni Ernst. I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm," she says in the ad, right at the start, "so when I get to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork."

That ad is credited for launching her primary campaign and carrying her to the Republican nomination. And her strategic handling of the general election, which has delivered her to the US Senate and Republicans a Senate majority, is now being held up as a model campaign for the GOP to replicate in 2016.

Her campaign stood out for gaining ground with positivity, and she reiterated her desires to uphold conservative values and fight the D.C. establishment. She has emphasized her military background, having commanded troops in Iraq as a member of the Iowa National Guard, and has stumped on popular Republican issues like repealing the Affordable Care Act.

But her campaign was also marked by a series of small controversies. She has said she believes there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the US invasion, and she has dismissed climate change as not being caused by human activity. Ernst also promoted a Glenn Beck-fuelled conspiracy theory that a secret provision in a UN treaty could force Iowa farmers off their land, and last month she refused to meet the editorial board of several Iowa newspapers, an action that was described as almost unprecedented.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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