McConnell-Aligned “One Nation” Booked $5.3 Million In Iowa Ads, Their 2nd-Largest Ad Buy for Any GOP Incumbent and 5x Their Prior Reservation
As the third-most unpopular senator in the country Joni Ernst kicks off the general election facing a “nosedive” in approval and “on the defensive,” one of Mitch McConnell’s dark money groups is not doubling, not tripling, but quintupling their prior ad buy in the latest signs of desperation in a race the GOP wrote off as safe.
McConnell’s One Nation dark money group has reserved $5.3 million in Iowa TV and radio ads – five-times their previous $1 million investment and now their second-largest buy in the country. McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund has already booked $12.6 million in Iowa ads – again the second-most for any GOP incumbent – and McConnell’s $2.6 million NRSC reservation will hit Iowa airwaves starting next week in only their “initial” placement. Overall, McConnell-aligned groups are set to spend over $20 million in Iowa.
“Senator Joni Ernst’s extreme vulnerability has clearly shaken Mitch McConnell to his core – and now, he’s desperately scrambling to throw a lifeline to one of his most loyal senators who can’t hold her own water,” said Jeremy Busch, Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson. “The GOP’s multi-million dollar effort to repaint Senator Ernst as anything but a corrupt Washington politician comes far too late to save her re-election. Voters are going to punish Senator Ernst at the polls for putting her corporate PAC donors first, no matter the costs to Iowans.”
Election watchers including Cook Political Report and Inside Elections have shifted Iowa’s Senate rating towards Democrats, as Senator Ernst’s falling out with voters continues to hit new lows. A May PPP poll showed Ernst’s approval rating sitting at a measly 37% and found her in a dead heat with businesswoman and Democratic nominee Theresa Greenfield, coming after a Des Moines Register poll found Ernst’s approval plummeted 10% just a year.