As Ernst Trails in the Polls, New TV Ad by McConnell-Aligned “One Nation” Tries to Rewrite Ernst’s Record Favoring Corporate Donors Over Iowa Small Businesses and Working Families

As part of a $22 million TV ad blitz from a number of shady outside groups to bail out Senator Joni Ernst’s floundering campaign, today Mitch McConnell’s dark money group “One Nation” went on the defensive – launching a TV ad to cover up her failed response to the pandemic. 

While the dark money ad tries to claim that Ernst supports small businesses, the truth is she’s been propping up her corporate special interests donors while leaving Iowa workers and small businesses behind. 

As Iowans were being laid off at record numbers, Senator Ernst was locked in partisan politics, voting twice to ram through a $500 billion corporate slush fund that would have allowed CEOs to fire workers while boosting their own bonuses and buying back stocks. Ernst also voted to strip expanded unemployment benefits and paid family leave from COVID-19 relief, and fell in line with McConnell to “favor corporate interests over individuals” as outbreaks spiked in meatpacking plants across Iowa.

A PPP poll from early June found that only 35% of voters approve of Senator Ernst’s response to the pandemic. And while that damning rebuke may be dictating TV ads, it hasn’t deterred Senator Ernst’s opposition to urgently needed relief. 

Ernst continues to stand firmly against new direct funding for state and local governments to prevent layoffs of first responders and essential workers. And as Iowa small businesses struggled to access critical PPP loans, Senator Ernst gave her corporate donors a free pass on oversight, despite big corporations raking in loans in excess of $10 million.

“As Iowa’s workers and small businesses continue to fall behind, Mitch McConnell’s dark money group launched a desperate ad campaign to rewrite Senator Ernst’s failure to stand up for Iowans in this pandemic,” said Jeremy Busch, Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson. “Dark money ads can’t change the fact that in this unprecedented crisis, Senator Ernst let Iowa workers and businesses suffer, while working to pad the pockets of the wealthiest corporations and donors propping up her re-election.”