Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ernst will not seek reelection next year in a major move that could shake up the 2026 midterms.
Sources confirmed the senator would announce her intentions next week. CBS News was first to report her planned Senate departure.
The GOP senator and retired military officer was first elected to Congress in the 2014 midterms and quickly rose up the ranks of Republican leadership. She previously served in the Iowa Senate.
Ernst has been tight lipped in recent months about her plans for 2026 and whether she would seek a third term in office.
A request for comment to her Senate office did not receive an immediate response.
The 55-year-old lawmaker has remained a close ally of President Donald Trump, voting in line with other Republicans for all of his legislative priorities including his so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Ernst ended up in hot water in late May when she responded to concerns about Medicaid cuts in Trump’s domestic spending legislation at a town hall with “we are all going to die.”
The next day, the senator doubled down with a sarcastic apology video in which she also said she was “really, really glad” that she “did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.”
The glib comment was already resonating on the campaign trail and was expected to be front and center in Democrats’ efforts to unseat her next year as discussion of health care cuts are shaping up to play a major role in the midterms.
Ernst also also backed very single one of Trump’s Cabinet nominees including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Prior to his confirmation, there were questions whether Ernst, a sexual assault survivor, would tank his confirmation as he faced allegations of sexual assault.
In the end, the senator said Hegseth adequately answered all of her questions, and she voted to advance him out of the Senate Armed Services Committee on which she serves amid pressure from Trump allies.
The Republican lawmaker won her 2020 reelection bid with more than 51 percent of the vote in a state that has become increasingly more red since President Obama won it in 2012.
Trump won Iowa last year with more than 55 percent of the vote in the presidential election.
However, a growing number of Democrats have already jumped into the Iowa Senate primary including state Senator Zach Wahls, state Rep. Josh Turek, mechanic and veteran Nathan Sage and Des Moines School Board chair Jackie Norris.
“Joni Ernst saw the writing on the wall,” Wahls wrote reacting to the report of Ernst not seeking reelection. “Iowans are fed up with rising costs and unchecked corruption. And next year, we’re going to flip this seat.”
“Whether it’s Joni Ernst or someone else, they’ll have to answer for supporting cutting Iowans’ healthcare in favor of a tax break for billionaires,” wrote Turek on X.
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