By Brent Griffiths
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The Iowa Republican caucuses may be over, but Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst keeps her candidate of choice private.
“I won’t be endorsing, whomever our nominee is, I want to make sure I’m working really hard for that nominee,” Ernst told The Daily Iowan after a meeting with University of Iowa Air Force and Army ROTC cadets as a part of her tour of Iowa’s 99 counties.
Like Ernst, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Terry Branstad promised to stay neutral throughout the caucus process, as the campaign shifts to snow-covered New Hampshire and the first-primary-in-the-south in South Carolina. Regarded as more establishment-type figures, the endorsement of one of Iowa’s two senators could be a big get for a lucky GOP candidate.
On one hand, Grassley is one of the most senior members of the U.S. Senate, chairman of an influential committee, and perhaps the most popular GOP senator in her or his home state.
Since her surprise win over then Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, both party leaders and the media have casted her as a future Republican star. The 45-year-old was tasked with the 2015 State of the Union response, presided over the Keystone XL pipeline debate, and help guide her party’s response to leaked Planned Parenthood affiliate videos that anti-abortion advocates used to allege malfeasance in the non-profit organization.
Of the trio, Branstad has been the most outspoken before and after the precinct caucuses.
Shortly before Feb. 1, Branstad told reporters it would be a mistake for Iowans to caucus for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz given the junior senator’s opposition to the renewable fuel standard.
“He’s heavily financed by Big Oil,” Branstad said about Cruz at the Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Altoona in January. “So we think once Iowans realize that fact, they might find other things attractive but he could be very damaging to our state.”
But Ernst declined to be as critical as Branstad.
“I think there was an error that was made, the caucuses are done now, I think we need to move ahead,” she said. “It doesn’t do any good to dwell on the past. An error was made, they acknowledged that, move on.”
The network was reporting that Carson would take a short break from the campaign trail, which King and others took as a sign that Carson might soon drop out of the presidential field. Later stories indicate, Cruz precinct captains told the Iowans who caucused for a GOP candidate that a vote for Carson would be a waste given the news.
Cruz and King have since apologized to Carson, who was not dropping out and is back on the campaign trail in New Hampshire after getting some fresh laundry.
“I was very disappointed that members of his team thought so little of me … after having hundreds, if not thousands of volunteers and college students who sacrificed their time and were dedicated to the cause — one even died — to think that I would just walk away 10 minutes before the caucus and say, ‘Forget about you guys,’ ” Carson said on Feb. 6 at the GOP Debate in New Hampshire.
