Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is warning supporters that a win in the Iowa Senate race is an absolute necessity to the party maintaining control of the Senate,
Talking Points Memo reports.
"If we win Iowa we're going to do just fine," Reid said Saturday during a conference call by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. "Iowa is critical. There’s no other way to say it."
Republican Joni Ernst had held a slight lead over Democrat Bruce Braley in the race for the open seat, but a
Des Moines Register poll released Saturday showed Ernst had jumped to a 7-point lead.
Reid warned that an Ernst win would mean that current Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would become leader of the United States Senate, ousting Reid from the role.
McConnell, Reid said, "agrees with her on everything. Think of what would mean for our country."
Politico reported that Reid repeatedly attacked Ernst for opposing a raise of the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
Ernst, Reid said, is "so far to the right that maybe even a part of the right wouldn't like what she's talking about.
"She's so out of line with mainstream Iowans, mainstream Americans, that she refuses to appear before editorial boards," Reid said. "She has spent the entire campaign talking about what she did as a young girl, castrating animals."
Ernst spokeswoman Caitlin Conant issued an email response to the press, saying, "Reid says Democrats will be 'just fine' if Braley wins, but Iowa can do better. Reid is only backing Braley because he supports Obama's agenda of higher taxes, more debt, and Obamacare."