Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday slammed Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst for not meeting with newspaper editorial boards in the Hawkeye State.
"You have a lot to be proud of in this state," Clinton said at a campaign rally for Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley,
The Washington Post reports. "You test your candidates.
"They have to be willing to answer the tough questions, which Bruce has been willing to do and his opponent has not," said Clinton, who is a considering a White House run in 2016. "It truly seems like it should be disqualifying in Iowa, of all states, to avoid answering questions."
Ernst, who has served in the Iowa Senate since 2011, recently canceled a meeting with The Des Moines Register, the state's largest newspaper, the Post reports.
A campaign official said Ernst took the step because of bias she thought the paper had shown in its editorials over the previous two months.
The Register endorsed Braley on Tuesday.
Rekha Basu, a columnist at the Register, said on
Facebook last week that Ernst had "also begged off meetings with The Cedar Rapids Gazette and The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald."
The
columnist has come under fire, however, amid reports that her son, Romen, works as a deputy field director in Des Moines for the Braley campaign.
Recent polls show Ernst leading Braley by 3 percentage points in the heavily watched race.