Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa is not running for reelection to a third term in the 2026 midterms, according to reports.
Multiple sources close to the 55-year-old senator told CBS News about her decision, which is expected to be officially announced on Sept. 4.
Ernst’s decision to retire, which had been rumored for months, will create an open seat in the heavily Republican-leaning state.
Ernst succeeded longtime Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin and gained fame with her anti-pork barrel spending slogan: “Make ‘em squeal.”
Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley hold Iowa’s Senate seats, while all four of the state’s congressional districts are also held by Republicans.
Republicans also control all statewide offices except for the seat held by State Auditor Rob Sand, the Democrat candidate for governor of Iowa.
Iowa is historically a key swing state. It voted for former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, before being won by President Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
The battleground state was partially won back by the Democrats in 2018, when they won three of Iowa’s four seats in the House, before losing them again to Republicans.
Earlier this year, Iowa Democrats were able to flip two Republican-held seats in the state senate in special elections.
Ernst, a retired Army Reserve and Iowa National Guard officer who served in the Iraq War and the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate, was elected in 2014 on a pledge to cut government spending, but has clashed with President Trump on certain issues.
The senator was recently criticized for telling a constituent “we are all going to die” at a town meeting, after concerns were brought up over Medicaid cuts in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Ernst has spent much of her time in the Senate focused on defense issues, due to her service in the military.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, a third-term Republican representing Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, is currently the GOP’s favored candidate to hold the seat in the House.
Meanwhile, four Democrats have announced their run for Ernst’s open seat: State Rep. Josh Turek, State Sen. Zach Wahls, Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nathan Sage, and Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris.
Republicans are planning to maintain and hopefully expand their current 53-47 Senate majority in next year’s midterm elections, after flipping four seats to win back control of the chamber in 2024.
The other top seat that Republicans are trying to defend is the seat held by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who decided against seeking reelection after being threatened with a primary by President Trump.
Polls indicate that the GOP will be strongly competitive in some key states, despite the party in power usually facing a political disadvantage in the midterm elections.
Republicans are eyeing first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff’s seat in Georgia, as Trump narrowly carried the state in last year’s presidential election, and the New Hampshire seat of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who decided not to seek her fourth term in the Senate.
The seats held by Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, who is retiring at the end of his term in 2026, and Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, who is also not running for reelection, are also being targeted by Republicans.
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