Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has held on to her Senate seat, NBC News projects.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has held on to her Senate seat, NBC News projects.
The contest was an expensive one, an indicator of its importance to Republicans and Democrats alike. The Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield raised slightly more than $47 million and spent over $43 million. Ernst, meanwhile, raised $23.5 million and spent more $21 million.
With 90 percent of the vote counted, Ernest was leading 51.6 percent to 45.4 percent.
The bellwether race was considered an important indicator of Trumps own electoral prospects as well as the balance of power in the Senate.
Ernst appeared to have a slight edge in late polling before the election, but Democrats outpaced Republicans in mail-in and early in-person ballots returned, according to NBC News Decision Desk/TargetSmart.
Democratic senate candidate Theresa Greenfield speaks with a reporter at a picnic in Greenfield, Iowa, on Aug. 11, 2019.Caroline Brehman / CQ-Roll Call via AP
Having grown up on an Iowa pig farm, Ernst promised Iowans in 2014 that if they sent her to the Senate, shed hold Washington accountable and make em squeal.
But one possible reason for the closeness of this race is that she didnt make Trump squeal very often, despite an election cycle where it seems the top of the ticket could define the results for everyone else.
She told us she was going to be independent, different and make ’em squeal, Greenfield said in a debate last month. But, unfortunately, she’s become part of the problem.”
Nevertheless, Ernst tied herself very closely to the president. She defended her support of Trump, including his most recent Supreme Court nomination, but said she was running on her own issues.
Though Ernst admitted that hitching her cart to an unpopular president was a gamble, she told reporters that she thought Trump would carry Iowa. Late in the race, she attempted to highlight her independence and bipartisanship bona fides.
I’ve ranked as one of the most bipartisan senators in the United States Senate from any state of either party in the last 25 years, she told reporters last month. That speaks to the fact I’m working across the aisle, I’m working to get things done for Iowans and I don’t care what party so long as I’m working for Iowa.
Ernsts Iowa credentials were called into question last month when a debate moderator asked about the price of soybeans a major crop in the state.
It depends on what the inputs are, but probably about $5.50, she said.
Well youre a couple dollars off, because its $10.05, the moderator responded.
Greenfields campaign instantly jumped on the gaffe. A sSenator from Iowa should know the price of soybeans, they tweeted.
Greenfield also grew up on a hog farm, but later developed a real estate business in central Iowa. Running as a moderate Democrat, she focused her campaign on health care access, the pandemic response, infrastructure funding, education supports and farming.
When asked for the price of corn at the same debate, she had the correct answer.