(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst is touting her influence in the Trump Administration and giving firm signals that she’s running for re-election in 2026. Ernst spoke this morning at the Westside Conservative Breakfast Club in Urbandale and mentioned the five Democrats who’ve launched campaigns for the U.S. Senate. “I love it,” Ernst said. “Every day we get a new Democratic member of the House or Senate that decides to run for this senate seat. Bring it on, folks, because I tell you at the end of the day Iowa is going to be red,” Ernst said.

Three of the five Democrats who’ve launched campaigns for the U.S. Senate are currently members of the Iowa legislature. As Ernst concluded her remarks this morning, she told the crowd 2026 will be a “big election year” for Iowa Republicans. “In the Republican Primary, you must turn out, O.K? And then after all of those choices have been made through the Republican Primary, we all come together as Iowa and support our Republican candidates and we turn out in November and we put the Democrats in their place,” Ernst said, to applause and cheers.

Ernst began by saying President Trump’s four year break from the White House gave him a chance to develop his “America First” policy agenda and select federal agency leaders who are working to put it in place. “I visit with the president often. I get to work on a lot of his agenda items,” Ernst said. “…I work very well with President Trump. All of those cabinet members know it and when they need something or I need something, we are constantly collaborating and working together.”

Ernst said this spring, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture asked her to lobby Trump to let an updated calculation for some farm subsidies be included in the One Big Beautiful Bill he signed July 4. “She said, ‘You have a really good relationship with President Trump. Could you please call him?’” Ernst said, with a laugh. “And so I was tasked by Secretary Rollins and the chairman, John Boseman, of the (Senate) Ag Committee to call President Trump.”

Ernst said Trump returned her call at midnight on a Sunday. “Sorry I don’t do the best Trump impression, but you know he was like: ‘Oh, oh Joni. All right. I’ll talk to the team about your farmer stuff,’” Ernst said, continuing with her reply to Trump: “‘O.K., thanks Mr. President.’ I’m glad that I have the trust of my colleagues and the administration officials to be the one out there attempting to convince the president to include our farmers in some of these items and he really does case about our Iowa farmers.” In July of 2016, Ernst was among the people Trump interviewed as a potential running mate before picking Mike Pence.

State Representative Josh Turek of Council Bluffs launched his campaign of the U.S. Senate yesterday. Knoxville Chamber of Commerce executive Nathan Sage, State Representative J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, State Senator Zach Wahls of Coralville, and Des Moines School Board president Jackie Norris are the other candidates who’ve said they’ll compete for the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2026 nomination for the U.S. Senate.