Talking Chickens Ad Puts Bruce Braley on the Defensive in Pivotal Iowa Senate Race

A new ad featuring talking chickens threatens to further place embattled Iowa Senate Democratic candidate Rep. Bruce Braley on the defensive for attempting to sue his next-door neighbor over chickens she uses as therapy animals for autistic children. 

The viral ad, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), comes just eight days before Braley, a lawyer, faces off with Republican rising star Joni Ernst in a race that political analysts say could alter the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. 

The new ad features two barnyard chickens located “Somewhere in Iowa” mocking Braley’s unneighborly behavior as being out of touch and just “Not very Iowa.” 

“Dude, they left the gate open. Let’s go for a walk,” one chicken says to the other. 

“No way. Last time we did that we almost got sued,” says the other chicken. 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Well, remember when we were chilling by Bruce Braley’s vacation home?…He threatened to sue over that.” 

“Because we walked on his property?” 

“Uh-huh. He wants to be an Iowa Senator, and he threatens to sue over us–over chickens.”

“That’s not very neighborly.” 

“It’s not very Iowa.” 

The Iowa race remains one of the nation’s most competitive and closely watched. According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Ernst currently maintains a slender 2.2% lead over Braley. In August, Braley denied the chicken lawsuit charges to the Washington Post. “This was a personal dispute between my wife and a neighbor because chickens were on our property all the time,” Braley told the Post.

Still, Braley’s chicken neighbor feud debacle has plagued the Iowa Democrat’s campaign for months and has morphed into a crystallizing campaign narrative of an out of touch Washington politician who has broken faith with Iowa farmers and voters. 

“Braley could be the perfect mascot for Democrats in an election year where nothing has gone their way, and the party’s chances of holding on to the majority of the Senate seem to get dimmer by the day,” reported The Atlantic on Saturday.  

Iowans head to the polls on Nov. 4.