Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) defeated Iowa Senate Democrat candidate Theresa Greenfield in the battle for the state’s Senate seat, according to news projections from Fox News.

Fox News and WHO-13 called the race in favor of Ernst. 

Ernst won reelection to Iowa’s senate seat. She was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, campaigning on her rural Iowa “hog castration” farm experience to end pork barrel spending in Congress’s upper chamber. 

Greenfield was a former 2018 Democrat candidate for Iowa’s third congressional district; however, she was disqualified after her campaign manager falsified some ballots to qualify her for the race.

Ernst spent much of her campaign slamming Greenfield for her “felony election fraud” and noted that Greenfield may have violated campaign laws during this cycle. The Iowa conservative also chastised Greenfield for claiming that there is “systemic” racism in Iowa’s law enforcement. 

The Iowa conservative also trounced Greenfield during a debate in October when she noted that Greenfield’s company, Colby Interests, displaced small businesses for the multinational chain Aldi.

She asked rhetorically during the debate, “Why on earth would we take someone that has this record of dishonesty and failed business leadership to the United States Senate?”

Greenfield attempted to broaden her appeal when she announced in October that she was not in favor of adding additional justices to the Supreme Court.

“Packing the court with more justices would be too divisive,” Greenfield said. “There’s way too much divisiveness going on.”

Ernst, as one of Congress’s leading government waste hawks, sponsored numerous bills to rein in government spending. 

Ernst also served as a leading sponsor of paid family leave in the Senate. Ernst, with Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), sponsored the Cradle Act, which would allow Americans to use their Social Security benefits to access family leave benefits without any additional cost to the taxpayer. 

“We are the party of families,” Ernst told Breitbart News in an interview in April 2019. 

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.