Harry Reid: ‘Iowa Is Critical’ To Protecting Democratic Majority

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. gestures as he discusses Tuesday's election results during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told progressive activists on Saturday that Iowa is “critical” to maintaining a Democratic Senate.

“If we win Iowa we’re going to do just fine,” he said on a conference call hosted by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Iowa is critical. There’s no other way to say it.”

He urged the activists to make calls to Iowa voters in support of Democrat Bruce Braley, who is narrowly behind Republican Joni Ernst in the battleground Iowa race.

Reid launched a broadside on Ernst, characterizing her as “so far to the right that maybe even a part of the right wouldn’t like what she’s talking about.” He warned that a victory for her would probably mean Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) becomes the next majority leader.

“She’s so out of line with mainstream Iowans, mainstream Americans, that she refuses to appear before editorial boards,” Reid said. “She has spent the entire campaign talking about what she did as a young girl, castrating animals.”

He described Braley as “a fine man” with “a good record of public service.”

Caitlin Conant, a spokeswoman for the Ernst campaign, responded to Reid’s comments in an email to TPM.

“Reid says Democrats will be ‘just fine’ if Braley wins, but Iowa can do better. Reid is only backing Braley because he supports Obama’s agenda of higher taxes, more debt, and Obamacare,” she said.

Ernst leads Braley by 1.2 percentage points in the TPM PollTracker average.

This article has been updated to include a response from the Ernst campaign.

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Notable Replies

  1. Tighter than a gnat’s butthole, but I like the direction of Braley’s arrow.

    We gotta all git out and VOTE!!!

  2. Hey Harry, why did you refuse to lift a finger to help Bellows in Maine and Tennant in West Virginia?

  3. Avatar for andy49 andy49 says:

    Harry, the master of the understatement. The party deserves what it is about to get. I hope that they learn to stand up for what they are suppose to believe in and fight for it across the board. This time around they fought against themselves and did not take a stand for much. In my market they Dem tried to make a race out of it. The GOP in the race is a lobbyist running for congress, I always thought that went the other way. The Dem is doomed because the Green have a candidate in the district and it will split that vote so expect another kill Social Security now congress person to join the club.

  4. How is any one particular race more important than any other. A loss is a loss and a win is a win. The final total is what matters. We need to win them all and every single race is important. For various reasons possibly but all still very important.
    I’m pulling for Udall so hard that it hurts. Gardener is a total teabagger and will hurt Colorado and us not crazy Coloradoans for more years than I care to consider.

    I will vote in person with my son and hopefully daughter on election day because I am trying hard to make them fully understand the importance of it and to lead them by example.

  5. Avatar for ryanp ryanp says:

    I’ve been stuck out of state most of the summer. It’s killing me to be so far away and to see the tight polls and to not be able to go door to door for Udall. I might be drinking heavily all day Tuesday.

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