Senators Reid, Warren push Iowa voters to save Senate for Democrats

Reporting from Washington —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said keeping a U.S. Senate seat in Iowa was key to Democratic control of the upper chamber as he and Sen. Elizabeth Warren rallied voters Saturday in a final push before election day.

“If we win Iowa, we’re going to be just fine,” Reid told activists on a morning conference call organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “Iowa is critical.”

What was supposed to be an easy lift for Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley in the race for the seat opened by longtime Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin in Iowa is now among the most competitive contests of the midterm elections.

Republican Joni Ernst, a charismatic candidate often compared to Sarah Palin, ascended as a campaign dynamo with her homespun tales of castrating hogs on the family farm and her service in the National Guard. Her politics are as conservative as they come.

Braley has repeatedly stumbled on the campaign trail, including an early comment that appeared dismissive of Iowa farmers. He has struggled to recoup.

Jahan Wilcox, spokesman for the Republican Party of Iowa, said “Reid needs Braley in the Senate so he can continue implementing Barack Obama’s failed agenda.”

Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who is one of the most popular campaign surrogates this year, was scheduled to make a similar telephone push in the afternoon as volunteers made calls to get out the Iowa vote.

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