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by Art Cullen (Washington Post/Storm Lake Times) One big reason Republicans are shoving a Supreme Court appointment through the Senate before the election is their rising fear of losing the upper chamber — and the White House — in November. Those fears are well-founded. Two weeks ago, one of the most respected polls in politics found Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) trailing Democrat Theresa Greenfield by three percentage points.

Excerpt from Des Moines Register:  Ernst, a first-term Republican, and Greenfield, a Democrat businesswoman who has not held elected office, are locked in one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in the country, and the winner could decide which party controls the chamber next year. A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll in September found Greenfield leading Ernst by three points, 45% to 42%, within the poll’s margin of error.

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Do you believe systemic racism exists?
Moderator Rheya Spigner asked both candidates whether they believe systemic racism exists.

“No. I don’t,” Ernst said. “I do believe that you will find racist individuals in those systems but I don’t believe that entire systems of people — of people — are racist. There are racists out there.”

As she has before, Ernst again accused Greenfield of saying “she believes our law enforcement officers in Iowa, they are systemically racist.”

Greenfield said she has not called the police racist and found Ernst’s statement insulting.

“Discussing systemic racism does not mean that any one individual is a racist but rather that we have to take a look at the discrimination across our systems — housing, health care, education, finance and so many other things to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to end that kind of racism,” Greenfield said. “To your question, Black and brown communities have faced discrimination and systemic racism for generations.”

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Why did you leave the farm? 

Later in the debate the candidates, both of whom grew up on farms, each gave personal answers about why they did not pursue agriculture as a career.

For Greenfield, it was because of the farm crisis of the 1980s, when she said she saw families in her area that were devastated.

“I went to auctions where families went bankrupt and my parents, they ended up having to sell their crop dusting business, sell their hogs, and they never farmed again,” Greenfield said. “And so I had to leave the rural area. There were no jobs and we couldn’t farm and I headed off to Iowa Lakes Community College to begin my life.”

Ernst said her sister and brother-in-law still run their family farm in southwest Iowa, but she was leaving behind an abusive situation when she went to study at Iowa State University.

“I, as a young girl, young woman, was in an abusive situation. And so when I went off to Iowa State University, I decided to study psychology. I felt that would be a great way for me to give back to my community as a counselor. So I did take a different turn, but I have remained engaged in the farming community,” Ernst said. Ernst has previously opened up about the physical and sexual abuse she suffered from a former boyfriend and her former husband.

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The candidates were also asked for the break-even price of corn, in Greenfield’s case, and soybeans, in Ernst’s case.

“Well a bushel of corn is going for about $3.68, today, $3.69, and breakeven really just depends on the amount of debt someone has,” Greenfield said as moderator Ron Steele nodded and said “that’s correct.”

Ernst was then asked about the price of soybeans, but began her answer by talking about the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement and its impact on Iowa’s corn market. When Steele followed up, Ernst appeared to believe he had asked her about corn as well.

“I might have missed it, I don’t think you answered my question: What’s the breakeven price for soybeans in Iowa? You grew up on a farm, you should know this,” Steele said.

“I think you had asked about corn, and it depends on what the inputs are, but probably about $5.50,” Ernst said.

“Well, you’re a couple dollars off, I think here, because it’s $10.05, but we’ll move on to something else,” Steele said.    READ MORE