Ernst: Harkin’s Comments Show Dems Believe ‘You Can’t Be A Real Woman If You’re Conservative’

Republican Senate nominee Joni Ernst took issue with retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin’s suggestion that her good looks are the reason for her strength in recent polling.

“I was very offended that Sen. Harkin would say that, I think it’s unfortunate that he and many in their party believe that you can’t be a real woman if you’re conservative and female,” Ernst said on Fox. ”I believe if my name had been Jon Ernst attached to my résumé, Sen. Harkin would not have said those things.”

Harkin, an elder statesmen of Iowa politics, tried to boost Representative Bruce Braley’s campaign to succeed him by saying that Ernst’s attractiveness doesn’t qualify her for the Senate.

“And there’s sort of this sense that, ‘Well, I hear so much about Joni Ernst. She is really attractive, and she sounds nice,’” Harkin said last week, per BuzzFeed. “Well I gotta to thinking about that. I don’t care if she’s as good looking as Taylor Swift or as nice as Mr. Rogers, but if she votes like Michele Bachmann, she’s wrong for the state of Iowa.” 

Ernst leads Braley by seven points in the latest Des Moines Register poll.