Ames, Iowa — The final evening of this state’s white-hot Senate race was not without drama.
GOP Senate hopeful Joni Ernst was speaking at the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity house at Iowa State University, a stop on her final 24-hour tour through the state, when a spontaneous protest broke out. “Mic check!” one student stood up and yelled, bringing back one of the slogans of the Occupy Wall Street movement, as Ernst began her stump speech. He was soon followed by a dozen other students popping up around the room, all chanting about Ernst and the Koch brothers.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=azgxAns4rdI%3Flist%3DUULdP3jmBYe9lAZQbY6OSYjw
It’s Ernst’s reaction, though, that stole the show: After initially smiling and waving at the protesters, Ernst reassured the audience: “Don’t worry folks, I’ve seen worse. But it was in Iraq.” Burn.
The combat veteran continued: ”That’s why I serve in the military: to protect our rights as United States citizens and their right to demonstrate.”
The protest itself was organized by the group Vote Mob Iowa, the goal of which, according to organizer Evan Burger, is to “get Koch money out of the university system.” Hence the group’s artful chants, such as ”Just say no Joni, to the dirty Koch money!”
The brothers at AGR, a highly conservative agricultural fraternity, were having none of it and began bouncing the protesters while others carried on a fist-pumping chant of “Joni! Joni!”
A grateful @joniernst with the frat bros that saved her from the liberal protesters pic.twitter.com/v3UlIoiGsR
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 4, 2014
Matt Kerns, an organizer of the event and member of the fraternity, says he was proud of the brothers: ”You ask these guys to do something and they’ll get it done.”
Ernst invited the brothers out to her bus to sign the trademark pig on the side, a nod to her now infamous castration ad. As you can imagine, the spot had been a huge hit with the agricultural fraternity.
“I come from a hog farm myself,” Kerns beams, “When that ad came out, I absolutely loved it.”
While waiting to sign the pig, one of the brothers asked Ernst if this what the same bus that she had “smoked” the deer in (Ernst’s campaign bus hit a deer on the highway recently). ”Yep,” Ernst replied, “We smoked it.”