Joni Ernst and the Kochs share so many of the same views, it’s sometimes tough to tell them them apart. Ernst has been such a strong ally for the secretive billionaire brothers that they personally maxed out in contributions to Ernst’s campaign. Joni Ernst is a Koch crony through and through, and a vote for her on November 4th is a vote for electing one of the fiercest defenders of the Kochs’ self-serving, anti-middle class agenda to the U.S. Senate.

On issue after issue after issue, it’s hard to find any air between Ernst’s positions and those of her billionaire oil baron benefactors. Renewable Fuel Standard? Ernst is “philosophically” opposed and her “perfect world” does not allow for it; the Kochs’ political arm Americans For Prosperity opposes RFS. Clean Water Act? Joni Erst opposes it and the heavy polluting Kochs do too. The Farm Bill is another – Ernst says she would have voted against it, and that’s just what AFP would have wanted. Minimum wage? Ernst and AFP both oppose raising it, just like they both support privatizing Social Security and gambling with seniors’ benefits in the stock market. Don’t forget about denying the science of climate change – the Kochs fund and benefit from climate change denialism, and Ernst is a noted skeptic of the science.  The list goes on, and on, and on.

At a Koch donor retreat this summer, Ernst thanked the Kochs for launching her political “trajectory,” showing that the Kochs can trust her to carry out their extreme, self-serving agenda. All told this cycle, Koch-backed and funded groups have spent more than $7 million in Iowa to prop up Ernst’s candidacy. No wonder Ernst’s agenda is so extreme, it’s bought and paid for by the Kochs. Iowa voters would do well to think about who is looking out for their interests over special interests when they head to the ballot box on November 4th.