Joni Ernst and Terri Lynn Land: Fighting for Small Businesses Like Koch Industries

August 20, 2014

Yesterday, Iowa Republican Joni Ernst announced that she was “proud” to receive the endorsement of the National Federal of Independent Business (NFIB) for her candidacy for U.S. Senate. Michigan Republican Terri Lynn Land was similarly flattered when she received NFIB’s endorsement last month (oh, except for that time she walked away from a question about it). Either way, one thing should be clear: NFIB is not about small business, it’s about the Kochs.

NFIB received more money in 2012 from the billionaire Koch brothers’ Freedom Partners than it did any other source, and has now been shown to have close ties with ALEC, the advocacy group of choice for dozens of multinational corporations like ExxonMobil, AT&T and Altria. NFIB’s advocacy for tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest Americans, like the Koch brothers, is but one example of the group not having the interests of small business owners at heart. 

The suggestion that an NFIB endorsement is proof of small business support is at best misleading, but when taken with Joni’s predilection for Koch cronyism, it’s more evidence of her commitment to the Kochs’ self-serving, anti-working families agenda.

Terri Lynn Land and Joni Ernst are not only both brimming with pride to receive the support of the Koch-funded NFIB, they’ve both gone out of their way to praise the spending being done on their behalf by the Kochs’ political arm, Americans for Prosperity. Where Land considers dark money political spending “the American way,” Ernst has publicly thanked AFP  for running ads against her Democratic opponent.

Indeed, for this Senate candidate duo, support from a Koch group by any other name — NFIB, AFP or otherwise — is just as sweet.
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