--- title: Iowa Senate Race: Joni Ernst Accused of Plagiarism description: The Republican Senate candidate in Iowa copied-and-pasted large portions of her op-eds in local newspapers from other sources, according to a new report. canonical: https://time.com/3546792/joni-ernst-plagiarism-iowa-senate-race/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-29T20:50:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:06:03.951Z article:section: Politics og:title: Iowa Senate Race: Joni Ernst Accused of Plagiarism og:description: The Republican Senate candidate in Iowa copied-and-pasted large portions of her op-eds in local newspapers from other sources, according to a new report. og:url: https://time.com/3546792/joni-ernst-plagiarism-iowa-senate-race/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fcae968af5470f0/698763435f570f4917b12fa6/ap723500904639.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4434 og:image:height: 2494 og:image:alt: Joni Ernst og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Iowa Senate Race: Joni Ernst Accused of Plagiarism twitter:description: The Republican Senate candidate in Iowa copied-and-pasted large portions of her op-eds in local newspapers from other sources, according to a new report. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fcae968af5470f0/698763435f570f4917b12fa6/ap723500904639.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Iowa Senate Hopeful Accused of Plagiarism > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 29, 2014 8:50 PM UTC  State Sen. Joni Ernst waves to supporters at a primary election night rally after winning the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, June 3, 2014, in Des Moines, Iowa. The 43-year-old Ernst won the nomination over five candidates. State Sen. Joni Ernst waves to supporters at a primary election night rally after winning the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, June 3, 2014, in Des Moines, Iowa. The 43-year-old Ernst won the nomination over five candidates. Charlie Neibergall—ASSOCIATED PRESS by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 29, 2014 8:50 PM UTC The Republican Senate candidate in Iowa copied-and-pasted large portions of her op-eds in local newspapers from other sources, [according to a new report](http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/iowa-republican-copied-and-pasted-passages-in-newspaper-colu). _BuzzFeed_, citing side-by-side comparisons of the offending articles and source material, reports that many of the op-eds Joni Ernst wrote for local papers as a state Senator contained large swaths of text from summaries sent to many state legislators. Some of Ernst’s work also reportedly contains lines from speeches and news releases by Gov. Terry Brandstand. BuzzFeed presents several of the passages containing nearly identical text for comparison. The Ernst campaign told _BuzzFeed_ these instances are taken from pieces created “for the express purpose of reproduction” and they are “no different than what virtually every state lawmaker in the nation does, including Iowa Democrats.” “Despite BuzzFeed’s every effort, there is no scandal here,” the campaign said. Ernst, who’s facing Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley in a tight Senate race in the state, is just the latest politician to be caught up in allegations of plagiarism. In recent years at least [three](http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/carl-demaio-apologizes-for-lifted-pension-report-20140512) politicians have been accused of lifting other people’s words and calling them their own, including [Republican Sen. Rand Paul.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/11/04/rand-pauls-plagiarism-allegations-and-why-they-matter/) Earlier in October, [Democratic Sen. John Walsh ](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/11/army-war-college-revokes-sen-john-walsh-degree/)had his master’s degree revoked after the U.S. Army War College found he plagiarized an important academic paper. \[[_BuzzFeed_](http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/iowa-republican-copied-and-pasted-passages-in-newspaper-colu)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3546792/joni-ernst-plagiarism-iowa-senate-race/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3546792/joni-ernst-plagiarism-iowa-senate-race/"},"headline":"Iowa Senate Hopeful Accused of Plagiarism","datePublished":"2014-10-29T20:50:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:06:03.951Z","description":"Campaign says \"there is no scandal here”","url":"https://time.com/3546792/joni-ernst-plagiarism-iowa-senate-race/","keywords":["2014 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fcae968af5470f0/698763435f570f4917b12fa6/ap723500904639.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8fcae968af5470f0/698763435f570f4917b12fa6/ap723500904639.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Joni Ernst","caption":"Joni Ernst","creditText":"Charlie Neibergall—ASSOCIATED PRESS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2014-election/","name":"2014 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3546792/joni-ernst-plagiarism-iowa-senate-race/","name":"Iowa Senate Hopeful Accused of Plagiarism"}}]}] ```