US election: why the price of soybeans could swing the Senate for the Democrats

An agricultural faux pas could hand control of the chamber to Joe Biden’s party

Senator Joni Ernst
Joni Ernst is facing a close race as she seeks to defend her seat in the US Senate
(Image credit: 2020 Getty Images)

Joni Ernst, the Republican senator from Iowa, won her seat by nine points in 2014. And her home state backed Donald Trump for president by the same margin four years ago.

Yet she now finds herself locked in “an unexpectedly close reelection fight”, Vox reports - and one which may come down to the price of soybeans.

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Holden Frith is The Week’s digital director. He also makes regular appearances on “The Week Unwrapped”, speaking about subjects as diverse as vaccine development and bionic bomb-sniffing locusts. He joined The Week in 2013, spending five years editing the magazine’s website. Before that, he was deputy digital editor at The Sunday Times. He has also been TheTimes.co.uk’s technology editor and the launch editor of Wired magazine’s UK website. Holden has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, having started his professional career while completing an English literature degree at Cambridge University. He followed that with a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. A keen photographer, he also writes travel features whenever he gets the chance.