Ernst schedules, cancels Grundy Center public meeting

One of Iowa’s two U.S. senators announced a public meeting in Grundy Center, which would have been the first to be held here since she was elected in 2014, only to cancel it about a day later for unspecified reasons.
           
Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, was scheduled to hold a town hall at the high school on Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 after sending an e-mail blast to Iowa media outlets last Thursday, but it was subsequently canceled on Friday. At press time, she was still planning to hold a public gathering in Independence on Wednesday afternoon.
           
Ernst’s press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the change of plans and the reasoning behind it. The first-term U.S. Senator and Army veteran has visited Grundy County on several occasions during her 2014 campaign and since being elected—touring Ritchie Industries in Conrad in 2016 and the Grundy County Memorial Hospital last year. The high school gathering, however, would have been her first true open forum event in the area.