DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Republican Joni Ernst has won Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat, beating four-term Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley. Ernst, a state senator and lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard, was little known when she announced her Senate bid. Billing herself as a mother, soldier and conservative, Ernst gained attention through television ads and easily won the Republican nomination.

Ernst worked to link Braley to Washington dysfunction, and fended off his arguments that she was too conservative for Iowa. She supports shutting down the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Education and backed a “personhood” amendment that would outlaw abortion.

Her election Tuesday ends Iowa’s place among states that haven’t elected a woman to Congress or as governor. She takes a seat held by Democrat Tom Harkin since 1985.