DES MOINES, Iowa — United States Senator Joni Ernst (R) has been holding off this summer on officially announcing if she will be seeking a third term in the United States Senate.

Sen. Ernst was at the Iowa Pork Producers Tent on Tuesday morning on the state fairgrounds. She was flipping porkchops with Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.

After she was done searing meat in the Iowa summer heat, she talked with members of the media about when her decision would be given.

“Well, I will tell you, no announcement today, but here in the next several weeks we’ll have an announcement,” said Ernst.

She was asked a follow up on what the timeline would look like specifically, with a lot of Iowa Democrats in the statehouse seeking that party’s nomination for her seat.

“Good for them, I will say that …. I’m not going to tell you what day but less than a month away (her announcement). But when we see these Democrats getting, you know, what they’re trying to get there name out there. But they cannot deny the fabulous agenda that President Trump has .. .we know that we’re going to make our military leaner, meaner, stronger than what we saw under President Biden. I mean, so many things are going well. So Democrats, good for you, glad they’re engaging. But you know what? They’re not going to stand a chance.”

Ernst was also asked about approximately 200 employees at JBS meatpacking plant in Ottumwa losing their jobs a couple of weeks ago. The workers’ visas were revoked.

“Well we know we need labor and we need more of our American workforce engaging in that labor. They need to participate. We do rely a lot of immigration and immigration visas. And so we need to go back and of course look at that,” said Ernst. “What we want to make sure that we have legal immigration into the United States. We need to modernize the visa program so it works better for the American farmer. And I do look forward to working on that with President Trump.”

Administrator Loeffler also joined Sen. Ernst at the media availability after their time at the Iowa Pork Tent.