Ernst praises Rubio at campaign event

DES MOINES — Joni Ernst insisted it was not an endorsement, but as she introduced Marco Rubio at his campaign event on Monday, she praised the Republican presidential candidate for his work in the U.S. Senate and called him 'near and dear to my heart.'

Ernst, Iowa's freshman U.S. senator who has pledged to remain neutral in the GOP caucuses, introduced Rubio before his campaign event at a banquet center in downtown Des Moines.

'I have said I'm not going to endorse in this race, and that is a promise I am going to keep to Iowa,' Ernst said. 'But I do want to introduce to as many people as possible … someone who is near and dear to my heart, a good friend to me.'

Rubio campaigned for Ernst in 2014 when the former state legislator won Iowa's open U.S. Senate seat.

Ernst praised Rubio's work in the Senate and called for a president who will do what is required to enable the U.S. military to vanquish the terrorist group ISIS.

'What we are doing right now in the Middle East, folks, is not working. … ISIS is expanding and growing,' said Ernst, a former commander in the Iowa Army National Guard who served in Iraq. 'We don't need to degrade it, to contain it. We need to destroy ISIS. I'm looking for a president that will do that.'

Rubio called ISIS 'the most sophisticated and well-funded radical jihadist organization in history' and pointed to terror events the group and its sympathizers perpetrated in Paris, California and Philadelphia. He pledged to increase military spending to confront the terrorist group.

'This is how dangerous the world has become. And what is (President) Barack Obama doing? Barack Obama is gutting our military,' Rubio said. 'How can it be that the world is growing more dangerous and our military is being weakened?'

Rubio is third in most polls in the Republican race in Iowa, behind front-runners Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.

During his remarks, Rubio reiterated that he would be best to face Hillary Clinton — assuming she wins the Democratic nomination — in this fall's general election because he came from modest beginnings.