DES MOINES, Iowa — State Sen. Joni Ernst was elected to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, becoming Iowa’s first woman elected to Congress and helping Republicans deliver the party a new majority in Washington, D.C.

Iowa’s first open Senate seat in 40 years was among the most contested in the battle for control of the chamber, which Republicans won decidedly Tuesday. Although the race between Ernst and Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley was expected to be close, Ernst led most polls leading up to Election Day.

“Well Iowa, we did it! We did it!” a grinning Ernst, an Iraq War veteran and lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard, told supporters at a West Des Moines hotel ballroom.

“It’s a long way from Red Oak to Washington,” she said. “Thanks to you Iowa, we are headed to Washington, and we are going to make them squeal.”

That was a reference to the ads that vaulted her to the front of the primary pack last spring, where she announced she grew up castrating hogs and would cut pork in Washington.

The Senate seat was open due to the retirement of five-term Democrat Tom Harkin. Ernst, Harkin’s stylistic and ideological opposite, ran a disciplined campaign — winning a five-way primary, touting her military service, legislative experience and small-town upbringing.

In the race against Braley, she attached the former lawyer to votes he had taken in line with President Barack Obama, a Democrat who carried the state two years ago but whose popularity has plummeted.

“I would have voted against Obama if I could have,” said Sue Smith of Des Moines. She said Congress needed to change to break the gridlock of the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate.

Braley, 57, is a four-term U.S. House member who had focused more on presenting issue differences and billed himself as a consumer advocate who can build bipartisan relationships.

“There are a lot of disappointed people tonight, including me,” Braley told reporters in conceding. “But we are lucky to live in a country where we have the freedom to be disappointed in the outcome of an election.”

Both candidates had shown vulnerability as first-time candidates for statewide office, though Braley’s seemed to leave a more lasting impression in voters’ minds.

In January, Braley was caught on a hidden video camera trying to tout his credentials as a lawyer while appearing before a fundraiser with other lawyers in Texas when he uttered the campaign’s most memorable line:

“You might have a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school,” as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he said, referring to Republicans Sen. Chuck Grassley. Grassley, in his sixth term, is a non-lawyer and positioned to become committee chairman as Republicans have taken control.

Des Moines business owner Trent Litten, 49, said he voted for Ernst because he thought Braley came off as arrogant. “I’m not a fan of lawyers, or of Braley’s attitude,” Litten said.

Ernst had been criticized by Braley and women’s groups for her support of a constitutional amendment that would bestow the rights of personhood on a fetus. But she enjoyed the quiet support of Gov. Terry Branstad during the primary, and the enthusiastic support of the re-elected 6-term governor during the general election.

The race helped determine control of the Senate, where Republicans had needed to gain six seats to become the majority party. It was by far the most expensive campaign in Iowa history. Both Braley and Ernst raised more than $10 million, and outside groups have spent additional millions on television advertising.