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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 primary, introduced Rubio before his campaign event Monday 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 U.S. 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 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.”