By Mitch McAndrew and Brent Griffiths
CLEVELAND — Freshman Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, will address national-security issues in a prime-time slot at the Republican National Convention tonight.
Ernst, who is scheduled to take the stage at 9:36 p.m. CDT in the Quicken Loans Arena, told Iowa media and GOP party members Sunday night that national security has become “something of a passion” of hers.
“I’m going to take my voice to that stage, and we’re going to share Iowa’s thoughts on national security,” she said.
Ernst’s speech will be part of a security-themed evening titled “Make America Safe Again.” Melania Trump, Lt. Gen. (retired) Michael Flynn, Jason Beardsley, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., will also be featured speakers tonight.
Iraq veteran Ernst also touched on her assistance with down-ticket races, emphasizing the push for a Republican majority in the Iowa Senate.
“We don’t need Michael Gronstal in the majority position anymore,” she said, referring to the state senator from Council Bluffs.
In just over a decade, Ernst has ascended to senior leadership in the state Republican Party and now plays a pivotal role in state politics.
Just over a decade ago, Ernst, on leave from her position as Montgomery County emergency manager, filed her paperwork to challenge for a local auditor position.
While she made it back to Iowa in time for the election, Ernst filed her paperwork to run from Kuwait during her service with the 1168th Transportation Company of the Iowa National Guard. It was the first of a number of hiccups and issues for her run.
But eventually, Ernst became her party’s nominee and dispatched the incumbent, who decided to run as an independent in the general election.
It was the return of an Iowa political legend, though, who helped spur Ernst’s rise in the state. After a draft movement coaxed then former Gov. Terry Branstad out of retirement, the GOP mainstay settled on then-state Sen. Kim Reynolds as his running mate. When the Republican wave of 2010 lifted Branstad back into power, Reynolds’ Senate seat was vacant. A special election was held, and Reynold’s friend Ernst cruised her way into the Legislature.
After a short time in the Democratic-controlled chamber, Ernst was tapped to be an assistant leader in her caucus and ranking member on the Education Committee.
Yet once again, the Iraq War veteran and mother of three was the benefit of the decision of another Iowa political giant.
In late January 2013, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, announced that five terms was long enough. The author of the Americans Disabilities Act was calling it quits.
Immediately, then four-term incumbent Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, shifted his gaze from challenging Branstad to vying to replace Harkin. His résumé bore the hallmarks of both Grassley and Harkin, who spent time in the lower chamber before their rise to the Senate.
Iowa Democrats quickly coalesced around Braley. But Republicans had a much harder time finding a big-name challenger. Rep. Tom Latham and Steve King passed. Iowa’s highest elected woman, Reynolds, also declined. Soon enough five Republicans, including Ernst, vied to take on Braley.
Then in late March 2014, Ernst had her moment.
It was not a debate performance or policy idea but rather a hooky homespun campaign ad unlike any her challengers put forth. With a smile Ernst looked into a camera and bragged that as a child she had castrated hogs.
The experience, Ernst joked, would make her a prime candidate to cut pork in Congress. The ad went viral. Two days later, former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin endorsed her, capping off a month that also included an endorsement from the GOP 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney. And just under a month before primary night, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., backed Ernst as well.
In the midst of pulling away from the pack, Ernst benefited from a mistake that would follow Braley for the rest of the campaign. In a short video filmed at a fundraiser in Texas and released by a GOP opposition research firm, Braley criticized Grassley for not having a law degree. His lack of legal credentials, Braley said, made him unfit to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, a job Grassley was in line to take if Republicans retook the Senate.
Fast-forward to election night and once again Democrats confronted a mid-term Republican wave. The GOP expanded its House majority to historic numbers and ousted Democrats from control of the Senate. Congress was back in Republican hands, and Ernst was the first woman Iowans elected to Congress.
As the new Senate majority set to work, Ernst was right in the middle of the story. Soon, she was tapped to give the party’s response to President Obama’s State of the Union address and then oversaw the Senate’s debate over completing the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate, Ernst was catapulting to the top of her party. Extolling her experience, Ernst gave her maiden speech in the Senate on veteran’s mental-health care and sought to make veterans the centerpiece of her work in the chamber. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Ernst has also become a voice in party’s discussion on foreign policy, a topic she will address tonight.
In the summer of 2015, party leadership put Ernst forth to be the face of a debate, this time over federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Anti-women’s choice activists had released videos online, which were later found to be heavily edited and deeply misleading, that claimed to show Planned Parenthood officials selling fetal tissue — a federal crime.
Tapping into her national fame, Ernst decided to hold a presidential cattle call in the summer before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses. Seven GOP hopefuls spoke to the Iowa crowd with the backdrop of a barn behind them. But Ernst stole the show when she led a contingent of riders on her Harley Davidson.
While ultimately deciding not to endorse anyone during the presidential campaign, Ernst’s profile was so high that just weeks ago she was being considered to be her party’s vice-presidential nominee and running mate with businessman Donald Trump.
But Ernst announced that she would remain in the Senate. She may just be a freshman in the Senate, but once again this evening, Ernst will be on the national stage.
Follow The Daily Iowan’s Ethics and Politics Initiative (@DIpolitics) to keep up with the Iowa delegation at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
EPI reporter Brent Griffiths (@BrentGriffiths) contributed to this story from Iowa City.