Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell tapped the Iowa freshman in December to deliver the GOP’s rebuttal to the State of the Union.
Updated 1/20/15 11:26 PM EST
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) declared Tuesday that the new Republican majority in Congress is “back to work” for Americans, stressing in the official GOP response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address that her party will take the country in a new direction.
Mixing details from her humble childhood in Red Oak, Iowa, with repeated promises of a fresh start under the new Republican majority, Ernst pledged that lawmakers are “ready to make Washington focus on your concerns again.” Republicans didn’t even bill Ernst’s address as a rebuttal of the State of the Union — instead of responding to a speech, she told viewers, “I’d like to talk about your priorities.”
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“We heard the message you sent in November — loud and clear,” said Ernst, referring to the decisive GOP victories last fall. “And now we’re getting to work to change the direction Washington has been taking our country.”
The message Ernst sent on behalf of the Republican Party was a clear attempt to showcase a GOP that is ready to shift the focus away from a gridlocked Washington, which Ernst said held the “same stale mindset” that led to policies such as Obama’s health care law. That mindset, Ernst said, “gave us political talking points, not serious solutions.”
“The new Republican Congress also understands how difficult these past six years have been,” Ernst said. “For many of us, the sting of the economy and the frustration with Washington’s dysfunction weren’t things we had to read about. We felt them every day.”
But amid the sprinkling of partisan lines, Ernst struck a tone of cooperation. That sentiment was the clearest on the issues of trade and tax reform, which she singled out as two potential areas for a bipartisan compromise between the Obama White House and Republicans who dominate the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
“The president has already expressed some support for these kinds of ideas,” she said. “We’re calling on him now to cooperate to pass them.”
She pressured Obama on construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, while pledging that Congress will “repeal and replace” Obamacare, the president’s signature domestic policy achievement. Ernst emphasized other key conservative priorities, like slashing spending, balancing the budget and reining in executive power.
In her brief touch on social issues, Ernst said Republicans will “defend life, because protecting our most vulnerable is an important measure of any society.”
The Iraq war veteran also took a forceful tone on national security, calling for a comprehensive plan to defeat terrorists from Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant while promising responses to the recent bout of cyberattacks and to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The emphasis on a robust national defense was underscored by the location where Ernst delivered her response — the Senate Armed Services Committee room, where Ernst is one of the influential panel’s newest members.
The decision to reach out to Ernst as the party’s official voice for the State of the Union response was, in many ways, a natural choice.
GOP leaders viewed Ernst – who decisively won a Senate seat that had been in Democratic control for three decades – as a fresh face for the party with a compelling life story and natural political talents, and a symbol of the new Republican majority on Capitol Hill. She made history on multiple fronts with her win last fall – becoming the first woman elected to Congress from the Hawkeye State, as well as the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate.
Indeed, Ernst used her televised address to share tidbits of her childhood in southwestern Iowa, where she worked the morning biscuit line at Hardee’s to save money for college and plowed fields on her family farm. She recalled that she owned just one pair of good shoes as a child — and her mother wrapped plastic bread bags over them on rainy days to keep them dry.
“We were raised to live simply, not to waste,” recalled Ernst, who was wearing a pair of camouflage-printed pumps during her big address Tuesday night. “It was a lesson my mother taught me every rainy morning.”
The 44-year-old Ernst was a little-known state senator in Iowa until she rocketed to political stardom, mainly by one attention-grabbing ad featuring her background of castrating hogs and the memorable line, directed at Washington: “Let’s make ’em squeal.” The Iraq war veteran emerged victorious from a crowded GOP primary and defeated former Iowa Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley by 9 points in November.
Ernst as the official GOP response was such an obvious pick that GOP leaders reached out to her to deliver the party’s rebuttal even before she was sworn in. In December, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky called Ernst into his office to ask her to give the party’s official response on the night of the president’s big address, and she accepted. It’s the first time a first-year senator has given the Republican response, aides said.
By tradition, the decision on who will offer the GOP response is purely up to McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Though the two leaders chose Republican governors early in Obama’s tenure, in recent years they have drawn from their own ranks on Capitol Hill: Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Cuban-American who also came into Congress as a rising star, offered the response in 2013; and Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the highest-ranking Republican woman on Capitol Hill, gave it last year.
But the high-profile slot isn’t without potential pitfalls – particularly when gaffes can quickly tear attention away from the party’s message.
When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal gave the Republican response in 2009, his delivery drew unflattering comparisons between him and Kenneth the Page, a character from the NBC sitcom “30 Rock.” And Rubio abruptly reached for a water bottle and took a gulp of water during his response – an awkward move that quickly went viral.
Earlier Tuesday, Ernst was upbeat yet brief when asked about her State of the Union preparations, saying the work was going “really great” before entering the Senate chamber for votes.
John Bresnahan contributed to this report.
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