There are some strong women in politics, and their ranks grew this year with the election of Joni Ernst to the United States Senate. The new Republican junior senator from Iowa has serious girl power.
Eschewing the usual tactic of courting the media, Ernst largely ignored the newspapers, particularly the influential Des Moines Register, focusing her campaign instead on talking directly to voters and bashing President Obama and Washington, DC. The voters responded positively to that.
When retiring senator Tom Harken, a self-described “progressive,” mocked Ernst’s impressive resume in the final days of the campaign, suggesting that she is riding on a wave of good looks, and compared her to pop singer Taylor Swift, she handled the situation with finesse, deftly turning it to her advantage before moving on.
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No crybaby, this lady.
Not that she needed any help trouncing her opponent, Rep. Bruce Braley, in the general election.
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Harry Reid said that Ernst is “out of line with mainstream Iowans, mainstream Americans” and “so far to the right that maybe even a part of the right wouldn’t like what she’s talking about.” He predicted that her election would mean the end of his leadership in the Senate. Most Iowans, by a margin of 7%, including 48% of female voters, disagreed with the-soon-to-be-former Majority Leader on his first point – contributing to the realization of the latter.
Being Iowa’s first female US Senator, and from a state that went for Obama in 2008 and 2012, she’s already earning last laughs in a year that saw Democrats desperate to rally women behind claims that conservative Republicans are waging war on them.
Ernst’s politics will surely raise the ire of many. She’s socially conservative and very outspoken about it, confrontational but very charming.
She doesn’t like the United Nations, Obamacare, or abortion, and wants marriage legally defined as between man and wife.
Channeling Charlton Heston, she locked up the pro-gun vote with a “from my cold dead hands” moment in front of the NRA. That didn’t hurt her one bit in rural Iowa. It will be appreciated in many other parts of the country as well.
She opposes the legalization of recreational marijuana and supports “reforms” to Social Security. She served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and wants the United States to be “strong in the world,” endearing her to foreign policy hawks. Favoring a balanced budget and tax reform, fiscal conservatives will love her. She thinks man-made climate change is bunk, and suggested impeaching the president at a candidate forum back in January.
That all ruffles feathers, for sure, but Joni Ernst isn’t running from a fight.
According to MSNBC, in Ernst “a star is born,” launched “into the stratosphere of political celebrity.” Democrats are calling her “the next Sarah Palin.” Slate says she’ll be the most conservative senator in Washington, practically a loose canon. The Huffington Post is apoplectic.
Joni Ernst certainly has plans to shake things up, and is already ”making ‘em squeal,” as her campaign ads promised. Her strident conservatism and strong personality guarantee interesting times and many battles ahead.
The Left claims it wants more women in positions of power. Be careful what you wish for.
