Joni Ernst
Senator Joni K. Ernst is a Republican U.S. Senator from Iowa who was elected in 2014. She was chosen to give the rebuttal to the president Barack Obama's State of the Union address in 2015.
| Joni Ernst | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| U.S. Senator from Iowa From: January 3, 2015-present | |||
| Predecessor | Tom Harkin | ||
| Successor | Incumbent | ||
| Information | |||
| Party | Republican | ||
| Spouse(s) | Gail[1] | ||
| Religion | Lutheran[1] | ||
Ernst received 52% of the vote in November 2014, while her Democratic opponent received only 44%. In her victory, she swept 85 of Iowa's 99 counties.[2]
She joined the Iowa U. S. Congressional delegation consisting of two Republican U. S. senators and four House members, three of whom are Republicans and one a Democrat.[3]
Background
Ernst saw combat as a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2004) and served in the Iowa Army National Guard as well as the U.S. Army Reserves where she rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.[4]
She served as auditor of Montgomery County, Iowa from 2005 to 2011.
Ernst was elected to the 84th and 85th general assembly of the Iowa legislature (Jan. 2011-Jan. 2015), her second term as a state senator from district 12, representing six counties in the southwest corner of Iowa.[1]
She campaigned in the Republican U.S. Senate primary with the claim "I'll know how to cut pork".[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Senator Joni K. Ernst" (2015). The Iowa Legislature website. Retrieved on January 16, 2014.
- ↑ Pate, Paul D. [Iowa Secretary of State] (December 29, 2014). "November 4, 2014 general election". Iowa Secretary of State website. Retrieved on January 15, 2015.
- ↑ "Iowa" (2015). Govtrack.us. Retrieved on January 15, 2015.
- ↑ Twitchy staff (January 15, 2015). 'Jackass': Luke Russert writes off combat vet Joni Ernst as 'unknown pig farmer'. Twitchy. Retrieved on January 16, 2015.
- ↑ Strong, Jonathan (March 24, 2014). "Senate candidate: I'll use my hog castrating experience to help end pork barrel spending". Breitbart. Retrieved on January 16, 2014