Joni Ernst

Joni Ernst (born July 1, 1970, Red Oak, Iowa, U.S.) is an American politician who was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2014 and began her first term representing Iowa the following year. She was the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate and the first woman to represent Iowa in Congress.

Born Joni Kay Culver, she was raised on a farm near Red Oak in southwestern Iowa with two siblings and her parents. She was valedictorian of her high-school class, and she later (1992) earned a bachelor’s degree at Iowa State University, where she joined the university’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program. In 1992 she married Gail Ernst, who was an army officer; he had two children from a previous marriage, and the couple later had a daughter. Upon graduating, Ernst joined the U.S. Army Reserves, and she served (2003–04) as a company commander in Kuwait and Iraq during the Iraq War (2003–11). She later became a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard.

From 2005 to 2011, Ernst served as auditor of Montgomery county, and she was then elected to the Iowa Senate, a seat she held from 2011 to 2014. Her political positions were steadfastly conservative, and she notably argued for the nullification of federal laws that were in conflict with states’ rights. When she entered the U.S. Senate race in 2014, Ernst forged an alliance of Tea Party and traditional Republicans to win the party’s nomination. During the campaign, she focused on her experience both in politics and on the farm, and in one memorable advertisement she said, “I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I get to Washington I’ll know how to cut pork…. Washington’s full of big spenders; let’s make them squeal.” Her platform included passing a balanced budget amendment, abolishing both the U.S. Department of Education and the Energy Protection Agency, and repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Ernst easily won the election, and she took office in January 2015. Later that month, she delivered the Republican response to Pres. Barack Obama’s State of the Union.

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During the 2016 presidential election, Ernst supported Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, though she was critical of his remarks concerning women. Although she was approached by the Trump campaign about possibly being his running mate, she withdrew her name from consideration. After Trump won the general election, she supported many of his policies. In 2017 she voted to repeal the PPACA, though the legislation failed. That year she also helped pass a massive tax-reform bill. In 2019 Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives following allegations that he had extorted a foreign country to investigate one of his political rivals. The proceedings then moved to the Republican-controlled Senate. In February 2020 Ernst voted against conviction, and Trump was acquitted in a near party-line vote.

During this time COVID-19 cases began increasing, eventually resulting in a global pandemic. As schools and businesses closed, the U.S. economy entered an economic downturn that rivaled the Great Depression. In March 2020 Ernst supported a $2 trillion relief package, the largest stimulus bill in U.S. history. During this time she faced an increasingly tough reelection bid as Democrats targeted her seat. With a huge influx of money from members of both parties, it become one of the most expensive races in Senate history. Ernst ultimately prevailed in the November 2020 election.

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In September 2025, Ernst announced she would not run for a third term in the Senate in 2026. The decision came after she came under criticism from those in her own party for expressing hesitancy to vote for Trump’s pick for secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. She ultimately voted for Hegseth but came under additional scrutiny when she defended potential cuts to Medicaid in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill by telling constituents: “We all are going to die.” Ernst’s decision is seen as giving the Democrats a chance to pick up the Iowa Senate in the 2026 midterm elections.