Sen. Joni Ernst, the rising Republican star from Iowa who threatened to “make ’em squeal” when she arrived in Congress, will deliver the Republican response to President Obama’s Jan. 20 State of the Union address.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner made the announcement Thursday from the joint House-Senate GOP retreat in Hershey, Pa.
“Senator Ernst brings a unique perspective to the Senate,” McConnell said. “She is a mother, a soldier and an independent leader who serves in Washington because Americans voted for change in the last election, and Joni understands that middle-class Americans want Congress to get back to work, and that they want Washington to get refocused on their concerns, instead of those of the political class.”
Ernst, a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard, is one of a group of more diverse faces the GOP is eager to highlight as it begins the first Republican-controlled Congress since 2006.
It’s the second year in a row the GOP has tapped a woman to deliver the Republican response. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, of Washington, a House GOP leader, gave the address last year.
Ernst is the first female U.S. senator elected from Iowa.
Boehner called Ernst “a quintessential ‘only-in-America’ story,” who won her seat “by listening to the people of Iowa and focusing on their priorities, especially jobs and our still-struggling economy.”
