From Squeal to Appeal: GOP Taps First Female Iraq Vet-Turned-Senator for State of the Union Rebuttal

For a Republican Party struggling to reach female and minority voters and that has spent the last year relentlessly attacking President Barack Obama for a host of global crises that have developed on his watch, Sen. Joni Ernst, who will deliver Tuesday night’s GOP rebuttal to Obama’s State of the Union, checks all the boxes: a female combat veteran with conservative bona fides.

Ernst, an Iowa Republican elected in last fall’s midterm elections, is a newcomer to Congress who ran for office by promising to cut government spending and “make ’em squeal” in Washington. On Tuesday, Jan. 20, she will make her national debut by delivering the GOP’s response to Obama’s annual address. The president is expected to focus mostly on domestic and economic issues by declaring an end to the economic crisis that defined his first years in office.

Republicans have so far been tight-lipped about the contours of Ernst’s response. Her Senate office did not return requests for comment on how she plans to approach the speech, but other Republicans have hinted that her speech will likely focus on familiar themes. “Americans voted for change. And Senator Ernst will explain what the new Congress plans to do, and what it is already doing to return Washington’s focus to the concerns of the middle class and away from the demands of the political class,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.

Still, delivering the Republican rebuttal is a job fraught with pitfalls. The 2013 response by Sen. Marco Rubio, tapped in part for his ability to appeal to Latinos, is best remembered for his awkward reach for a sip of water mid-speech. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, another once-rising minority star in the party who delivered the 2009 rebuttal, produced such a lackluster speech that it still hangs like a dark cloud over his presidential ambitions. Virginia’s then governor, Bob McDonnell, who offered the 2010 rebuttal, was recently convicted on federal corruption charges.

But Ernst’s selection could be a natural one for the GOP. A veteran of the Iraq War and a lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard, Ernst spent the closing weeks of the 2014 campaign burnishing her credentials as a steady foreign-policy hand, attacking Obama for a perceived lack of leadership amid a series of global crises. She has backed the military campaign in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State and has said she plans to make veterans’ issues a priority during her time in Congress.

Ernst, 44, is the first woman elected to Congress from Iowa and the Senate’s first female combat veteran. She deployed to Iraq in 2003 and served as a company commander there.

Though the impact of a single ad on her political fortunes ought not be overstated, Ernst famously built her campaign on a folksy message that included a television advertisement in which she talked about her experience castrating hogs. In that ad, titled “Squeal,” she promised to cut down on spending in Washington and pledged to make the capital, yes, squeal.

Ernst has also embraced a series of staunchly conservative positions that have won her plaudits among GOP activists. She has called for the Environmental Protection Agency to be shuttered and has endorsed the controversial idea that states ought to be able to nullify federal laws. Ernst has also backed what is called a “personhood” amendment, which would grant legal rights to fetuses and severely restrict access to abortions.

Ernst has sometimes been compared to Sarah Palin, and it’s probably a likeness she will seek to shed on Tuesday night. She is expected to play a powerful role in the 2016 elections, possibly serving as a kingmaker in Iowa, both a swing state and site of the country’s first primary.

The question, then, is whether this hog-castrating Iraq War veteran will be able to translate that message into an effective national profile capable of making inroads for the GOP with female voters.

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