WASHINGTON (AP) — She’s an Iraq Struggle fight veteran and sexual assault survivor who has advocated for years to enhance how the army handles claims of sexual misconduct.
However when Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, appeared initially cool to the nomination of President-elect Donald Trump ’s selection of Pete Hegseth to function protection secretary — a person who as soon as stated ladies mustn’t serve in fight and who has himself been accused of sexual assault — she confronted an onslaught of criticism from inside her personal social gathering, together with threats of a possible main problem in 2026.
“The American people spoke,” stated Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of the Household Chief and a conservative activist in Ernst’s residence state.
“When you sign up for this job, it’s a big boy and big girl job, and she’s feeling the pressure of people vocalizing their disappointment, their concern with how she’s handling this.”
The stress marketing campaign in opposition to Ernst, as soon as a rising member of the GOP management, exhibits there’s little room in Trump’s social gathering for many who can’t get to sure on Hegseth or any of his different picks for his incoming administration
It underscores the facility Trump is anticipated to wield on Capitol Hill in a second time period and serves as a warning to different lawmakers who could also be harboring their very own issues about different Trump alternatives, together with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for well being secretary and Tulsi Gabbard to be director of nationwide intelligence.
“If the king wants a different senator from Iowa, we’ll have one. If he doesn’t, we won’t,” stated Iowa speak present host Steve Deace, suggesting on his present Monday that he can be prepared to leap in in opposition to Ernst if Trump needed a challenger. “I think someone’s got to be made an example out of, whether it’s Joni or someone else.”
Ernst’s allies say she will be able to deal with criticism
Folks near Ernst, a retired Military Nationwide Guard lieutenant colonel, stress her mettle and say her eventual choice will rely upon her evaluation of Hegseth, a former “Fox & Friends Weekend” host and veteran, and nothing else.
“Has there been Twitter pressure? Sure. But Joni’s a combat veteran. She’s not easily pressured,” stated David Kochel, an Iowa Republican strategist and longtime Ernst pal and adviser.
Ernst has labored steadily to shore up her relationship with Trump after declining to endorse him earlier than the Iowa caucuses that kicked off this yr’s marketing campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Throughout a current go to to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida membership, she met with Trump and billionaire Elon Musk with concepts for his or her budget-slashing Division of Authorities Effectivity. She heads up a newly shaped DOGE caucus within the Senate.
Trump has not tried personallty to stress Ernst to again Hegseth, in response to an individual aware of their conversations who spoke on situation of anonymity to reveal them. And he has not focused her — or any potential holdouts — publicly in social media posts.
He additionally hasn’t needed to.
The response to Ernst constructed rapidly, first in whispers following her initially cool remarks after assembly with Hegseth, then right into a pile-on from highly effective figures within the “Make America Great Again” motion.
Solely about 2 in 10 People approve of Hegseth’s nomination, in response to Related Press-NORC Middle for Public Affairs polling. About one-third of Republicans approve of him as a choose, and 16% disapprove. One other 1 in 10 Republicans, roughly, are impartial and say they neither approve nor disapprove.
Trump allies had been involved {that a} profitable effort to derail Hegseth’s candidacy would empower opposition to different nominees, undermining his projections of full dominance of the social gathering. Within the narrowly held Senate, with a 53-47 GOP majority within the new yr, any Trump nominee can solely afford just a few Republican “no” votes if all Democrats are opposed.
These piling on included Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who warned that Ernst’s political profession was “in serious jeopardy” and that main challengers stood on the prepared.
One social media publish from the CEO of The Federalist featured side-by-side pictures evaluating Ernst to ousted Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., whom Trump lately stated deserves to be jailed, together with different members of the Home committee that investigated the Capitol riot.
Constructing America’s Future, a conservative nonprofit, introduced plans to spend half one million {dollars} supporting Trump’s choose of Hegseth, the Each day Caller first reported. The group has already spent hundreds on Fb and Instagram adverts that includes Ernst’s picture and is operating a business urging viewers to name their senators to again him.
“What we’re witnessing in Washington right now is a Deep State attempt to undermine the will of the people,” she wrote.
Native Republican teams additionally inspired Iowans to name Ernst’s workplace and urged her to again Trump’s picks.
Whereas incumbents have explicit endurance in Iowa, Trump has a monitor document of ending the careers of those that cross him.
Trump marketing campaign senior adviser Jason Miller defended the techniques.
“Right now, this is President Trump’s party,” he stated Tuesday at The Wall Road Journal’s CEO Council Summit in Washington. “I think voters want to see the president being able to put in his people.”
A warning of what’s to return
Ernst has progressively appeared to melt on Hegseth. By Monday, after assembly with him as soon as once more, she issued a press release saying that they had had “encouraging conversations.”
Ernst stated Hegseth dedicated “to completing a full audit of the Pentagon” and to rent a senior official who will “prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks.”
“As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources,” she stated.
However for a lot of Republican senators who’ve discovered themselves on the fallacious facet of Trump, it was arduous to not see the marketing campaign in opposition to Ernst as a warning.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who additionally met with Hegseth this week, stated the assaults appeared “a little more intense than usual,” whereas acknowledging that she is “no stranger” to comparable MAGA-led campaigns. She was reelected in 2022 after beating a Trump-endorsed challenger.
Murkowski stated the potential assaults don’t weigh into her decision-making, however added, “I’m sure that it factors into Sen. Ernst’s.”