Joni Ernst gets prime-time speaking slot at GOP National Convention
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst will have a prominent speaking role at the Republican National Convention later this month, but almost certainly will not be the party’s vice-presidential nominee.
The first-term senator and retired lieutenant colonel in the National Guard from Iowa will deliver a speech focused on national security, a Republican adviser told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday.
The booking makes Ernst one of the first prominent GOP leaders confirmed to appear in Cleveland, where GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump is expected to be formally nominated.
Also on Wednesday, though, Ernst told Politico that she intends to remain in the U.S. Senate, sending a clear signal that she does not intend to become Trump’s running mate.
“I made that very clear to him that I’m focused on Iowa. I feel that I have a lot more to do in the United States Senate. And Iowa is where my heart is,” Ernst told Politico. “I’m just getting started here. I have a great partner with Chuck Grassley, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot. And I think that President Trump will need some great assistance in the United States Senate and I can provide that.”
The statement appears to close off further speculation about whether Ernst might be invited to join the Trump ticket. Ernst has been mentioned for weeks as a potential running mate, and held a private meeting with Trump in New Jersey on Monday that was widely interpreted as a step in the vice-presidential vetting process.
As for the convention, the New York Times reported Wednesday that Ernst’s speaking slot is scheduled for prime time, putting her front-and-center in the festivities that will install Trump as the Republican standard-bearer and kick off the general-election campaign.
Ernst has some experience with big political moments. In 2015, just days after taking office as a U.S. senator, she delivered her party’s rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union address – a speech best remembered for her childhood anecdote about wearing bread bags over her shoes to keep them dry when it rained.
Iowa appearances on the stage at the Republican National Convention, though, are relatively rare. No Iowan has delivered a prime-time speech at the event since at least 2000.
On the Democratic side, several Iowans have spoken at recent national conventions, including then-U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin in 2000, then-Gov. Tom Vilsack in 2000 and 2004, then-First Lady Christie Vilsack in 2004, then-Gov. Chet Culver in 2008.
Patty Judge, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate this year, has spoken twice from the convention stage, in 2000 and 2004 when she was secretary of Agriculture.
Most of those, however, were not delivered during prime time when the convention was being broadcast on television.
