This time last year, Senator Joni Ernst was best known as a pig castrator. Now, she is a presidential kingmaker.
The freshman Iowa Republican came to fame last year in an attention-grabbing television ad, in which she boasted about her childhood chore of castrating pigs, saying “Washington’s full of big spenders” and promising to “make ’em squeal”.
The ad catapulted her first to victory in a crowded Republican primary and then on to an upset win against Democrat Bruce Braley.
Now Ernst is a political star who delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union this year and has drawn more than half-dozen Republican presidential candidates to her first annual “roast and ride” fundraiser in Boone, Iowa on Saturday.
Speakers at the event were scheduled to include Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Rick Perry.
The event, which combines a pork roast with a motorcycle ride (along with plenty of political speeches) is the Republican answer to the long running Harkin Steak Fry, held by Ernst’s Iowan predecessor in the Senate, Tom Harkin, which featured steaks and Democratic presidential hopefuls.
Yet for all the national attention she has received, Ernst has been keeping a low profile on Capitol Hill. She has not been appearing on Sunday shows or even taking hallway interviews from national press.
It is a similar approach to that taken by two Democrats, Al Franken of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, when they were elected. As Tim Albrecht, a top Republican consultant in Iowa, told the Guardian: “Joni Ernst came into the Senate as a superstar, but she has maintained a low-key presence by keeping her head down, working hard on behalf of Iowans.
“The humble approach is serving her well.”
But after spending so long playing coy, Ernst will reenter the national spotlight on Saturday. While Iowa Republicans don’t expect the first-term senator, a vocal supporter of Mitt Romney in 2012, to endorse any candidates, even hinting at a favorite could be influential.
For example, while Iowa governor Terry Branstad is not expected to endorse, political insiders perceive him as favoring New Jersey governor Chris Christie – and that carries some weight in the state.
In the meantime, Republican presidential contenders are saddling up on their motorcycles and getting ready to eat as much pork as they can, in order to stay in Ernst’s good graces and hope some of her popularity with Iowa Republicans rubs off.
