The Political Castration of Joni Ernst

AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Eventually, everything in politics goes full circle. If you wait long enough, it all turns Ecclesiastes 3.

Take Joni Ernst, the junior senator from Iowa, for example. She burst onto the national scene, pledging to “cut pork” in a very memorable way:

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When your opening line is, “I’m Joni Ernst, I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm,” not only do you have our attention — you’ve got us squirming in our seats. (Ouch.)

Before the castration spot aired, Ernst was struggling to raise money, trailing Republican frontrunner Mark Jacobs by several points for the GOP nomination. Conservative women — including Sarah Palin — found the ad humorous, endorsed her candidacy, and helped Ernst build her war chest. Within months, she was the undisputed frontrunner.

And in 2020, she was elected to her second term in the Senate.

Unfortunately, there’s a disease endemic to D.C. called “turning native.” For whatever reason, it seems to infect conservatives more than liberals. There’s no known cure. (Symptoms include the sudden abandonment of traditional beliefs; invitations to “trendy” house parties; and oodles of donations from cabals of liberal bigwigs. Consult your doctor for more information.)

Over the past few days, Joni Ernst has emerged as the face of the Republican opposition to President-elect Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth. She stood in judgment of his candidacy and (according to media reports) found him lacking. As her hometown paper noted, she strongly suggested that Hegseth is unworthy of being secretary of defense.

This is the same Joni Ernst who voted in favor of Lloyd Austin, President Biden’s selection for secretary of defense.

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And now, her hometown paper has detected an Iowa backlash. She’s in danger of being primaried:

This is a novel development. In fact, it’s unprecedented.

For generations, “conservative” Republicans would talk a big game back home, but then “go native” when they were elected to congress. During election years, they’d put on their overalls back on and pose by a pickup truck, but all those years in between? They’re dressed to the nines, hitting all the trendiest cocktail parties, cutting backdoor deals with Democrats.

D.C. is a wonderful town for a squishy Republican. You’re seen as one of the few “good ones,” and you get the “John McCain treatment”: fawning, adoring, positive press… just as long as you never threaten their power base.

During the 2024 campaign, MAGA activists changed the rules. Now, there’s a very high cost to “going native.”

And the mainstream media can’t cover for you anymore.

Joni Ernst assumed she could leverage her “concerns” about Pete Hegseth to earn herself a higher profile, win liberal accolades, and perhaps even snag the secretary of defense job herself. It’s the oldest game in the House of Cards. 

In the past, nobody would’ve pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of hedging her support for Hegseth, yet enthusiastically backing Lloyd Austin — or how she’s increasingly out of step with her base on key military issues, including trans people in active service.

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Instead, Ernst would simply weaken the incoming GOP administration, elevate herself, score a few media points, and hope that her constituents would forget about it when the next election rolled around. Under the old rules, they usually would.

But today, MAGA is making sure they won’t forget. Check out the comments under Sen. Ernst’s tweet; they’re absolutely brutal:

The same lady who launched her career by castrating hogs has inadvertently castrated her political future. That’s nuts!

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