Joni Ernst : Net Worth, Family, Wife, Education, Children, Age, Biography and Political Career

Joni Kay Ernst is an American politician and former officer serving as the junior us Senator for Iowa since 2015. A Republican, she served within the Iowa State Senate from 2011 to 2014. Ernst served within the Iowa Army National Guard from 1993 to 2015, retiring as a light colonel.

Ernst was considered a "long shot" at the beginning of her 2014 senate race but was boosted by support from the Koch brothers and a billboard that gained nationwide attention during which she referenced her experience castrating pigs, saying she would "cut pork" in Congress. Having been strongly critical of President Barack Obama, she has been characterized as a reliable ally of President Donald Trump, and was thought to be a possible campaigner in his 2016 campaign.

Ernst opposes legalized abortion, and has supported a fetal personhood amendment and introduced legislation to defund Planned Parenthood. She opposes the Affordable Care Act and has involved reforms to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security . She has indicated concern, although not opposition, to Trumps trade war with China and criticized some aspects of his policy . While supporting both Trumps nominees for EPA administrator, she has expressed concern over their commitment to the Renewable Fuel Standard. She rejects the scientific consensus on global climate change . At times, Ernst has seemed to support the thought that states can nullify federal laws, and has advocated for the elimination of federal departments like the Department of Education and therefore the Environmental Protection Agency, also because the federal wage.

Ernst was born Joni Kay Culver in Montgomery County, Iowa, the daughter of Marilyn and Richard Culver. She was valedictorian of her class at Stanton Community administrative district highschool. She earned a baccalaureate in psychology from Iowa State University, and a Master of Public Administration degree from Columbus State University. In college, she took part in an agricultural exchange to the Soviet Union.

Ernst may be a lifetime member of the Montgomery County Republican Women, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2265, Montgomery County Court of Honor, Altrusa, PEO Chapter HB, the National Rifle Association, and therefore the Montgomery County Farm Bureau. Her church is Mamrelund Lutheran Church in Stanton, Iowa, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) denomination.

On June 13, 2018, federal judge Linda Reade sentenced Joseph Dierks, of Waterloo, Iowa, to 6 years in prison for threatening "to kill or otherwise harm" Ernst on Twitter. The sentence, which exceeds sentencing guidelines, was imposed on Dierks for disparaging comments he made about Reade and threats against the case prosecutor and his children, and against black corrections officers while awaiting trial.

In May 2020, she published her memoir, Daughter of the Heartland: My Ode to the Country That Raised Me.

Joni Ernst Net Worth

Joni Ernst Net Worth is $ 1.5 Million in 2021.

Joni Ernst Family

Ernst was born Joni Kay Culver in Montgomery County, Iowa, the daughter of Marilyn and Richard Culver.

Joni Ernst Husband and Children

In 1992, Ernst married Gail Ernst. The Ernsts have one daughter, Libby. On August 27, 2018, Ernst announced that she and her husband were within the process of obtaining a divorce. during a sworn affidavit, Ernst stated that she had declined then-candidate Trumps offer to be his vice-presidential campaigner because Gail "hated any successes had and would belittle and obtain angry any time would achieve a goal", which she made "sacrifices ... out of concern for Gail and family." Gail said that he "gave up his aspirations" to support Ernsts pursuit of her political ambitions. The divorce was finalized in January 2019, with Joni Ernst alleging that Gail had verbally and mentally abused her and on one occasion physically assaulted her. The Ernsts accused one another of infidelity; both denied the respective accusations.

Joni Ernst Career and Achievement

Military Career

Ernst joined Iowa State Universitys ROTC program at age 20 and therefore the us Army Reserve after graduating. She served as a logistics officer and attained the rank of light colonel within the Iowa National Guard . In 2003–2004, she spent 12 months in Kuwait because the company commander of the 1168th company, during the Iraq War. Near the top of her career, she served because the commandant of the 185th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion at Camp Dodge, the Iowa Army National Guards largest battalion. Upon her retirement from the military in 2015, Ernst had served 23 years within the Army Reserve and therefore the Army National Guard.

In an interview with Time Magazine in 2014, Ernst said that she was sexually harassed within the military, saying, "I had comments, passes, things like that" that she was ready to stop, and said she would support removing sexual abuse cases from the chain of command.

Iowa Politics

Ernst was elected Montgomery County Auditor in 2004 and reelected in 2008. She was elected to the Iowa State Senate during a special election in 2011 and reelected in 2012. She represented District 12, in southwestern Iowa.

Following her election to the U.S. Senate, Ernst resigned from the Iowa State Senate, effective November 28, 2014.

U.S. Senate

Elections

2014

In July 2013, Ernst announced that she would seek the Senate seat held by retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin. Iowa elected official Kim Reynolds endorsed her in October 2013. In March 2014, Ernst was endorsed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to whom she has drawn comparisons. In May 2014, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying group, endorsed her.

Little known at the beginning of her campaign, Ernst was boosted within the Republican primary by the Koch brothers with "hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of television ads and tens of thousands of dollars in direct campaign contributions". A Koch-backed group launched an "advertising blitz", including a $257,000 campaign against Ernsts biggest Republican rival, Mark Jacobs, who had supported a proposal to limit carbon emissions that Koch Industries opposed. Ernst privately credited the Kochs and their allies for having "really started my trajectory" after her primary victory.

Ernst received widespread attention for a campaign advertisement she released in March 2014, during which she made a tongue-in-cheek comparison between her experience castrating pigs and her ability to "cut pork" in Congress. Many found the ad humorous, and it had been spoofed by late-night comedians, including Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert. Before the ad aired, Ernst had struggled to boost money, and two polls of the Republican primary taken in February 2014 had shown her in second place, several points behind Mark Jacobs. After it aired, a Suffolk University poll in early April showed her with a narrow lead and a Loras College poll showed her essentially tied with Jacobs. By May, she was being described within the media because the "strong front-runner".

During the first , Ernst promoted a conspiracy theory that a United Nations sustainable development plan, Agenda 21, could lead on to farmers being forced off their land and made to measure in cities, but a couple of months later she said she didnt consider the plan a “threat”.

In a May 2014 Des Moines Register interview, Ernst said she was "extremely offended" by comments Jacobs made characterizing her as AWOL thanks to missing over 100 votes within the legislative session. Previously, within the Gazette, Ernst cited her National Guard duty to rebuff criticism about her missing votes, but The Gazette found that only 12 of the 117 missed votes came on days when she was on duty. the opposite 105 missed votes represented 57% of the Iowa Senate votes that session. Ernsts spokesman said she had a far better than 90% voting record during her Senate career which she had never claimed Guard service was the sole reason she had missed votes.

In July, Ernst delivered the Republican Partys weekly address, criticizing a health care scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs and calling for a budget and reform of Social Security and Medicare. Later that month, she suspended her campaign while participating in fortnight of National Guard duty.

In endorsing her for the Republican primary nomination, the Des Moines Register wrote: "Ernst may be a smart, well-prepared candidate who can wrestle with the small print of public policy from a conservative perspective without seeming inflexible." On October 23, Ernst canceled a scheduled meeting with the Des Moines Registers editorial board, citing the papers negative editorials about her. The editorial board ultimately endorsed Braley, citing Ernsts calls to abolish the EPA, the Department of Education, and therefore the federal wage , also as her support for partially privatizing Social Security and overturning the Affordable Care Act.

In the 2014 election, Ernst received $17,552,085 in "dark money", which constituted 74% of non-party outside spending in her support; she had a $14 million outside spending advantage over her opponent. In an October 2014 debate, Ernst said she “believe in political free speech” and didnt see a requirement to vary campaign finance laws.

Ernst won the 2014 senate campaign , 52.2% to 43.7%. She is that the first woman elected to represent Iowa in either house of Congress.

2020

Ernst ran for reelection in 2020. She was unopposed within the Republican primary and faced Democratic nominee Theresa Greenfield, a businesswoman and former congressional candidate, within the election . Ernst was seen because the strong favorite and eventually defeated her opponent, 52%-45%.

In December 2019, the Associated Press reported that Ernst’s campaign had closely coordinated with a political nonprofit founded by a longtime consultant; such groups are tax-exempt and not required to disclose donors, but cannot make political campaigning their primary purpose and must separate their activities from candidates they support. An Ernst campaign adviser said that any implication that they had acted outside the "spirit of the law" was "fake news". After the article’s publication, the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal committee.