Memoir by Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa coming out in May
NEW YORK (AP) — Sen. Joni Ernst has a book coming out May 26. The Iowa Republican, expected to face a competitive race for reelection this fall, is calling her memoir “Daughter of the Heartland: My Ode to the Country That Raised Me.”
“In her candid, down-to-earth memoir of struggle and service, Senator Joni Ernst recounts her journey from farm girl to first female senator from Iowa,” according to the Simon & Schuster imprint Threshold Editions, which announced her book Monday. “The road has included many challenges, including serving as a woman in a leadership, her difficult and public divorce, being a combat veteran, surviving abuse and harassment, and wading through Washington, all while trying to preserve heartland values.”
Ernst, 49, was a member of the Iowa National Guard from 1993-2015, including stints in Kuwait and Iraq during the Iraq War. She was the first woman from Iowa to serve in Congress and the first female combat veteran in the U.S. Senate, to which she was elected in 2014.
Ernst is among a handful of Republican incumbents whom Democrats and pollsters have identified as vulnerable in 2020. Her potential Democratic opponents include real estate executive Theresa Greenfield, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Michael Franken, a former aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
