Group hopes Ernst’s victory clears way for more elected women in Iowa

DES MOINES - For many women, it is important to see other women enjoy political success before they can envision their own, Mary Ellen Miller said.

That is what could make Joni Ernst's election to the U.S. Senate more than a historical moment for Iowa - it could spur more Iowa women to run for public office and create better gender balance in state representation.

When Ernst, a Republican, defeated Democrat Bruce Braley for Iowa's open seat in the U.S. Senate, she became the state's first woman to be elected to Congress or as governor. Before Ernst's election, Iowa shared with Mississippi the dubious distinction of having never elected a women to either office.

Ernst's victory broke a political glass ceiling in Iowa. Miller hopes Ernst also opened the door for future female officeholders.

'We're quite excited about it,” said Miller, executive director of 50-50 in 2020, a group dedicated to helping women achieve public office and create gender balance in state representation by 2020. 'It provides momentum for getting more women elected.”

Ernst broke through, but she remains the only woman in Iowa's six-seat Congressional delegation, and the only of three woman candidates who won congressional races in November. Democrat Staci Appel lost an open-seat U.S. House race in central Iowa, and Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks failed in a third attempt to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack in Eastern Iowa.

At the state Capitol in 2015, the Senate will consist of seven women and 43 men, and the House will have 27 women and 73 men.

Auditor Mary Mosiman is the only woman in the five elected state offices. And although Kim Reynolds serves as lieutenant governor, Iowa remains one of 23 states that has never elected a woman governor.

Much progress remains to reach 50-50 in 2020s goal.

Miller, whose organization grooms candidates in both parties, hopes Ernst's victory will serve as a catalyst.

'I can tell you, just from our organization, it's a huge boost to us because it tells us it's all doable,” Miller said. 'So it's not just the candidates whose confidence is raised, it's also all of us who are engaged in getting more women elected, to achieving that political equality.

'So emotionally it's just a huge event for us and makes us just want to work harder.”

Almost as important, Miller said, was shedding the label of Iowa as one of the few remaining states that had never elected a woman to Congress or as governor.

'There was a certain weight to bearing that image,” Miller said.

Debbie Walsh can't quite figure out how that happened.

Walsh is director of the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics and a former Iowa resident. She said because Iowa has a well-educated, well-informed electorate, it never made sense to her that it took so long for the state to elect a woman to Congress.

The state's loyalty to incumbents may have reduced opportunities for women, Walsh said. Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin held their U.S. Senate seats for more than three decades, and Grassley plans to run for another six-year term in 2016.

Harkin's decision to retire created the open seat that Ernst claimed in November.

'There were just fewer and fewer opportunities for women to run (in Iowa),” Walsh said. 'And the best opportunity is always when there are open seats, which is one of the reasons that made it possible for Joni Ernst to get elected.

'She was running for a very rare thing (in Iowa) - an open U.S. Senate seat.”

Ernst was able to capitalize on the opportunity, ironically in a race in which women voters favored her opponent by 9 percentage points, according to CNN exit polls.

During her campaign, Ernst touted her military service - she is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army National Guard - her conservative values and her motherhood. But she did not make the historical context of her potential election an issue.

'I'm really, really proud of Joni. She was a state senator and came out of nowhere and just worked extensively, meeting with Iowans, talking to Iowans, talking about her vision for representing Iowans at the federal level,” Reynolds said after the election.

Women are 'over 50 percent of the population, so it's exciting to have a female representing us. But Joni ran on the issues.”

Miller said it often is difficult to convince women to run for public office beyond local councils and boards. Some women express a distaste for campaigning and raising money or partisan politics. Others are open to the notion but do not want to spend time away from their families.

Miller hopes Ernst's victory helps lower some of those hurdles.

'I think there's just a general feeling of, ‘We can do this,'” Miller said.