Ernst says she’s still ‘living a dream’

DES MOINES - Joni Ernst is living the dream.

And the freshman senator wants other Iowans to follow their big dreams wherever they lead.

'It is a dream. I haven't pinched myself yet,” Ernst told reporters during a conference call Wednesday morning, just hours after she delivered her party's response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

Ernst, 44, who was sworn in as part of the Senate's GOP majority just two weeks ago, said she's frequently asked whether her rise from Montgomery County auditor and state senator from Red Oak in southwest Iowa to the upper chamber of Congress has sunk in.

'My response over and over again is ‘No, it really hasn't,'” Ernst said. 'And I hope it truly never sets in.”

As she did in her SOTU response, Ernst said that success depends on the 'freedom to dream big, and a whole lot of hard work.”

'I am living a dream and it is a very significant dream,” she said, encouraging Iowans, especially young people, to live their dreams.

'I don't care about people's party affiliation, I think if they have big dreams they have to follow those dreams.”