Ernst to deliver GOP convention speech focusing on national security Monday

CEDAR RAPIDS - Other GOP elected officials may be avoiding the Republican National Convention later this month, but Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst sees an opening night speech as an opportunity 'to give Iowans a voice on the national stage.”

'Right now, Iowans are pretty darned frustrated - just like when I ran for election,” said Ernst, whose 2014 campaign caught fire with a 'Make 'em Squeal” promise to cut federal spending. National security is to be her focus when she addresses the Cleveland convention on Monday, July 18.

'There's a real pushback against the failed policies we have right now,” Ernst said Tuesday. 'The president has failed to put forward a comprehensive strategy to defeat and destroy (ISIS). He talks all of the time about containing and degrading, but we need to defeat and destroy.”

She expects presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton 'will just continue those failed policies and what a great opportunity to push back on that,” Ernst said.

Ernst could not yet confirm what time she is to speak Monday. Reports have suggested she has a prime-time slot, which likely would be broadcast by major television news outlets.

For a time it appeared Ernst might be speaking to the convention as businessman Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate. Ernst met with the presumptive nominee over the July 4 weekend, but later withdrew from consideration.

Speaking roles at a national convention are opportunities for politicians to elevate their profiles, according to Drake University political scientist Dennis Goldford. However, they're rarely breakout moments.

Some may recall that it was at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston when then first-term Illinois Sen. Barack Obama burst on to the national scene. After his 'there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America” speech, delegates there to nominate John Kerry and John Edwards immediately began to talk about Obama as a future presidential candidate.

'Obama is the exception that proves the rule,” Goldford said.

Ernst doesn't anticipate an Obama-like reaction.

'I think I've been breaking out plenty,” she said, laughing. Instead, her speech is about 'what I'm hearing from Iowans, who I think are pretty representative of the United States, and represent their voice in calling for a stronger national defense and doing something about terrorism.”

'Bottom line, it's always Iowa and expressing the views of Iowa on a national stage,” Ernst said. 'That's what I'm bringing to the table.”

It won't be Ernst's first time in the spotlight. Although a freshman, Ernst was tapped to give the GOP response to the president's State of the Union speech in 2015.

'Some people noticed, but that sort of went thud afterword,” Goldford said. 'It didn't hurt her, but did it attach a rocket booster to her? No. She's still unseasoned.”

Ernst, 46, who retired as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years in the Iowa Army National Guard - including a deployment as commander of a transportation company in Iraq and Kuwait, believes she was invited to speak to the convention because of that experience and her service on the Armed Services and Homeland Security committees.

'That's why they came to me for this particular issue,” said Ernst, the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate.

Goldford said he plans to listen to what tone Ernst strikes. Given her military career, 'she might be more hawkish than Trump who is a little more isolationist.”

People may listen to whether her remarks are consistent with Trump 'or will she try to put some brakes around him so he can't move too far away from traditional Republican internationalism,” Goldford said.

Ernst acknowledged Trump may have a more limited foreign policy view than others, but said 'he's a little more aggressive when it comes to protecting our homeland, so I think he's a good fit.”