Sen. Joni Ernst Shares The Importance Of Service In New Memoir ‘Daughter of the Heartland’
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst talked with Fox News Radio’s Guy Benson about her new memoir Daughter of the Heartland: My Ode to the Country that Raised Me . The Senator spoke about serving her Community & Country in the military & elected politics. Saying, “I really want to inspire others to make it to that common goal or objective. You know, for the good of our country. And then courage. You know, having the grit and rising to the challenges and taking on risks, you know, we can’t let any challenges in our lifetimes define us. We should be the ones that define ourselves. And then it all comes back to gratitude. Guy, I’m a very grateful person. And this is my oath to the country that raised me.”
Listen To The Full Interview Below:
Full Transcript Below:
Guy Benson: A new hour on the Guy Benson Show, it’s Tuesday. Thank you for listening. Glad that you’re here. Always appreciate it. Guy Benson Show dot com is our Web site. Guy Benson.com podcast is always free FOX News Alert. We told you before we took the top of the hour break that we anticipated the Dow closing up because it’s been a very good day on Wall Street. It did. It was off session highs, but it closed up five hundred and twenty nine points today to twenty four thousand nine ninety five. And the Fox Business Kyran headline was Optimism about vaccines and Reopening. So we’ll see if the optimism last. But it was a good day, certainly on Wall Street. Also, we are keeping an eye on and monitoring the White House Rose Garden, where President Trump is expected at some point to come out and give some remarks about protecting seniors in particular. We will watch those. And if there’s something highly newsworthy, we’ll bring it to you and maybe bring you highlights tomorrow. But we will make sure that we’ve got that covered here on the program. I’m very pleased to welcome back to the show. U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa. She’s a guest on this program from time to time. She’s up for reelection in 2020. She’s also a newly minted author. Brand new memoir out today is called Daughter of the Heartland My Ode to the Country that raised me, as I mentioned, hitting shelves today. Very exciting, Senator. Welcome back to the show. Congratulations on the book.
Sen. Ernst: Oh, thanks so much. It’s great to be back with you, guy.
Guy Benson: So let’s talk about the book. I think it’s an interesting story to be told. The first ever female senator from your state of Iowa. You were raised in rural Iowa and you said that you were and you write in your book that you were instilled with certain values that later in your life, decades later, helped you overcome adversity and overcome some of the negativity of naysayers. And you say even your own doubts about yourself. You were able to transcend that because of some of those early values. Talk about those.
Sen. Ernst: Absolutely. There are four tenants in my life that have helped me get through really challenging times and helped me in the military as well as an elected service. There’s so many these things that I learned from my parents and the hard work on a farm. And I still live in that same rural community today. And I see it amongst my neighbors. But that the tenants that I have grown to embrace are serve us. You were serving my community. You serving my state, serving my country. Leadership and understanding that there are no barriers for women. I really want to inspire others to make it to that common goal or objective. You know, for the good of our country. And then courage. You know, having the grit and rising to the challenges and taking on risks, you know, we can’t let any challenges in our lifetimes define us. We should be the ones that define ourselves. And then it all comes back to gratitude. Guy, I’m a very grateful person. And this is my oath to the country that raised me. I believe we live in the greatest nation on the face of the planet. And I wish more people could truly understand that we are given all kinds of opportunities. And it’s up to us to seize on those opportunities. And again, you know, have the courage to rise above the challenges that we face.
Guy Benson: I want to ask you more about leadership and courage in particular, because I think sometimes in Washington and certainly in pop culture, when people think about politicians, these stories of women who break barriers and shatter glass ceilings and that sort of thing, they tend to be celebrated a bit more when that particular female candidate or politician leans a certain way or votes a certain way or thinks a certain way and not so much if she happens to be, as you are, a conservative Republican. And you write in your book about facing a lot of the challenges that other women talk a lot about sexism, even abuse, harassment. You really did face some challenges that I think resonate with lots of women, regardless of political stripe. And I just wonder how some of those values that you just talked about. Helped you get to a place where you were able to, through your leadership, exhibit courage and you know, the first time I had you on the show, I asked you about a very difficult subject that you had opened up about with your abuse, which is not easy for anyone to talk about. It’s very courageous. It didn’t seem to get the fanfare that it may have. If you were more aligned with a lot of what the press tends to believe, I think politically, but I think it’s still a very powerful example, if you will, just maybe talk about that in particular. That word, courage and how it’s impacted the way you practice leadership and courage is important.
Sen. Ernst: Bad guy, as we’ve talked about before. I wasn’t ready to come forward about my own abuse. And when the story broke down, a mortify. You know, it’s one of those issues that many women in and I’ve heard many times over. Many women go back in their minds and say, what have I? What could I have done differently? You know, how could I have prevented what happened to me? And we question ourselves instead of pointing the finger at our abusers. We question our own actions. And and I didn’t want to hurt the people around me either. You know, I know how protective my family is and understanding that the hurt that is assailed on me would also hurt them as well. Knowing that they they weren’t there to intervene or they couldn’t have been or veined and I wasn’t ready to come forward. But the story broke and I had to face that. And trying to do that with dignity and grace was probably one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do. But for me, understanding, you know, there are so many women and men that have been through abusive situations in their lifetimes and they’ve had to face the situation head on. And having to come up to me at events and then afterwards and saying Jony Ive been through it to and and thank you for sharing your story. It it made me understand much better that as a public figure, being able to talk about it openly and frankly and the way others have described it in my book is very raw. You know, is very humanizing. But to understand that it’s not a certain set of women that will go through these challenges has every right to a U.S. senator.
Guy Benson: Right. People think like, oh, well, you know, she’s she’s a powerful person. Right. So these types of things don’t happen to those types of women. And the answer is actually no, that’s not necessarily true. And I think for you to be thrust into that position against your will, but there it was. And how to respond. I think in real time must have been very difficult. And then to be able to look back and reflect, as you have in your book, Daughter of the Heartland. It’s it’s powerful. I want to circle back. Senator, if you don’t mind, too, because we were covering these four values as you sort of defined the book. You’ve got leadership, service, courage and gratitude. We just talked about leadership and courage. I feel like service and gratitude really intersected quite beautifully just yesterday on Memorial Day. You were in the Army Reserves. You’re a combat veteran. As you reflect on the country and the state of the country in the history of the country and the sacrifices that have been made on its behalf for generations and by generations of Americans on Memorial Day, as you’re getting ready for your book to come out. What are your thoughts on service and in particular, gratitude?
Sen. Ernst: Well, we saw both and I took some time. My daughter and I went to a cemetery that’s just over the county border on into Mitchell County. And my daughter and I spent some time reflecting on two young men that that we knew that had served and one was active duty army. The other young man was Iowa Army National Guard. I knew them both. I know both of their families. And we lost both of them in separate actions in Afghanistan. And just taking that time to reflect on the truly incredible lives that they lived and the joy that they brought to their families and their friends and how they were deployed, supporting our mission in the Middle East, providing service much as my own view and my own soldiers did, you know, to providing that service for our country, to people and other land that would never, ever be able to repay us, never be able to say, I thank you so that sometimes but just knowing it was something that we needed to do. For our country, and we do it freely, you know, truly, these young men gave the ultimate sacrifice, and so to be able to spend time reflecting on their service was really important. And we all serve in different ways. And so I want people to understand you don’t have to put on our nation’s uniform in order to serve your community or your country. It’s just important that as we’re able to give back in some measure and again, circling back to gratitude, the fact that that we are born or live here become citizens of the United States. Truly the greatest nation on the face of the planet. You know, it’s such an honor to be able to give back to that country in good ever measure. And it doesn’t matter. The president is we still live in the greatest nation on the face of the planet. You know, whether you have a Democratic president or Republican president, we have such a great nation.
Guy Benson: And I think gratitude for that is something that we should share. And sometimes we lose sight of it or take it for granted. But Joni Ernst does not. In her new book, Daughter of the Heartland My Ode to the Country that raised me out today. Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa. Thank you.
Sen. Ernst: Thanks so much, guy. Take care.
Guy Benson: We’ll be right back.
