DES MOINES, Iowa — Sen. Joni Ernst hasn’t been in office a month, but she’s already delivered the GOP response to the State of the Union. And now the Iowa Republican is looking to parlay her newfound celebrity into something more powerful: influence in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Likely candidates are expected to attend a summer political event put on by Ernst that will showcase her sway at the national level. Weeks after Ernst won a hotly contested Senate race, her staff started planning the June 6 gathering that she aims to turn into an annual tradition akin to the steak fry that her Democratic predecessor, Tom Harkin, put on 37 times.


“It should be a can’t-miss event for presidential candidates who want to get to know Iowans better,” said Matt Strawn, a former chairman of the state GOP who helped Ernst during her campaign; he played her opponent, former Rep. Bruce Braley, in debate prep.

The “Roast and Ride” will likely be held in central Iowa and is expected to be a family friendly event featuring motorcycle rides and a pork-heavy menu.

Iowa already has its share of “cattle calls” for presidential candidates, including this past weekend’s gathering put on by Rep. Steve King and Citizens United. Major GOP donor Bruce Rastetter just announced he will sponsor his own agriculture-focused summit on March 7 and invite all the candidates. Steve Scheffler, a Republican National Committee member, is organizing the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s forum on April 25. Bob Vander Plaats’ evangelical group, the Family Leader, announced plans this month to host four regional meetings for socially conservative candidates before a statewide event in August.

But none of those GOP players have the juice right now that the 44-year-old Ernst does.

“I certainly would [attend] if I was one of those candidates,” Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is close with Ernst, said of the event Ernst is planning.

In contrast to King, the firebrand congressman known nationally for his strident rhetoric about undocumented immigrants, Ernst doesn’t currently intend to endorse in the GOP primary. Instead, she sees herself as a facilitator — someone potential candidates will go through to meet the voters of her home state. Her profile — Iowa’s first female senator, who won in a swing state without bending on her ideology and boasts a military background — would guarantee prominence in either party. But it has been especially welcome for the GOP, which is trying to broaden its appeal among women.

Potential presidential candidates have been seeking to rack up chits with Ernst for the better part of a year: Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio were early endorsers of her in her primary, and a host of other likely contenders campaigned with her as her Senate race got underway. Last week, following Ernst’s State of the Union response, Jeb Bush and Rand Paul were quick to call her a “friend” on social media.

And over the weekend, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s team tweeted a picture of the governor with Ernst, touting what he called a “great visit.” Walker is planning to attend her event in June, a representative for the governor confirmed. His team recently hired one of Ernst’s top advisers, David Polyansky, to spearhead Walker’s Iowa efforts.

Almost every speaker at King’s event over the weekend mentioned Ernst. There were lots of jokes, including from Walker, about Ernst’s commercial last year in which she talked about castrating pigs as a kid before promising to “make ‘em squeal” if she went to Washington.

Ernst, for her part, spoke at King’s event about the importance of winning the presidency in 2016 and reelecting senior Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

“I think we’re all aware that we must take back the White House,” Ernst said in her speech, which she delivered before flying to California for a Koch brothers-sponsored donors seminar. “If we expect to get through this gridlock and have signed into law the wonderful legislation we’re passing, we must have a Republican president.”

She was not made available for an interview for this story.

Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, said even if she remains neutral, Ernst will be an asset to potential candidates in Iowa by simply taking pictures with them and offering advice. In part that’s due to her popularity at home, he said. But he also noted that Ernst, who is the first woman combat veteran in the U.S. Senate, “broke the glass ceiling.” And her service in Iraq gives her credibility when speaking about national security and terrorism.

Kaufmann added that Ernst is committed to ensuring Iowa remains relevant in the GOP nominating process, next cycle and down the road. Ernst’s rise comes following two presidential cycles in which the eventual Republican nominee didn’t compete as hard in Iowa, a state dominated by deeply conservative Republicans.

“The fact that so many people nationally know her, this absolutely puts Iowa in an even stronger position,” said Kaufmann, who said he spoke with Ernst on Saturday as well as earlier this month about 2016.

A year ago, Ernst was not even considered the GOP front-runner to succeed Harkin. Some Republicans preferred Mark Jacobs, a former energy CEO, because of his ability to self-fund.

“People wouldn’t even return her phone calls when she got started,” said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.

Branstad said she caught fire in the crowded primary field because she outworked everyone else and also because “she could relate to Iowans.”

Ernst will next be on the ballot in 2020, a presidential year with higher turnout than the most recent midterm elections. The state has a long history of keeping incumbents around for decades, but she still needs to prove herself after facing an onslaught of attack ads in 2014 that portrayed her as extreme on issues from abortion and education to entitlements.

“We want Iowa to remain red,” Ernst said here at the King confab. “We’ve worked so hard to get here. We will not be a purple state. We will be a red state!”