Joni Ernst

Outgoing U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst said she is leaving office with “absolutely no regrets” at a reception hosted by the Republican Party of Iowa.

Ernst said she plans to spend more time with her daughter, who is preparing to have another baby, and with her mother, “who is extremely important” to her.

“Through all of these exciting times — being a U.S. senator and all the joys and the wonderful people I get to meet — it always comes back to me that my family should always be number one,” Ernst said Friday, Sept. 25.

Ernst, a Republican, announced in September 2025 she would not seek reelection at the end of her current term, which expires in January.

She is the first Iowa woman elected to either chamber of Congress and the first female combat veteran elected to the U.S. Senate.

At the intimate reception in West Des Moines, Republicans celebrated Ernst’s legacy and rallied support for the woman they hope will replace her: Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is also foregoing reelection this year, delivered a video message, thanking Ernst for her friendship as the two rose to break barriers as the first Iowa women elected to their current roles.

“What a journey it's been,” Reynolds said. “Now it's taking a new course for both of us. Hopefully that means a little more grandma time, but I know you well enough to know that you're not going to stop fighting or stop serving. You'll just find a new way to do it. That work ethic, that tenacity, and that heart of yours aren't going anywhere.”

Republicans revisited some of the major moments of Ernst’s rise, including her first viral TV ad promising to “make ‘em squeal” in Washington, D.C., and her headline-grabbing rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address.

In that nationally televised speech, Ernst recalled wearing bread bags over her one good pair of shoes as a child to protect them from the elements, subsequently setting the internet abuzz with commentary and memes.

She told the audience she discussed it with Reynolds after the fact.

“She was like, ‘Oh yeah, I remember my mom slipping on the Wonder bags,’” Ernst said. “And I was like, ‘Wonder Bread? Wonder — you had designer bread bags? We had generic.’”

Ernst called it “a testament to the way I was brought up.”

Joni Ernst thanks ‘incredible mentor’ Chuck Grassley

Ernst also heaped praise on her colleague, Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, who she called “an incredible mentor.”

“Even before I joined the United States Senate, I always knew that I had someone to look up to,” she said. “For all of us Republicans that were serving in the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House, we just always knew that if we emulated Sen. Chuck Grassley, we would always be successful and we would always be walking the path that made Iowa better.”

Grassley said he also considers Ernst “a good friend and a partner.”

“As she chooses to close this chapter of her public service, I want you to know that this battle-tested Iowa girl did exactly what she set out to do,” Grassley said. “As the first female combat veteran elected to the United States Senate, she fought tooth and nail for Iowans fed up with wasteful spending. She made fraudsters and big spenders squeal.”

Hinson is running against Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek in an effort to fill the open Senate seat Ernst will leave behind.

She promised to keep Ernst’s work alive if she’s elected.

“The squealing is not going to stop,” Hinson said. “It’s just going to get louder.”

Ernst also promised she isn’t going away.

“I will be around,” she said. “And I look forward to engaging in some of these battles supporting our Republican candidates all up and down the ticket. I'll be doing it from the outside, but I will be doing it with all kinds of joy and love and resilience because that is our Republican Party of Iowa.”

Chuck Grassley: ‘I don’t want a Democrat governor choosing my successor’

The night’s speakers also took the opportunity to urge the group’s attendees to take the election seriously and get involved as it enters the final month.

Grassley laid out the stakes.

“I don't plan on dying in office,” said Grassley, who recently turned 93. “But if I did, I don't want a Democrat governor choosing my successor.”

With Reynolds also retiring, Iowa has a rare open seat for the governor’s office. Polling shows Democratic state Auditor Rob Sand consistently leading Republican businessman Zach Lahn.

Grassley’s grandson, state representative and Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley, referenced Republicans’ strong voter registration advantage.

“We have to remind ourselves that there are more of us than there are of them,” he said.

But he said Republicans can’t take it for granted and sit out the election, “because some of these races are going to be extremely close.”

Former state Rep. Joe Mitchell, who is running for Congress in Iowa’s 2nd District, warned that Democrats, if elected, would undo some of the policies Republicans have enacted.

“I'll be damned if we let Joni serve for 15 years in the United States Senate and the state Legislature to have this state taken over by these radical left crazies,” he said.