Joni Ernst emerges as Hegseth back­up with defense nom­i­na­tion in lim­bo

She could also be Hegseth’s replace­ment should he with­draw as Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump’s pick for defense sec­re­tary. As a com­bat vet­er­an with 23 years of mil­i­tary ser­vice, Ernst is emerg­ing as one of sev­er­al alter­na­tives who could sail through Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion with­out the cloud of con­tro­ver­sy that has hung over Hegseth’s nom­i­na­tion.

Hegseth, an Army Nation­al Guard vet­er­an and for­mer Fox News host, is in polit­i­cal sur­vival mode as he faces a drip, drip of accu­sa­tions rang­ing from sex­u­al mis­con­duct to alco­hol abuse. He denies all alle­ga­tions against him, mount­ing a media blitz on Wednes­day to clear his name, but seri­ous con­cerns remain among the Sen­ate Repub­li­cans who are tasked with vet­ting him.

Hegseth’s increas­ing­ly long odds have the Trump tran­si­tion team weigh­ing pos­si­ble replace­ments, even as Hegseth insists he con­tin­ues to have the sup­port of Trump. Those include Ernst, but also Gov. Ron DeSan­tis (R‑FL), Trump’s one­time pri­ma­ry rival, and Rep. Wes­ley Hunt.

Were Trump to choose Ernst, she would have bipar­ti­san sup­port for her nom­i­na­tion on day one as a mem­ber of Armed Ser­vices, the com­mit­tee that will hold Hegseth’s con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing.

She would also rep­re­sent a 180 in polit­i­cal optics. Ernst is a sur­vivor of rape and domes­tic vio­lence who has made com­bat­ing sex­u­al harass­ment in the mil­i­tary one of her biggest focus­es in Con­gress.

Repub­li­can sen­a­tors con­ced­ed that nom­i­nat­ing a col­league such as Ernst would nat­u­ral­ly yield a “smoother process” than the tur­bu­lence Hegseth is expe­ri­enc­ing.

“I think it helps to have some­body that you already know and have a com­fort lev­el with,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R‑SD), a mem­ber of the Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee. “But it is not pre­clud­ing for some­one that we don’t [know] because you can’t have every mem­ber com­ing out of the Sen­ate or from the House. You got to have folks on the out­side com­ing in as well.”

DeSan­tis, a for­mer House mem­ber, is thought to be Trump’s favored choice should Hegseth’s nom­i­na­tion be with­drawn, though he faces dis­trust from allies of the pres­i­dent-elect over his pri­ma­ry chal­lenge in this year’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. Hunt is anoth­er name on the short list, but House Repub­li­cans are loathe to take on the vacan­cy giv­en the slim major­i­ty they will be start­ing with in Jan­u­ary.

Democ­rats, con­fi­dent that Hegseth’s nom­i­na­tion is head­ed for fail­ure, found them­selves in rare agree­ment with Repub­li­cans on Ernst.

“I gen­er­al­ly don’t make those deter­mi­na­tions before I’ve even talked with some­body, but I’d start off with a very, very favor­able incli­na­tion” to con­firm Ernst, said Sen. Tim Kaine (D‑VA), also a mem­ber of Armed Ser­vices.

Sen. Richard Blu­men­thal (D‑CT), anoth­er com­mit­tee Demo­c­rat, described Ernst as some­one with “inde­pen­dent judg­ment and integri­ty and high degree of insight … on mil­i­tary and for­eign affair issues.”

“I think she’d have sig­nif­i­cant bipar­ti­san sup­port,” Blu­men­thal added.

With cam­eras and reporters in tow, Ernst declined to answer ques­tions or reveal details of her pri­vate meet­ing with Hegseth Wednes­day as he made the rounds on Capi­tol Hill to win over con­cerned sen­a­tors.

“It was a very frank and thor­ough con­ver­sa­tion,” said Ernst.

Hegseth also met with incom­ing Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader John Thune (R‑SD), Sen. Roger Wick­er (R‑MS), the next chair­man of the Armed Ser­vices Com­mit­tee, and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R‑ND).

The mar­gins will be tight in a 53–47 Repub­li­can Sen­ate for all of Trump’s nom­i­nees. With Vice Pres­i­dent-elect J.D. Vance as a tiebreak­er, he’ll be able to afford just three GOP defec­tors if all Democ­rats oppose.

Cen­trist Sens. Lisa Murkows­ki (R‑AK) and Susan Collins (R‑ME), who told the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er they have meet­ings slat­ed for next week with Hegseth, said the alle­ga­tions are seri­ous and raise unan­swered ques­tions.

“I think it demon­strates the need for a back­ground check, and I’m pleased the Trump admin­is­tra­tion has now agreed we will have back­ground checks on the nom­i­nees,” said Collins, who is up for reelec­tion in 2026. “I have a lot of ques­tions, both in defense pol­i­cy and else­where.”

“I would like to hear from him about many of the alle­ga­tions that you all have been report­ing,” Murkows­ki said.

Hegseth, for his part, showed no signs that he would be with­draw­ing from con­sid­er­a­tion.

“I spoke to [Trump] this morn­ing. He sup­ports me ful­ly,” Hegseth told Capi­tol Hill reporters. “We’re not going any­where.”

Hegseth lat­er defend­ed his rep­u­ta­tion on Meg­yn Kelly’s pod­cast, com­par­ing him­self to Supreme Court Jus­tice Brett Kavanaugh, who faced sex­u­al assault claims dur­ing his con­fir­ma­tion.

Ernst, pri­or to reveal­ing her past expe­ri­ence with rape and domes­tic abuse, advo­cat­ed dur­ing that con­tentious 2018 con­fir­ma­tion to hear from Kavanaugh’s accuser. The woman, Chris­tine Blasey Ford, went on to tes­ti­fy pub­licly before the Sen­ate Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee.

Among the ques­tions Ernst declined to answer was whether she wants to hear in a sim­i­lar fash­ion from those who have made alle­ga­tions against Hegseth, none of whom have been pub­licly iden­ti­fied.

“Kavanaugh stood up and he fought, and he won. And hope­ful­ly, Repub­li­cans have learned that les­son,” Hegseth told Kel­ly. “What you’re see­ing right now with me is the art of the smear.”

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Sen. Mike Bru­an (R‑IN), who will retire from the cham­ber to become Indi­ana gov­er­nor in Jan­u­ary, ques­tioned whether Hegseth could effec­tive­ly com­bat sex­u­al assault with­in the military’s ranks with sim­i­lar alle­ga­tions hang­ing over him.

“That may be dif­fi­cult try­ing to get through some­thing like that when that’s the main thing that’s com­ing at you,” he said.

Braun offered acco­lades for Ernst as a “reformer” who would “do well at what­ev­er she choos­es to do.” But he did not think that Hegseth should at this point bow out of the con­fir­ma­tion process.