Joni Ernst on Civil Rights

Urged NCAA to ban transgender athletes from women's sports

The NCAA updated its policy in 2022 on transgender athletes, aligning itself with Olympic standard. The NCAA requires transgender athletes to give documentation that meets sports standards for testosterone levels at three points in time:

1. Prior to any competition during the regular season;
2. Prior to the first competition in an NCAA championship event; and
3. Prior to any competition in the non-championship segment.

Enforce Court decision ending college affirmative action

While the Court took a big step forward in eliminating racial discrimination in admissions, more work remains to be done. In his remarks in the wake of the landmark decision, President Biden proposed "a new standard, where colleges take into account the adversity a student has overcome, including racial discrimination that individuals have faced in their own lives."

We call upon the Biden administration to embrace the Court's holdings: racial discrimination [does not] have any place in schooling. The American people deserve no less than an Executive Branch committed to enforcing the law equally to all people without concern for their race.

Government shouldn't redefine marriage

Ernst: Strongly Agree

Federal ban ok, but leave same-sex marriage to states

During Thursday's Republican debate, the candidates vying for the GOP nomination were asked for their take on same-sex marriage. "I do believe that marriage is between one man and one woman, and I also believe that this is a state's right. And I have a record of this here in the state of Iowa," she said. "It is up to the people to make that decision, so allow the states to make that decision."

Ernst noted her work on a bill in the Iowa state Senate authorizing a vote on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in the state. Ernst was one of the bill's co-sponsors. But despite her support for the right of the people "to make that decision," she said she would back a federal constitutional amendment barring gays and lesbians from getting married. "If it would come up at the federal level, I would support it," she said.

Endorsed by RightNOW Women PAC to escape "war on women"

Republicans of all stripes have been working to attract more women to their ranks and escape the "war on women" narrative that Democrats successfully used against them in 2012.

Marriage is a religious institution: one man and one woman