Sen. Joni Ernst, once skeptical, says she will vote for Pete Hegseth for defense secretary

WASHINGTON – Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, will vote for former Fox News host Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, she announced Tuesday night after his first confirmation hearing.

"He was adequately able to answer all of my questions, he pointed out the woke issues at the Pentagon, and I think we're at a point where now we can start moving forward," Ernst told local radio host Simon Conway.

Ernst was the senator to watch during Tuesday's confirmation hearing. As a military veteran and a sexual assault survivor, Ernst has been skeptical of Hegseth, who has been accused of sexual assault ? which he denies ? and has said women should not serve in combat. In November, she said he would "have his work cut out for him" getting confirmed in the Senate.

But Ernst was deferential when it was her turn to question Hegseth, reading a letter of support for the nominee and noting that she had the chance to "thoroughly" question him about the issues that matter most to her, including women's roles and combatting sexual assault in the military.

"You and I have had many productive conversations. And for our audience, we have had very frank conversations," she said.

Hegseth only needs to a majority of senators to support him in order to lead the Department of Defense in President-elect Donald Trump's second term. In the chamber controlled 53-47 by Republicans, that would be simple for most nominees.

But Hegseth has been dogged by allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2017 and accusations that he has abused alcohol on the job. The woman who claimed Hegseth assaulted her filed a police report, and Hegseth paid her a settlement amount to avoid losing his job at Fox, according to his lawyer.

Hegseth has repeatedly denied the allegations and called it a "coordinated smear campaign" against him. He also told Ernst and other senators Tuesday that women would be able to serve in combat roles under his leadership, "given the standards remain high" for them to qualify.

If he lost the support of just a few Republican senators, he would be unable to get confirmed. Ernst's support is a good indication that he get enough GOP votes to be confirmed.

Ernst met with Hegseth in December after she received a tsunami of criticism from the right over her hesitance to his nomination.

A conservative commentator threatened to run in a Republican primary against Ernst if she seeks reelection in 2026, and the state's GOP attorney general wrote a column for the conservative outlet Breitbart deriding "D.C. politicians" who "think they can ignore the voices of their constituents." A group backed by Trump ally Elon Musk ran an ads in her state saying "the deep state is trying to stop his nomination."

One of Trump's nominees has dropped out of consideration in the face of sexual misconduct allegations: Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Trump's pick to be attorney general, dropped his bid in November due to claims, which he denied, that he had sex with prostitutes including one minor.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joni Ernst says she will support Pete Hegseth for defense secretary