~by Dustin Teays for The Scranton Journal
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst stopped at Greene County High School Oct. 10 to meet with students and allow them to ask any questions they may have.
After briefly introducing herself, Ernst opened the floor to questions, with some students asking about interesting stories of her time as a senator and how she became one. and more in-depth questions such as her thoughts on world events.
After fielding questions from various students in the audience, Ernst briefly met with the students who wanted photos. A few even had one-on-one questions. Ernst feels it is essential to meet with the youth on this level as some elected officials don’t do it as often.
“I think it’s incredibly important, and I think we all should do this. There are a lot of other elected officials that serve in Washington, D.C. that don’t come back to
their states, and they don’t engage especially with younger adults. My philosophy is to engage early and often. Make sure they know they have access to me, that they can ask whatever is on their mind and I am going to give them a direct answer,” Ernst said.
While the questions from the students were varied, there were some questions that highlighted real world problems such as the state of the world in terms of armed conflict, the recent hurricanes and even the local issue of the carbon pipeline that would affect both Greene and Guthrie counties among others. When asked about eminent domain, Ernst shared her thoughts.
“I am not okay with eminent domain, not for a project like this. I think that these companies, if they really do want to run this pipeline, they better be working really, really hard with the landowners or find another way of doing it,” Ernst concluded.
While Ernst spends a lot of time in Washington, D.C. she makes it a point to visit Iowa, which includes her tour of visiting all 99 counties in Iowa, with stops that look much like her visit to Greene County this past week.
