Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa at a press conference on Capitol Hill on September 19, 2023.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa at a press conference on Capitol Hill on September 19, 2023.
  • Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa choked on a piece of food at a Senate lunch on Thursday.
  • Sen. Rand Paul, a doctor, performed the Heimlich maneuver to save her life.
  • She later blamed the "woke policies Dems are forcing down our throats."

Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa reportedly choked on a piece of food at a lunch with fellow Republican senators lunch on Thursday.

That required the intervention of Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a trained ophthalmologist, to perform the Heimlich maneuver on his colleague.

Ernst later joked about the incident on X, saying that she couldn't "help but choke on the woke policies" that the Democrats are "forcing down our throats."