Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, signaled on Monday that she would not oppose Pete Hegseth’s bid for defense secretary, hinting at a turnabout after days of hectoring and threats by President-elect Donald J. Trump’s hard-right supporters who threatened political retribution if she failed to fall into line.
Only days after emerging from a private meeting with Mr. Hegseth sounding unconvinced about his fitness to lead the Pentagon, Ms. Ernst, the first female combat veteran to serve in the Senate and a survivor of sexual assault, indicated that a second sit-down had allayed her concerns.
And she suggested that a torrent of allegations against Mr. Hegseth that had put his candidacy in jeopardy — including sexual assault, sexual impropriety in the workplace, public drunkenness and fiscal mismanagement — might not be disqualifying unless his accusers came forward publicly.
“I appreciate Pete Hegseth’s responsiveness and respect for the process,” Ms. Ernst said in a statement after their meeting, adding that she had had “encouraging conversations” with Mr. Trump’s pick.
“As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources,” she added.
Ms. Ernst stopped short of promising to support Mr. Hegseth, but in sending a strong signal that she was favorably inclined, she appeared to clear away a major potential hurdle to his confirmation. At the same time, her shift suggested that Mr. Trump’s MAGA base was ready, willing and able to bully Republicans into submitting to his desires.
Mr. Trump’s hard-line backers paid for ads in Ms. Ernst’s home state, questioned her Republican bona fides on social media and even threatened to launch primary challenges against her in 2026 to push her toward supporting Mr. Hegseth as the nominee.
Some prominent Trump activists, including Charlie Kirk and Stephen K. Bannon, the right-wing strategist, pushed to recruit Kari Lake, the former Republican candidate for governor of Arizona who grew up in Iowa, as a potential challenger to Ms. Ernst.
The onslaught of pressure put Ms. Ernst in a bind. Over two terms in the Senate, she has built a reputation for being a principled leader on matters of sexual assault and the military. As a combat veteran, she also holds strong views on the role of women in the military that clash significantly with those of Mr. Hegseth, who has said women should not serve in combat roles.
In 2021, Ms. Ernst’s work on and advocacy for legislation to move military sexual assault cases outside the chain of command prompted several other Senate Republicans to sign onto the bill. In 2019, she broke with her party and was the only Republican to oppose confirming Gen. John E. Hyten, who had been accused of sexual assault by a subordinate, as vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
But Ms. Ernst, who last month lost a bid to keep her leadership post as the Senate G.O.P.’s messaging chief to a more conservative challenger, was also well aware of the political risks of opposing one of Mr. Trump’s marquee cabinet picks. That was the case especially as more and more of her male colleagues in the party came out in support of Mr. Hegseth and indicated a willingness to look past the accusations against him, dismissing them as anonymous allegations that should be discounted.
With Democrats likely to oppose him en masse, Republicans can afford no more than three defectors from their own ranks on Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation. Two other Republican women, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have indicated they have questions for Mr. Hegseth. But even if all three were to oppose him, that would not be enough to sink his confirmation if the rest of the overwhelmingly male G.O.P. senators held together in backing him.
Initially, Ms. Ernst, who had once been rumored to be on Mr. Trump’s shortlist to lead the Pentagon, appeared hostile to Mr. Hegseth’s selection. She had said he would “have his work cut out for him” to be confirmed, and told Fox News last week after a lengthy meeting with him that she was not yet a “yes” on his bid.
But the blitz Ms. Ernst faced over the last few days was extraordinary. Ads in Iowa praising Mr. Hegseth exhorted viewers to call their senator and demand his confirmation, while Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s son, wrote on social media that senators like Ms. Ernst who had voted to confirm Lloyd J. Austin III as defense secretary but were waffling on Mr. Hegseth might not belong in the Republican Party.
In a sign of how tenuous things had become, Kash Patel, Mr. Trump’s pick for F.B.I. director, went to Capitol Hill on Monday to meet with Ms. Ernst, not about his own nomination, but to pitch her on Mr. Hegseth and help her back to the fold, according to a person familiar with the visit who spoke about it on the condition of anonymity without authorization to discuss it.
The result was a potential reversal of fortune for Mr. Hegseth, who was battling last week to convince Mr. Trump that his bid was salvageable, as the president-elect weighed replacing him with Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida.
“At 4 p.m. on Thursday, Pete’s nomination hung by a thread,” Mr. Bannon said in an interview. “That’s when the grass roots kicked in hard. MAGA wants a combat vet who will take on the woke and take on the war profiteers.”
Ms. Ernst appeared to take heed of those demands in her statement, in which she praised Mr. Hegseth for committing to a full audit of the Pentagon’s finances. Her statement also suggested that Mr. Hegseth had committed to addressing issues that mattered to her.
She said Mr. Hegseth had committed to appointing a senior official “who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women — based on quality and standards, not quotas — and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks.”
Mr. Hegseth also referred to their shared experience as combat veterans when he emerged from his session with Ms. Ernst on Monday.
“The more we talk, the more we’re reminded of, as two combat veterans, how dedicated we are to defense,” Mr. Hegseth told reporters, adding that Ms. Ernst “has been dedicated to making the Pentagon work for war fighters for a long time.”
Whether Ms. Ernst’s turnaround shores up enough support to secure Mr. Hegseth’s bid is unclear. He intends to meet later this week with other potential holdouts, including Ms. Collins, Ms. Murkowski and Senator Todd Young of Indiana.
Shortly after Ms. Ernst made her softened stance public, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who said last week that he found the allegations against Mr. Hegseth to be “very disturbing,” put out a statement praising him.
“I had a very positive, thorough and candid meeting with Pete Hegseth about his nomination to be the next secretary of defense,” Mr. Graham said in a statement after hosting Mr. Hegseth in his office.
“When it comes to supporting presidential cabinet nominees, I have a record of being supportive regardless of party because I think every president deserves the right to pick their team,” Mr. Graham added, noting that “his confirmation hearing should not be allowed to become a three-ring circus.”
