DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst has followed up a national turn in the spotlight with a speech to home-state conservatives that stressed a need to rein in “executive overreach.” The freshman Republican appeared Saturday at a daylong forum attended by several potential 2016 White House contenders. The Freedom Summit was billed at the start of the Iowa presidential caucus chase.

Ernst has enjoyed celebrity status within GOP circles since winning a long-held Democratic seat in November. Just this week, she delivered the party’s televised response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Ernst revisited themes from that speech, including calls to fight Obama’s executive orders on issues like immigration and pass Keystone XL oil pipeline legislation that the president has vowed to veto.