DES MOINES, Iowa — The chair of the Iowa Republican Party said she’s one of the Hawkeye State’s “most popular political figures.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) described her as one of the country’s “top public servants.” A Republican who attended the Iowa State Fair last weekend praised her “quiet confidence.”
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds might be in the perfect position to be a cornfield kingmaker, boosting her state, her party and her own political future as one of the most powerful Republicans in the country. But the dominant figure in the Republican Party — former President Donald Trump — equates the neutrality required of a good first-in-the-nation-caucus host with betrayal.
Trump’s animosity toward Iowa’s governor surfaced last month, with Trump bashing Reynolds for saying she wouldn’t immediately endorse any candidate in the Republican presidential primary, which the former president views as an act of disloyalty.
The one-sided feud spilled into more public view this weekend at the Iowa State Fair, when Trump commandeered the fairgrounds for a chaotic hour on Saturday after ignoring an invite from Reynolds to appear in her new series of “fair-side chats,” one of the main draws for candidates hoping to get a foothold in the first presidential nominating state.
Reynolds, who has generated almost as many headlines as the candidates over the last week, even acknowledged the influence she could wield in the caucuses, suggesting she might not stay neutral forever. “I don’t think you say, ‘Never, never,’” she said at the fair. “We’ll see what happens.”
The result is a test case for whether local power brokers, with their old-timey traditions, niche litmus tests and local media audiences, can still wield significant power in the MAGA-era GOP.
Reynolds is coming off a blowout reelection that highlights Iowa’s red shift, a trend that’s also swept onetime swing state Ohio in the Midwest. As governor, Reynolds balanced tax cuts with the social issues that animate today’s GOP, signing a six-week abortion ban and ban on gender therapy for minors.
Tiffany Welch, a 43-year-old undecided voter from Clive, Iowa, who showed up to a recent DeSantis event, said the governor’s policies leave out too many Iowans. “It’s really frustrating how she has her pet issues that affect a really small percentage of people,” she said.
“I got her elected. I endorsed her. I came and did a rally when she was very far behind.”
– Donald Trump on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds
Trump claimed over the weekend he was still on good terms with Reynolds — then proceeded to argue that she wouldn’t be governor without him. “I have a very nice relationship with her,” he told reporters. “I got her elected. I endorsed her. I came and did a rally when she was very far behind.”
A spokesman for Reynolds said the governor is completely focused on promoting the fair, and that it was the main goal of the fair-side series. “This is a venue she truly cares about,” Reynolds spokesman Kollin Crompton told HuffPost.
Reynolds hardly, if ever, mentioned Trump in her 30-minute sit-downs with candidates, which drew every Republican besides Trump and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who isn’t focusing on Iowa. Reynolds, who sported a T-shirt and cowboy boots on stage, is leaning into the role of ambassador, tour guide and possible power broker in a key battleground that a dozen Republicans hope will pave their road to the White House.
But even after four indictments, the former president remains the dominant figure in the Republican Party and the primary, his poll numbers inching up with each new legal case and the more voters get to see of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose numbers are only slightly better in Iowa than they are nationally.
Trump can still turn any event into his own three-ring circus. With little advance notice, the former president parachuted into central Iowa Saturday, flying his branded jet over the fairgrounds while DeSantis was flipping pork burgers with his family. Then Trump brought the entire Grand Concourse to a standstill as he spoke at the Steer N’ Stein bar, where his campaign made sure to publicize that he picked up the $10,000 tab.
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Trump’s appearance overshadowed DeSantis, Reynolds, and their one-on-one chat, which drew Trump supporters in baseball caps handed out by the campaign that falsely claimed Trump won the Iowa caucuses in both 2016 and 2020 — Trump lost in 2016 to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — as a plane dragging a banner with, “Be Likable, Ron!” circled overhead.
Trump’s campaign didn’t respond to Reynolds’ invitation, according to a source close to Reynolds. (And the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment from HuffPost about the event.) The source also suggested that having Trump on Reynolds’ stage would be close to logistically impossible. Trump, like DeSantis, also skipped out on The Des Moines Register’s Political Soap Box, flouting another Iowa tradition of candidates taking questions directly from Iowa voters.
Jeff Kaufmann, the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, suggested to HuffPost that he personally might not have advised Trump to skip out on Reynolds’ event, but would not criticize Trump for doing so.
“There’s a lot of venues that he’s not going to come to, that I think it would serve him well to do that,” said Kaufmann, who’s also neutral in the primary after supporting Trump in previous general elections. “But that’s not my goal as a [chairman].”
Kaufmann shut down any speculation of a rift between Trump and Reynolds over Trump’s remarks. He said Reynolds had only cheers for Trump at the Iowa Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, which featured both Trump and DeSantis just weeks after Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was disappointed in Reynolds.
“I sat less than a foot from her throughout the entire Lincoln Day Dinner when we had all 13 candidates,” he said. “I noticed that a lot of people were watching her. A lot of people watched her when President Trump stood up to give his comments, and what I noticed about her is that she clapped vociferously.”
The feud has become its own narrative in the presidential election. Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting DeSantis, ran a TV ad showing Trump bashing Republican governors. The commercial features Trump at a rally where he says that, “Without me, you know, she was not gonna win. You know that, right?”
Presidential candidates rushed to Reynolds’ defense at the fair. “I think Donald Trump’s attacks on Kim Reynolds are totally out of bounds. I couldn’t disagree with it any more…She’s done nothing but do a great job. She’s never done anything to him,” DeSantis told reporters. Former Vice President Mike Pence said anyone who wouldn’t sit down with Reynolds was “missing out.”
And Reynolds had DeSantis’ back when a group of demonstrators with bells and whistles threatened to derail his very first appearance at the fair. “Hey, you know what? We’re in Iowa, and in Iowa, we’re ‘Iowa nice.’ So let’s give everybody the opportunity to hear our candidates,” Reynolds told them.
Matt Wells, a DeSantis supporter from Washington County, Iowa, said Reynolds, who was appointed governor after Trump tapped ex-Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad to become his ambassador to China, has pleasantly surprised him.
“This is the most surprised about a politician that I’ve ever been,” he said. “She has a quiet confidence about her and she doesn’t let people sway her.”