Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds pledged her “full support” to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a campaign rally Monday, officially endorsing his bid to become the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
“I’m here to tell you, without a doubt, that Ron DeSantis is the person that we need leading this country,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds told an enthusiastic crowd of more than 500 at the River Center in Des Moines that there is “just too much at stake” for her to not weigh in on the Republican presidential contest — and that DeSantis is the candidate with the track record of conservative victories that can win Republicans the White House.
The two Republican governors share similar political histories, winning their first elections in 2018 and winning reelection by a wide margin in 2022. While many other states saw some Democratic victories in the 2022 midterm elections, both Florida and Iowa — two states thought of as traditionally purple — overwhelmingly elected Republicans.
This track record shows that DeSantis’ politics is aligned with Iowans, Reynolds said — and shows that DeSantis can win against President Joe Biden. She said the country is “unrecognizable” under the Biden administration, pointing to issues of inflation, border security and international conflicts like the the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
“We’re in trouble, but we are resilient,” Reynolds said. “We can turn this country around. But if we don’t get this next election right, if we don’t choose right, we are not going to get this country back.”
The right choice, she said, is DeSantis.
The Florida Republican called on Iowans to “follow Gov. Reynolds’ lead” and support him at the Jan. 15, 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses. The audience cheered when he described the laws both he and Reynolds signed as governors, including banning most abortions after six weeks, prohibiting gender-affirming health care for minors, and reopening businesses and schools earlier than other states during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Energy was high at the rally — but recent polling shows DeSantis faces an uphill battle to win the Iowa GOP caucuses and the presidential nomination. Former President Donald Trump leads the race by a double-digit margin in Iowa and national polls, and no other Republican candidates have yet been able to unseat him as frontrunner.
Trump has repeatedly criticized Reynolds during the 2024 campaign season for not endorsing him. Reynolds told the Des Moines crowd that she chose to remain neutral through most of the 2024 Republican presidential nominating process to make sure all presidential candidates felt welcome to campaign in Iowa, the host of the first-in-the-nation GOP caucuses.
“As governor, I felt like it was my responsibility to provide all of the candidates a platform to share their message and vision with Iowans and help them put their best foot forward,” she said. “But I also believe that as a mom, and as a grandma, and as an American, I could not and cannot sit on the sidelines any longer.”
Defeating Trump is the largest hurdle for DeSantis’ campaign to become the GOP nominee, but he is also facing rising competition for his position as the most viable Trump alternative. DeSantis, who ranked second place in most national and early state polls, tied with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 16% in the most recent Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll. Haley also moved ahead of him in recent New Hampshire and South Carolina polls.
Reynolds will attend a meet-and-greet with DeSantis in Davenport Tuesday and travel with him to Florida Wednesday to fundraise for his presidential campaign.
This story was published earlier by the Iowa Capital Dispatch, an affiliate of the nonprofit States Newsroom network, which includes the Florida Phoenix.
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