The Iowa State Fair kicked off on Thursday. Most of the crowded field of Republican presidential candidates are appearing there with Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is hosting candidate interviews she’s dubbed “Fair-Side Chats."
In her office at the Iowa State Capitol on Wednesday, just before appearing at the opening fair parade in Des Moines, Reynolds said that when she asks Iowans what they're looking for in a candidate, it's someone strong-willed.
“They'll say, 'Hey, I'm looking for a leader that will, first of all, respect the people, this country,'" she said. "And most importantly, this is the last thing they say: 'I want somebody that can win.' So they really are kicking the tires.”
Former President Donald Trump is seen as the front-runner ahead of the Republican caucuses and has been critical of Reynolds not endorsing him. He's notably also not accepted her Fair-Side Chat invitation despite planning a Saturday fair visit. But Reynolds says picking a side now isn't fair to all candidates.
“If you pick a side, especially early on, maybe down the road, things could be different," she said. "But early on, when I'm inviting [candidates] here and asking them to go to all 99 counties, get out in the state talk to Iowans, they're not going to do that if they feel like they don't have a fair shot at it.”
While she says an eventual endorsement isn't out of the question, nor holding an event specifically with Trump, she's set on remaining neutral for now.
"I'm not going to say never, but I said, 'I need to maintain neutrality. I want all candidates to feel welcome,'" she said. "I've said, 'Give me a call. I'll be happy to do an event.' I did an event with him right off right out of the beginning."
Reynolds held an event with Trump in Davenport in March. She says she'd do the same for almost any of the GOP candidates, and has before.
“I think it was a Davenport [he had] a good turnout," Reynolds said. "I've done it with all of them. Almost every other one if they've asked, I've tried to figure out a way to do it. And I've done multiple events, too, which I'm happy to do as well.”
Trump came in second in the 2016 Iowa caucuses. Afterward, he accused winner Ted Cruz of fraud and questioned the caucuses' validity.
"We'll do it right. That's what we always do," Reynolds said when asked what she'd do should Trump question the caucuses again. "That's why we've got to secure [the first-in-the-nation caucuses] again, this time, because [RNC] has confidence in what we're doing. And this isn't a statewide function. This is a party function. It's kind of like a straw poll where people gather, they take an attendance and they vote. But what my message will be this our role, as the first-in-the-nation caucus is not to pick a winner, it is to narrow the field.”
After the Iowa caucuses, the stage becomes much bigger for candidates. Reynolds passed a lot of legislation this year during the 2023 legislative session, from education savings accounts to fund private school tuition with public dollars to banning the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary curriculum. The question remains: will those kinds of policies play to a national audience?
Reynolds seems to think so, and points to the way COVID-19 was handled in states across the country.
“The amount of damage that it did to those children, again, unconscionable," she said. "Instead of teaching reading, and math, and science and civics, we're teaching things that are ancillary to a quality education. And that is all that parents want. And so, yes, it is a winning issue, because I talk to parents every day, that come up to me and say, 'thank you.'”
