Governor Kim Reynolds.
Some of the nation’s Republican governors told New York Times reporters last week that they’re concerned about campaigning alongside President Trump next year.
Today, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds told Radio Iowa and Cedar Rapids Gazette reporters she’s not ready to talk about how Trump might assist her 2018 reelection bid.
“We’ll take a look at that moving forward,” Reynolds said, “but I wouldn’t say, ‘No.'”
Trump easily won Iowa in 2016 and he held a campaign-style rally in Cedar Rapids this past June. Reynolds said she is “grateful” for the way Trump has listened to concerns about federal biofuels rules and the breakdown of Iowa’s individual health insurance market.
“And so as long as we can continue that kind of a relationship, we’re going to keep inviting him to Iowa,” Reynolds said. “We’re going to keep talking about things we’re working on.”
Reynolds suggested the GOP’s political prospects in 2018 may hinge, instead, on the record of the Republican-led congress.
“Right now, if they can get tax reform done and if they can come back and get something done with health care, then I think it’ll be a much different environment,” Reynolds said today. “If they can’t get something done, I think the sentiment is not going to be good, so what I talk about a lot of times is, you know, what we were able to get done in Iowa and I contrast that to Washington, D.C.”
Voters in Iowa and 35 other states will cast ballots in governors races in 2018.