Rep. Ras Smith
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds confirmed in June that she plans to seek reelection in 2022, but she does not intend to use her campaign fundraiser tomorrow to formally kick off her bid for a second full term. Two Democrats have been actively campaigning for the chance to challenge Reynolds.
State Representative Ras Smith of Waterloo compares his decision to run to his grandmother’s decision to move from a Mississippi to Iowa in 1957 when she couldn’t make the rent as a sharecropper.
“As I’ve been on this campaign trail, I’ve encountered some of our party’s most influential folks who are afraid to be named publicly, who are afraid to make their voices heard, see, because they’re afraid of a vindictive Governor Reynolds, but like my grandmother, I’m not waiting,” Smith said last Saturday at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry fundraiser. “You see, like my grandmother, I’m not asking for permission because in this moment is our greatest opportunity for change.”
AUDIO of Smith’s speech, runs 5:17
Deidre DeJear, the Iowa Democratic Party’s unsuccessful nominee for secretary of state in 2018, is the other Democrat currently running for governor. She said Democrats shouldn’t loose sight of what’s possible.
“The things that we need to overcome, the challenges we see facing us, the requests that we have are not unreasonable requests. In fact, they’re not even dreams. We’re at a point where they’re basic needs,” DeJear said at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry fundraiser. “…When you’re asking for clean water, you’re not asking for too much…When you’re asking for your governor to believe in science and consider science, you’re not asking for too much.”
AUDIO of DeJear’s speech, runs 7:20
Both DeJear and Smith were active in 2020 presidential campaigns in Iowa. DeJear was the statewide chair for the Kamala Harris campaign. Smith was hired in November of 2019 as an advisor for Joe Biden’s campaign.