\Governor Kim Reynolds has made her first public statement about former President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about abortion policy.
During an interview a few days ago with NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump said the six week abortion ban his rival Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed in April was a “terrible mistake.” Trump commented on his Truth Social platform yesterday afternoon, saying the three U.S. Supreme Court Justices he appointed did something nobody thought was possible by ending Roe v Wade and sending the abortion issue back to the states. Trump said Republicans need to learn how to talk about abortion or risk losing elections in 2024.
Governor Reynolds posted a comment on social media a little over an hour later. “It’s never a ‘terrible thing’ to protect innocent life,” Reynolds said on the X platform, ,adding that she’s proud of the fetal heartbeat bill she signed into law in 2018 and, again, this summer.
On Monday, DeSantis told Radio Iowa Trump’s remarks don’t reflect the values of Iowans. Last night, DeSantis praised Reynolds on social media for “promoting a culture of life.”
Trump is scheduled to campaign in eastern Iowa today. He’ll hold an event in Maquoketa, then appear at a late afternoon rally in Dubuque. It’s the same Davenport venue where Trump held a rally eight years ago and the first one Sam Clovis attended.
“There’s something about the way that he connects with the crowd that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Clovis said yesterday.
Clovis had joined the Trump campaign team the morning of that 2015 rally in Dubuque and introduced Trump to the crowd. Clovis later went on to become the national co-chair of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Clovis said it’s important for Trump’s current campaign to hold rallies in each of Iowa’s four congressional districts.
“Those rallies are affirmation and validation for Trump supporters,” Clovis said. “Ninety percent of winning the Caucuses is showing up and that to me is important that he make appearances out here in the state and I’m convinced he will.”
Clovis, who does not have a role in Trump’s 2024 campaign, said while current polling shows Trump holding a commanding lead — the Caucuses are four months away, “so you need to start paying attention once you get into October, certainly into November the polls will probably be a lot more meaningful.”.
Clovis rates Trump’s 2024 competitors as “a better slate of candidates than there were in the 2016 cycle.”
In the 2016 General Election, Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to win Dubuque County in half a century. In the 2016 Iowa Caucuses, though, Trump narrowly won Dubuque County with about 27% of the vote, roughly half a point ahead of Marco Rubio got in Dubuque that night. In Jackson County, Trump finished about 4.4% ahead of Ted Cruz. Maquoketa, where Trump is to speak early this afternoon, is the county seat of Jackson County.