She managed to clear the Republican field in the 2018 primary, but barely won election to a full term that year, carrying just 50.3 percent of the vote. Reynolds wasn’t nearly as well known around the state. He’d already served four terms as governor, but won his comeback bid after being out of office for a dozen years.īranstad was famous for visiting every county in Iowa each year he was in office. Just two years later, Branstad picked her as his running mate. After serving as a county treasurer, she was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2008. Her climb turned out to be relatively quick. “I remember people at the time thought she’d have a political future, but no one realized how high her ascent would be.” “She was vivacious, smart, a quick study and a hard worker,” he recalls. Oman, who once served as Branstad’s chief of staff, recalls meeting Reynolds back in the mid-1990s. “At this point, nothing suggests to me that she’s going to slow down,” says Christopher Larimer, a political scientist at the University of Northern Iowa. In fact, Reynolds is pursuing a more conservative and aggressive agenda than Branstad ever did. She’s now clearly emerged from his shadow. history - after he was appointed ambassador to China. She succeeded Terry Branstad in 2017 - the longest-serving governor in U.S. Reynolds, by contrast, has only gained power the longer she’s been in office. Many governors convert campaign promises into new laws soon after taking office, with a good number running out of steam or even struggling through their second terms. What makes her success unusual is its slow build. Reynolds has had GOP majorities to work with during most of her time in office. Now, Democrats are only competitive in a handful of urban centers and college towns, while Republicans occupy state House districts in all 99 counties. As recently as 2016, Democrats still held a slim majority in the Iowa Senate. Iowa was a purple state not too long ago, with Barack Obama carrying it in both 20. Reynolds has certainly benefited from her state’s rightward tilt. “You need to have a bold, unified agenda, and that’s where Gov. “There’s no doubt that she is stronger today than she has every been,” says Jack Whitver, the Iowa Senate majority leader. Reynolds now is getting just about everything she asks for, including major tax cuts and a complete reorganization of the state government itself. “You have to respect the political leadership she provided to get that done,” says David Oman, a former co-chair of the Iowa GOP. The 2022 elections not only gave Reynolds a bigger majority to work with, but left legislators that much more wary about crossing her. Reynolds, a 63-year-old Republican, supported four candidates who unseated legislators who’d opposed her on school choice in last year’s GOP primaries, including the chair of the House education committee. This year, a new school choice bill with a price tag seven times as large passed almost as soon as the Legislature started its session. Kim Reynolds failed to persuade the Iowa Legislature to pass a relatively modest private school choice bill last year, despite leaders keeping open the session for several extra weeks.
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