Iowa GOP will remain ‘neutral’ after Reynolds endorsement of DeSantis ruffles feathers

After Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for president during an Iowa event Monday, the state’s Republican Party reiterated its neutrality in the race.

“The Republican Party of Iowa — from our staff to our Central Committee — remain committed to our neutrality pledge in the 2024 Caucus and to maintaining our First-in-the-Nation status,” Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement. “Iowa’s elected officials are free, as they’ve always been, to chart their own course when it comes to endorsing in the Iowa Caucus.”

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Reynolds, who is well-liked throughout the Hawkeye State, is expected to put her voice and resources behind DeSantis. “She’s probably going to be out on the stump helping DeSantis,” University of Iowa political science professor Tim Hagle said.

Reynolds also accompanied DeSantis to an event in Davenport, Iowa, on Tuesday, and she will join him for a fundraising event in Florida ahead of Wednesday’s Republican National Committee debate.

DeSantis welcomed the endorsement from the Iowa governor, touting the boost she will provide him. “Obviously, when you have somebody like Gov. Reynolds, she’s committed to campaigning for us and being very active. That is going to very much help. [I]t’s [about] lining up the people that are going to commit to caucus for you. We’ve got tens of thousands already that have done that, and we’re going to work to get many more,” he told Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

A sitting Iowa governor has not endorsed in a presidential primary in decades, with the most recent being in 1996 when former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad gave former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole his support. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) also endorsed Dole’s presidential bid at the time.

“I stayed neutral, virtually throughout all the time I was governor. And that’s been kind of the tradition,” Branstad said in an interview following Reynolds’s endorsement. “We’re the first-in-the-nation caucus, and we want to be very welcoming to all the candidates.”

“I’m worried that the governor endorsing a candidate before the Iowa caucuses will cause permanent damage to the first-in-nation event,” Iowa State University Political Science Professor Steffen Schmidt said. “The rule is to allow as many candidates … to sell themselves to Iowa voters, without endorsements from the top politician in the state.”

“I know some GOP leaders in the state are not happy with the formal endorsement by the governor,” he said.

Spokespeople for Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) and Zach Nunn (R-IA) told the Washington Examiner that the lawmakers remain committed to staying neutral throughout the primary.

A spokesperson for Grassley also indicated his stance on endorsing in 2024 hadn’t changed.

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Spokespeople for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Reps. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) didn’t respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.

Ahead of Reynolds’s endorsement, former President Donald Trump, who leads the state by double digits, said it would be “the end of her political career.”