Governor is an executive position. The Governor of Iowa will be 100 percent responsible for 100 percent of the decisions made in the office.
This isn’t a House seat. It isn’t a Senate seat. It is one of one. And, after the last two years, one thing is obvious — no Democrat deserves to be an executive of anything — let alone the state of Iowa.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds deserves another four-year term, and it isn’t even close.
Economically, Iowa is situated as well as any state in the nation. And every year it seems to get better.
Gov. Reynolds is leading the charge on Education Savings Accounts. She was willing to throw her endorsement behind candidates who were running against other Republicans that weren’t on board with ESAs.
She has been vocal against the obscene, sexually explicit books in school libraries. She championed protecting women’s sports.
Gov. Reynolds made it a priority to reopen Iowa schools before, perhaps, any other state in the country. And with that action came a ban on mandatory masks in schools. This past session she signed a bill into law that prohibits schools from requiring the COVID injection of students.
Speaking of COVID, that is one of the biggest areas of conservative criticism for the Governor. But based on our observations, we believe Reynolds made what she believed to be the best decisions with the information she had at the time. We believe she went too far with some of the decisions, closing churches, for instance.
But those poor decisions didn’t last long and we think — we think — she learned from those mistakes. Would a public acknowledgment of these errors help? Yes. But does the lack of one mean she doesn’t realize the brief period of time that Iowa did have lockdowns was wrong? Not necessarily.
We could be wrong, but if she had it to do all over, we don’t think Reynolds would go along with everyone else on the lockdowns.
She has her sights set on giving the Heartbeat Bill another try following the Dobbs decision. She has been a Second Amendment champion.
But more than that, she has been willing to put somewhat controversial issues such as parental rights in education and pornography in school libraries front and center.
It has been a welcome surprise from a governor who we would like to see be a little more willing to take on the LGBTQ agenda.
We would also like to see Gov. Reynolds take the lead on reforming the Governor’s Emergency Powers at some point in the next four years — the sooner the better. She has to know reforming these powers is not a condemnation of her handling of COVID, but protecting Iowans from future governors who will act like modern-day Gavin Newsoms, Gretchen Whitmers and J.B. Pritzkers.
We would also like to see her take a stand for private property rights and against the use of eminent domain for a private use. We can’t fault any affected landowner who will not vote for Reynolds due to her stance on that issue.
However, her Democrat opponent, Deidre DeJear, is out of touch with the average Iowan. When you are the only person in the chamber not standing and applauding law enforcement, that’s not a good sign.
DeJear is committed to radical, progressive ideology that has been defeated at the ballot box by Iowa voters consistently the last six years.
Libertarian Rick Stewart should receive a look from those who aren’t voting for Reynolds.
It is hard to imagine more than 30 percent of Iowans, if asked, would say they would have preferred to have a Democrat governor through COVID than Reynolds.
That isn’t to suggest Reynolds was perfect through COVID. We’ve made that clear. But she was lightyears better than her Democrat counterparts across the country.
And again, this is an executive position. Either Reynolds or DeJear will be the individual making all of the decisions for the next four years in Iowa.
There are some races in this state where conservatives will have to hold their nose and fill in the oval if they so choose.
Governor isn’t one of them.
Gov. Reynolds deserves four more years. There is no doubt about it.
***We promise you The Iowa Standard gives its endorsements a lot of thought and consideration. We will not endorse every Republican running for office. We want our endorsement to mean something. We’re not going to give it away. We believe Gov. Reynolds has earned it.***
