Republican frontrunner and former president Donald Trump was criticised by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on Sunday for not attending the state fair, an event that is customary for presidential hopefuls.
After Trump failed to show up to events like Reynolds’ “fair-side chats” and the Des Moines Register soapbox, Reynolds said on “Fox News Sunday” that voters in her state “expect him to be here, they want to interact.”
Before next year’s Iowa caucuses, Reynolds hinted that she would support a presidential contender. Although she has no current intentions to do so, her high profile among Iowa Republicans could prove useful. Unpredictability surrounds the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, and a late endorsement from Reynolds might sway voters.
In the meantime, I’m going to keep my options open and won’t completely dismiss the possibility. As I’ve stated before, I think it’s critical right now to encourage all of the candidates to come to Iowa,” Reynolds said on Sunday. She continued, “I don’t want to rule out” giving her stamp of approval.
There are presently 12 candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president, and all of the key contenders in Iowa’s caucuses accepted Reynolds’ offer to her fair-side discussions save for Trump.
Last week, the former president visited the Iowa State Fair, but he passed on the chance to meet with the public and give speeches. He continued to draw huge crowds.
Trump criticised Reynolds last month for staying out of the race and for attending events in Iowa with candidates other than his own. In a tweet, Trump credited himself for Reynolds’ victory and criticised her for not backing him. After Terry Branstad left office in 2017 to become Trump’s ambassador to China, Reynolds took over as governor of the state. The next year, she won a full term in office for the first time.
Reynolds was offended by the former president taking credit for her victory, because Republicans lost a lot of seats in Congress and state legislatures in the 2018 midterms.
Despite this being a challenging election year, “Iowans made the decision to elect me,” Reynolds added. To paraphrase, “2018 was not a good year for Republicans.”
On Sunday, Iowa’s governor declared that his party’s supporters “want the candidate that they think can win” in November.
When asked about possible late entrants into the GOP election, Reynolds replied, “I think we have a great field of candidates right now and I think we don’t need more candidates in the field, I think we probably need less.” “These candidates have put in a lot of time, we have a great field of candidates, and we probably don’t need any more.”
