In the eyes of supporters, Gov. Kim Reynolds, who will deliver a GOP rebuttal on Tuesday, is one of the few conservatives able to link former President Donald J. Trump’s populism to the party’s more deliberate efforts to retake Congress.
To her critics, Ms. Reynolds epitomizes the contradictions and hypocrisy of the Republican establishment trying to project a moderate image, subservient to the whims of a former president who cares little about the party’s past and its future without him.
Fans and detractors alike agree: Reynolds, 62, has been one of her party’s most effective ambassadors since taking office in Iowa in 2017, a seasoned politician with a knack for bringing uncompromising Republican abortion to a folksy, soulful style. gun policy and coronavirus.
“She’s kind of like a normal woman,” said David Kochel, a Republican political consultant who worked with Ms. Reynolds on the speech to be delivered from Des Moines. “She’s a product of small town Iowa and the working class, a very different profile than Joe Biden.”
Those qualities were taken into account by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to choose her as a counterweight to Mr. Biden—a performance space that was as slippery a sidewalk as it was a springboard for Republican up-and-comers like the withered Marco. Rubio, who was killed in 2013 by an overly tempting water bottle.
According to people close to him, it was Ms. Reynolds’ support for full-time public education and the passage of legislation to ban mandatory masks in local schools in 2021, which is currently before the courts, that sealed the deal for Mr. McConnell; Republicans believe that the backlash against the tough restrictions associated with the pandemic will increase the turnout of Republicans in the midterm elections.
She is expected to expand on this theme in her speech, presenting herself as a parental rights activist fighting Democrats and their allies in the teachers’ unions.
Democrats, by contrast, are hoping to portray the governor as a staunch Trump supporter trying to hide her far-right reputation.
Ahead of her speech, they singled out her attempt to demand partial credit for $210 million in funding for rural broadband projects in Iowa, despite her opposition to Mr. Biden’s America’s bailout plan, which sent hundreds of millions of dollars. dollars to fund government assistance during the pandemic.
“Instead of playing politics by taking credit for President Biden’s plan to save America, which she opposed, she should work with Democrats to support Iowa families,” said Zach Walls, Democrat and State Senate Minority Leader.