Statewide Iowa — Iowa’s current governor and South Carolina’s former governor railed at Biden Administration policies as they rallied with Iowa Republicans at a party fundraiser in West Des Moines Thursday night.Nikki Haley, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, resigned as South Carolina’s governor to serve as President Trump’s first United Nations Ambassador. Haley’s criticism of President Biden’s foreign policy and domestic agenda drew cheers and she mentioned Trump’s plan to visit the US/Mexican border next week.
On Thursday afternoon, Governor Kim Reynolds announced she was sending up to 30 state troopers to Texas and Arizona to help with border security for two weeks.
Earlier this year, Haley said she was disgusted by the January 6th attack on the US Capitol and said Trump had gone down the wrong path in questioning the outcome of the 2020 election. Thursday night, Haley made no mention of those reservations and she praised Reynolds for signing election law changes.
Later, Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann asked Haley whether the 2024 presidential nominating process should start in Iowa.
The annual spring fundraiser for the party was held as congress was in session, so the five Iowa Republicans serving in the U.S. House and Senate recorded video messages that were played for the crowd. Senator Chuck Grassley, who has not yet announced whether he’ll seek reelection in 2022, said he’s visited 77 of Iowa’s 99 counties so far this year.
His grandson Pat Grassley, the speaker of the Iowa House, spoke in person to the crowd a few minutes later.
At the end of the evening, former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad scoffed at the idea Iowans would choose someone new rather than Grassley in 2022.
About 500 people attended Thursday night’s Iowa GOP fundraiser. The Iowa Democratic Party held a virtual fundraiser earlier this month.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
