Kim Reynolds
Kimberly Kay Reynolds is an American politician serving as the 43rd and current Governor of Iowa since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, she is the first female Governor of Iowa.
Reynolds previously served as the 46th Lieutenant Governor of Iowa from 2011 to 2017. Before she was elected Lieutenant Governor, Reynolds served as Clarke County Treasurer for four terms and then served in the Iowa Senate from 2009 to 2011. Reynolds became Governor of Iowa in May 2017 when her predecessor, Terry Branstad, stepped down to become United States Ambassador to China. She won a full term as governor in the 2018 gubernatorial election.
In May 2018, Reynolds signed a bill that scaled back energy efficiency programs and a bill that the Des Moines Register referred to as "the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation".
Early life, education and family
Reynolds was born Kimberly Kay Strawn in St. Charles, Iowa.She attended high school at the Interstate 35 Community School District and graduated in 1977.
Strawn attended Northwest Missouri State University, for one semester where she took classes in business, consumer sciences and clothing sales and design. She dropped out of college after one semester. She later took classes at Southeastern Community College in the late 1980s, and then took accounting classes at Southwestern Community College between 1992 and 1995. She did not earn a degree from any of these institutions. Reynolds began partially online classes at Iowa State University in 2012, and received a Bachelor of Liberal Studies degree from there in December of 2016.
Reynolds was twice charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, first in 1999 and again in 2000. The 2000 case was originally charged as a Second Offense OWI, but eventually reduced to First Offense OWI. Reynolds was sentenced to pay a $1,500 fine and serve 12 months of informal probation. A related open container charge was dropped entirely. In 2017, Reynolds stated that she sought inpatient treatment for alcoholism following her second arrest and that she had been sober for nearly 17 years.
Reynolds married Kevin Reynolds in 1982. As of 2018, the Reynoldses have three daughters and nine grandchildren.
Iowa Senate
Reynolds served four terms as the Clarke County Treasurer before being elected on November 4, 2008 to represent the 48th district in the Iowa Senate, defeating Ruth Smith and Rodney Schmidt. In the Senate, she was a member of five committees: Economic Growth, Environment & Energy Independence, Local Government, Rebuild Iowa, Transportation, and Appropriations Subcommittee. In 2010, Reynolds endorsed a ban on same-sex marriage in Iowa.Lieutenant Governor of Iowa
On June 25, 2010, Republican gubernatorial nominee Terry Branstad publicly proposed Reynolds for Lieutenant Governor. The next day, she received the Republican nomination from the 2010 Republican State Convention. On November 2, 2010, the Branstad/Reynolds ticket won the general election. Reynolds resigned from her Senate seat on November 12, 2010 to "focus solely on assisting Gov. Branstad’s transition team."Reynolds was the Lieutenant Governor of Iowa from 2011 until 2017. Unlike Lieutenant Governors in many other states, Reynolds had specific roles, including co-chairing the Governor's Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Advisory Council, co-chairing the Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress board, co-chairing the Military Children Education Coalition and serving as Gov. Branstad's representative on the board of the Iowa State Fair.
Reynolds was elected Chair of the National Lieutenant Governors Association in July 2015.
Governor of Iowa
Tenure
On May 24, 2017, Reynolds became governor of Iowa upon the resignation of Governor Terry Branstad, who stepped down to become the new United States Ambassador to China. Reynolds is the first female governor of Iowa.Reynolds's elevation to the governorship created a vacancy in the office of the lieutenant governor, and reports indicated that her selection of a lieutenant governor could be challenged in the Iowa Supreme Court. An opinion from the Iowa attorney general indicated that "an individual promoted from lieutenant governor to governor, as was Reynolds, not have the authority to appoint a new lieutenant governor." On May 25, 2017, Reynolds announced that Iowa Public Defender Adam Gregg would serve as acting lieutenant governor; to avoid litigation, the Reynolds administration stated that Gregg " not hold the official position of lieutenant governor" and would not succeed Reynolds in the event of her inability to serve as governor.
In 2018, following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, Reynolds described same-sex marriage as a "settled" issue and said that she did not consider herself obligated to follow the Iowa Republican Party platform provision against same-sex marriage.
Reynolds acknowledged that Trump's trade and tariff policies were hurting farmers, but said she believed that farmers would benefit from them in the end.
In May 2018, Reynolds signed a bill to revamp Iowa's energy efficiency policies. Also in May 2018, Reynolds signed a fetal heartbeat bill that the Des Moines Register referred to as "the most restrictive abortion ban in the nation". In January 2019, the law was struck down by an Iowa state judge, who said it was unconstitutional.
Reynolds began her first full term on January 18, 2019.
On March 27, 2019, Reynolds signed a bill into law requiring public universities to protect the "fullest degree of intellectual freedom and free expression".
Through her judicial appointments, Reynolds shifted the Iowa Supreme Court in a conservative direction.
On March 26, 2020, Reynolds expanded upon previous COVID-19 disaster proclamations to halt non-essential surgeries and dental procedures. The following day her office asserted: " Proclamation suspends all nonessential or elective surgeries and procedures until April 16th, that includes surgical abortion procedures."
As of April 3, 2020, Reynolds refuses to implement a stay-at-home order, claiming Dr. Anthony Fauci "doesn't have all the facts".
In April 2020, Reynolds, through Ashton Kutcher's good friend Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith, teamed with TestUtah to increase the testing rate of COVID-19 cases in Iowa with Nomi Health during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. Cerro Gordo residents, in particular, have reached out to be tested but have been told to wait it out, and that there aren't enough tests available.
On June 30th, 2020, an Iowa State Patrol vehicle carrying Reynolds hit a Black Lives Matter protester who officials say intentionally stepped in front of the vehicle's path.
On July 17, 2020, Reynolds announced her intention to invalidate plans implemented by some districts to limit in-person classes to one day a week for most students, with online learning on other days, overriding local school districts and requiring students to spend at least half of their schooling in classrooms. This action prompted public school teachers from Iowa to begin sending their obituaries to Reynolds.
In July 2020, Reynolds had the lowest Covid-19 approval rating of any governor in the nation at 28%.
Electoral history
Iowa Senate history
2008 primary
2008 general election
Gubernatorial elections
2010
2014
2018
In June 2017, Reynolds stated that she would seek a full term as Governor of Iowa in the 2018 election.Reynolds' decision to have Rep. Steve King co-chair her campaign stirred controversy, as King has a history of remarks that have been described as racist. The Des Moines Register editorial board wrote, "Gov. Kim Reynolds has kept him on as her campaign co-chairman, while muttering increasingly thin-lipped denials that she agrees with his ideological extremism." Reynolds had previously praised King, saying he was "a strong defender of freedom and our conservative values". After Election Day, Reynolds criticized King and said that he needed to change his approach.
Reynolds won the Republican nomination for Governor and defeated Democrat Fred Hubbell and Libertarian Jake Porter in the general election on November 6, 2018. Reynolds made history as the first woman elected Governor of Iowa. While polls showed that she was trailing Hubbell, she defeated him, 50.3%–47.5%.