Presidential hopeful hopeless Ron DeSantis has continued to tout Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds as a possible running mate, to a few tens of not largely unenthused voters in the Hawkeye State.
“You guys think she’d be a good number two?” he asked a small crowd this week, having told reporters he was considering her at another Iowa event just weeks ago.
“You guys think she’d be a good No. 2?” Ron DeSantis asks Iowa crowd of Gov. Kim Reynolds. pic.twitter.com/TIMAzTEcI2
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) July 28, 2023
Officially, Governor Reynolds is claiming neutrality in the GOP race, but she has appeared alongside DeSantis and his wife Jill, a.k.a. Casey, multiple times, praising them to the rafters – a matter that has not been lost on frontrunner Donald Trump.
Pointing out that he “opened up the Governor position” for Reynolds in 2018 and held a number of rallies on her behalf, Trump has said she is no longer welcome at his events.
DeSantis has sought to strengthen the sense that Reynolds is in his camp by criticizing Trump’s “chirping” about her, but their alignment does not appear to be doing anything for him in Iowa, where he is trailing the former president on just 15 percent, with Tim Scott snapping at his heels.