A presidential visit, a debate, and a formal ethics complaint all add up to another bad week for Governor Reynolds. This week highlighted the broken promises made by Reynolds, including her inability to stand up for our farmers to Republicans in Washington D.C. and blatantly lying about holding weekly press conferences.

“Week in and week out we’re seeing Governor Reynolds continue her campaign strategy of personal and negative attacks rather than actually talk about issues,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price.

“We saw that in the debate this week, and we saw it when she spoke at a rally with the President. Add another formal ethics complaint against the Governor and it’s probably a good thing we have less than a month left. It’s clear Reynolds’ is willing to anything she can to distract from her disastrous record, except of course opening her schedule to the public.”

  • Reynolds’ bad week started on Tuesday with a visit from her friend President Trump. Reynolds welcomed the President with open arms despite the ongoing trade war that continues to threaten Iowa’s largest industry. Trump enthusiastically endorsed Reynolds, then went on to spout lies about Fred Hubbell and other Democrats throughout the state.
  • While sharing the stage with Trump, Reynolds made no mention of the President’s Twitter Trade War that could cost Iowa’s farmers $2.2 billion, and has put Iowa’s ag economy in jeopardy. Reynolds has claimed multiple times that she’d stand up to Trump on trade, but Tuesday revealed yet another broken promise.
  • Earlier this week an article from Radio Iowa reported that at a recent lunch with Republicans in Linn County, the governor got an earful from Republican voters about her continued negative campaign. “When are the positive ads coming?”
  • Reynolds also faced off with Fred Hubbell in the first of three gubernatorial debates. While Hubbell focused on the issues that will actually affect Iowans daily lives, Reynolds continued her increasingly negative campaign and stuck to played out attacks.
  • At the debate, Reynolds couldn’t defend her awful privatized Medicaid program that is hurting Iowans more and more every day. She also couldn’t defend the lack of consistency in the state budget and the midyear cuts that affected education and workforce development.
  • Reynolds also blatantly lied about holding weekly press conferences – she hasn’t held one in months. She was fact checked immediately.
  • Finally, Reynolds faced more ethics questions about her illegal appointment of a district judge when a lawyer formally challenged the appointment this week. Reynolds was also called out in a column for the Des Moines Register for the illegal appointment. In the column, retired Supreme Court Justice Michael Streit said, “… the fact of the matter is the ball was dropped. When it comes to our legal system, there is no room for this sort of ambiguity.”
Now, less than a month out from the election, Governor Reynolds seems to be grasping at straws to get ahold of her floundering campaign.

###