Endorsements, Part Two
We talked yesterday about endorsements the 45th president, Donald Trump, was going to bestow on Iowa candidates at his rally in Des Moines this past Saturday. More on that now.
That included long-time incumbent Sen. Charles Grassley, who got the nod over state senator Jim Carlin in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate. Word leaked during the day that the endorsement was coming, and when asked, Grassley said, “If his endorsement will help me, I’ll accept it.” He struck a similar tone on the stage later. After Trump showered him with praise, Grassley told the crowd that when someone like Trump, who got 91 percent of the GOP vote in Iowa last year, offers an endorsement, you have to be smart enough to take it.
Fine enough, but not exactly a ringing reciprocal endorsement. But Grassley hasn’t won every election he’s faced since 1958 by accident. Recall that not long ago, I asked him on KXEL if Trump was still the head of the party. He replied that there was no head of the Republican Party and would not be until after the 2024 nomination contests are over.
Trump said he wanted to endorse Gov. Kim Reynolds, but she asked him to wait because “this is Chuck’s night”, according to Trump. May well be…but more likely it’s because she has not officially announced she’s running again. There’s no question she will…she’s also held fundraisers and moved certain staff from her official office to the campaign…but given the weak Democrat field, there’s no reason for her to declare and then have all her actions subjected to claims of “she’s just doing that because she’s a candidate”. Her team is obviously waiting to see what auditor Rob Sand does, and that makes good political sense.
But to the point…it’s hard to endorse someone who’s not actually running. So that’s why there was no blessing from number 45 for the governor. But wait ‘till next year.
