Not lengthy after the calendar turned to 2024, Kim Reynolds, the Republican governor of Iowa, signed into X, the platform previously often called Twitter, and posted concerning the presidential major, the place she has emerged as a key backer of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over former President Donald J. Trump.
However she was not posting from her publicly verified @KimReynoldsIA account. Ms. Reynolds as a substitute used one other one, @Kimberl26890376, the place in current months she has shared her unfiltered emotions on the state of affairs within the Republican major forward of the Iowa caucuses.
On this event, she reposted a DeSantis supporter’s meme. It included two photographs aspect by aspect — one in every of Mr. DeSantis smiling together with his spouse and youngsters; the opposite of Mr. Trump flanked by 4 girls at his ritzy New 12 months’s Eve get together. “The distinction is overwhelming…” the textual content learn.
Ms. Reynolds’s little-known Twitter account straddles a line someplace between private and non-private. It has her picture within the profile image and lists the person identify as “Kimberly Reynolds” (she normally goes by Kim). However it’s on no account linked to both her verified political account or her official governor’s one, and it doesn’t establish her because the governor of Iowa.
As of Thursday morning, @Kimberl26890376 had 259 followers, an indication of its obscurity, though the next included quite a few influential Iowa political operatives. An individual aware of the matter confirmed it was her account. After The New York Occasions revealed this text, the account was suspended.
A spokesman for Ms. Reynolds didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Ms. Reynolds has had the @Kimberl26890376 account since 2021, in keeping with X, however a majority of her 58 posts have are available current months and are nearly completely concerning the presidential major. She has used reposts to advertise Mr. DeSantis’s media appearances and amplify criticisms of Mr. Trump. In November, for instance, she shared a submit from one other DeSantis supporter who wrote, “Trump has no loyalty however calls for it from everybody else. That’s FEALTY. Which is smart as a result of these folks desire a king.”
She has additionally “preferred” a spread of pro-Desantis, anti-Trump and anti-Nikki Haley content material.
And she or he has used her obscure account to supply light critiques of Mr. DeSantis’s marketing campaign technique, at one level liking a message from one other person urging him to carry extra city halls. “The marketing campaign must get extra of those lined up, asap!” the submit stated.
Ms. Reynolds took a political danger in endorsing Mr. DeSantis when he was nicely behind Mr. Trump final yr, and she or he has aggressively campaigned to carry him within the state, together with showing in some adverts. She additionally posts concerning the major race in her principal account, together with to mock Ms. Haley, the previous governor of South Carolina, for her current comment that New Hampshire voters will “appropriate” the choice of Iowans.
“I belief Iowans to make their very own choices. No ‘corrections’ wanted!” Ms. Reynolds wrote in a submit on her principal account on Jan. 3.
In December, Ms. Reynolds used the @Kimberl26890376 account to supply encouragement to Mr. DeSantis. “Adopted by means of 100% on guarantees made!!” she wrote in a single submit. “Chief!” she wrote in one other.
