Molly Hunter
Reigning state party stars Gov. Kim Reynolds and Acting Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg noted the importance of the youth vote as the 2018 campaign begins to churn in a Johnson County Republican Central Committee fundraiser in Coralville on the evening of July 6.
Reynolds took over the governorship when Terry Branstad left to serve as the U.S. ambassador to China. She will serve out the remainder of his term, and in June, she announced her intention to run in the 2018 gubernatorial election with running mate Gregg.
The event was held at the Radisson from 6 to 7 p.m.; speakers included Jeff Kaufmann, the head of the Iowa Republican Party, Reynolds, and Gregg.
“Republicans know what’s up for grabs,” Kaufmann said. “Republicans know what we have to do, and we don’t want to lose the ground that we are gaining. We are in an absolutely optimal situation here.”
In his remarks, Gregg said the Republican Party is not doing enough to recruit younger voters.
“I think there’s a huge opportunity for outreach to young people by our party,” he said. “I think it’s really easy to write off young people as millennial snowflakes who are hopelessly for the Bernie Sanders crowd.”
No, he said, young adults present an opportunity for Republicans.
“There’s an opportunity to talk to them about what do conservative policies bring to the table … to have more freedom in their lives and have more opportunity in their lives,” Gregg said.
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Reynolds agreed, noting that conversations at home can lead to Republican youth.
“It starts at home, and it starts with strong families, and it starts by changing the hearts and minds of Iowa families,” she said.
Toward the end of the event, audience members could ask Reynolds questions.
President of Johnson County Republican Women, Carol Ann Christiansen, said she encountered a pair of college students over the Fourth of July who discussed whether the immigrants who colonized the United States were the nation’s first terrorists because of their treatment of Native Americans.
“How do we go about getting this kind of an atmosphere in this county, in [Iowa City] especially,” Christiansen said.
Reynolds’ response focused on facilitating open, respectful discourse.
“We’ve got to get back to a place where the discussion is healthy,” she said. “My grandpa was an FDR Democrat, and we didn’t align on a lot of stuff, but we knew how to have a constructive debate about issues at the table. It’s about respect, and it’s about treating people with respect and talking about where the differences are and looking for common ground.”
Editor’s note: An earlier headline implied the event was a fundraiser for a re-election campaign. The event was actually a fundraiser for the Johnson County Republican Central Committee.