DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — In a surprise announcement Friday, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will not seek a third term in office in 2026.
Reynolds, a Republican, has held the position since 2017, when former Gov. Terry Branstad was appointed U.S. ambassador to China. She was elected to full terms in 2018 and again in 2022.
“This wasn’t an easy decision, because I love this state and I love serving you,” Reynolds said in a video posted on social media. “But, when my term ends, I will have had the privilege of serving as your governor for almost 10 years.”
Her decision sets up the first election for governor in Iowa without an incumbent in two decades.
Reynolds said she is leaving office after years of her family supporting her, saying now “it’s time for me to be there for them.” Her husband, Kevin Reynolds, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2023. In her condition of the state in January, she said his cancer remained in remission.
Reynolds, who got her start in politics as treasurer in largely rural Clarke County in southern Iowa, population less than 10,000, was the state’s first female governor. She was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2008 before serving as Branstad’s running mate in the 2010 election. She served as lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2017.
Iowa’s politics have shifted drastically since Reynolds first got to the state capitol in Des Moines. The state launched former President Barack Obama’s presidential bid and supported him in both the 2008 and 2012 general elections then clearly backed President Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
Republicans have been in the majority in both the Iowa House and Senate since 2017 and have been steadily increasing those majorities under Reynolds’ leadership, giving her ample opportunity to advance her priorities.
She’s also not shied away from the national attention. Reynolds delivered the GOP response to President Joe Biden’s 2022 address to Congress and she chaired the Republican Governors Association in 2023.
And she’s enjoyed the spotlight that comes with hosting the presidential caucuses, making a splash in 2023 by breaking a longstanding tradition of Iowa governors staying neutral in the race — and breaking with Trump — by endorsing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
And as Trump has moved on his second-term agenda at the federal level, Reynolds has regularly highlighted the conservative policies Iowa has already adopted.
Reynolds has celebrated her work to get school choice in Iowa across the finish line, signing into law in 2023 the creation of publicly funded educational savings accounts for students’ private school tuition or other approved expenses.
More than 27,000 students used the program in the 2024-2025 school year, which becomes available to any student in the coming year. Reynolds’ proposed budget line for the accounts next year reached $314 million.
She backed policies to restrict transgender students’ use of bathrooms and locker rooms, and their participation on sports teams, in an effort to protect people assigned female at birth. This year, to affirm those, she signed into law a bill to remove gender identity protections from the state civil rights code.
Since her last reelection, Reynolds also called a rare special legislative session in the summer of 2023 to give Republican lawmakers an opportunity to pass a ban on most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. That law is now in effect.
Praise for the governor poured in from Iowa’s Republican leaders after her announcement, many highlighting her achievements on growing Iowa’s workforce and lowering taxes.
“Taxes are low, cash reserves are full, our freedoms defended, and Iowa’s future has never been brighter,” Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement.
A campaign committee for Reynolds took in $1.8 million in 2024 and had about $3 million cash on hand, according to campaign finance filings.
One Republican — a pastor and former state representative, Brad Sherman — had already said he would run for governor before Reynolds’ announcement Friday.
Reynolds said she has “no doubt that Iowa and our Republican Party will remain in great hands,” noting the “foundation of strong conservative leadership that will continue to serve this state well.”
