Campaign Almanac: Swimmer Riley Gaines to speak at Gov. Kim Reynolds’ Harvest Festival

A competitive swimmer who opposes the participation of transgender women in women's sports will be Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' special guest at an annual fundraiser next month.

Reynolds’ campaign on Monday announced All-American swimmer Riley Gaines as the governor's special guest for her 6th Annual Harvest Festival on Oct. 14 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Gaines, a former member of the University of Kentucky swim team, has become an outspoken opponent of including transgender women on women's sports teams. Gaines criticized an NCAA decision that allowed Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania, to compete against Gaines in a women's championship race.

Gaines tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200 freestyle at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in March 2022. The transgender swimmer has followed NCAA and Ivy League rules since she started her transition in May 2019 with hormone replacement therapy, the Associated Press reported. Thomas’ triumphs, though, have been overshadowed by criticism that it’s not fair for a swimmer who competed in men's events a few years ago to now line up against women.

The issue has become a flashpoint for conservatives, including Iowa lawmakers. Reynolds last year signed a law that bans transgender women and girls from competing in female sports offered by Iowa schools, colleges and universities. And Reynolds this year signed into law measures prohibiting Iowa doctors from providing gender-affirming care to minors, restricting school bathroom use by biological sex, and removing any instruction about gender identity before seventh grade.

“Riley is fighting on the front lines of the most important women's issue of our time,” Reynolds said in a statement. “She is not afraid to stand up for common sense and declare that biological men do not belong in women's sports. Inspired by her fight, I am excited to welcome Riley to Iowa."

Gaines, in a statement provided by Reynolds' campaign, said the Iowa governor “has been a leading voice in pushing back against the radical Left's gender ideology.”

“Under her leadership, Iowa has defended children from irreversible gender transition surgeries, stood alongside parents, and proudly defended women's sports,” Gaines said in the statement.

Details and tickets to Reynolds’ 6th Annual Harvest Festival are available online.

Never Back Down releases ‘war zone’ border ad

The super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' presidential run launched an ad on Monday focused on border security, describing the southern U.S. border as a "war zone."

The ad from Never Back Down, which is airing in Iowa and New Hampshire this week, includes a brief shot of Des Moines and the Iowa State Capitol while a narrator says President Joe Biden's border policy "means every state is a border state."

"The only candidate fighting to secure our border now is the only candidate who served in a war zone," the narrator says, pledging DeSantis will "protect jobs, bring cartels to justice, close the border."

DeSantis served as a judge advocate officer in Iraq in 2007. Along with other major GOP presidential candidates, he has said he would use military force against Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to stem the flow of drugs like fentanyl into the U.S.