Lieutenant governor selection will be announced ‘really soon,’ Iowa Gov. Reynolds says

DES MOINES — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will name her new lieutenant governor “really soon,” she said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardoning ceremony at the governor’s mansion on Terrace Hill, Reynolds said she has finished interviewing candidates and will name a new lieutenant governor soon.

Iowa has been without a lieutenant governor since early September, when former Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg resigned to take a leadership position with the Iowa Bankers Association.

“In the next couple of weeks, probably, we’ll have a decision for you,” Reynolds said Tuesday.

Without a lieutenant governor, next in the state’s line of succession behind the governor is the Iowa Senate President: currently Sen. Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton.

Reynolds declined to say how many people she interviewed for the position, saying only that she talked to “several” people. She said she is done interviewing candidates.

Reynolds said Gregg’s resignation came at the start of a busy stretch for her. Shortly after she went on a trade trip to India, she was active campaigning for Republican candidates in the 2024 general election, she attended the national Republican Governors Association’s annual conference in Florida, and recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to accept an honor for the state’s conservative tax policies.

“It’s just been a crazy timeline, and we want to do it right,” Reynolds said. “But we’re really close (to an announcement).”

Gregg had been Reynolds’ lieutenant governor throughout her entire tenure. She selected Gregg as her second-in-command when she rose from the same position to become governor in 2017. Reynolds replaced former Gov. Terry Branstad that year when he became U.S. ambassador to China during current President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration.

In that process, a legal question was raised as to whether a lieutenant governor who was appointed but not yet elected was granted the full authority of the position and placed in the line of succession. Then-Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Democrat, delivered a formal opinion that the Iowa Constitution did not grant full authority to an appointed lieutenant governor.

After that, the Iowa Legislature proposed a constitutional amendment that said the lieutenant governor, when appointed to the position, is granted the full authority of the position, including by being placed in the line of succession. That constitutional amendment was approved by Iowa voters in the 2024 election by a wide margin, 81 percent to 19 percent.

Reynolds expands on phones in schools policy

Reynolds during a recent TV interview said she planned to propose a state law that would restrict Iowa students from having phones with them in the classroom.

Reynolds elaborated on that proposal Tuesday, saying she wants to propose something that respects the policies that some schools have already put in place. She said her proposal will “supplement and enhance” those existing policies.

“I don’t want to really step on anything that they’ve done,” Reynolds said. “So it’ll probably be more of a floor, is what we’re looking at — just to encourage people to really move in that direction.”

Proponents of such bans say they prevent students from being distracted during school instruction time and also help address concerns about students’ mental health.

Eight states had banned cellphones in classrooms as of Nov. 4, according to KFF, a nonprofit health care news and advocacy organization. The states with statewide bans on phones in the classroom are Minnesota, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana and California, according to KFF.

Another 12 states — including Iowa — have introduced legislation that would ban or restrict cellphone use in classrooms, and education departments in nine more states have recommended policies or pilot programs designed to ban or restrict cellphones in schools, according to KFF.

“We want to make sure that when they’re in the classroom, when they’re in school, that they are fully there to learn and not to be distracted,” Reynolds said. “And you know, the stories that I’ve heard from the different school districts that have implemented (similar policies) are really encouraging. Parents are very, very supportive of this.”

The 2023 session of the Iowa Legislature begins Jan. 13, and Reynolds likely will give her annual condition of the state address on Jan. 14.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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