Des Moines Register Deems Kim Reynolds Ad Dehumanizing, Racist, and Indefensible

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The Des Moines Register, by circulation the largest newspaper in Iowa, denounced Governor Kim Reynolds for an ad produced by her re-election campaign in an editorial published earlier this week, calling it dehumanizing, racist, and indefensible.

Reynoldss ad opens with Representative Cori Bush (D., Mo.) declaring in an interview that defunding the police has to happen. The incumbent Republican governor then pauses her television, lamenting that watching the news, you wonder: Has the rest of the country lost its mind? She goes on to decry attacks on police, paying people not to work, and open borders.

Are you glad you live in Iowa? asks Reynolds before submitting that here, we still have common sense and touting her administrations tax cuts, support for law enforcement, and commitment to keeping schools and businesses open during the coronavirus pandemic.

Thats it.

The Register opens its critique of the ad by accusing Reynolds of telling people who look different from most Iowans that, at best, they are indeed different and, even worse, inferior. To support that claim, the editorial cites the ads reference to open borders, which the editorial board deems unsurprising, given that Reynolds has allegedly repeatedly made demonizing remarks about immigrants.

To evidence that, the paper cited an instance in which a college student was murdered by an illegal immigrant and Reynolds responded by declaring that we are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community. The Register complains that Reynoldss statement implied that no longtime Iowan has ever been a predator, although it did no such thing.

Its editorial board also takes issue with Bushs inclusion although she has been one of the countrys most prominent and outspoken advocates of withholding resources from law enforcement arguing that its meant to trick Iowans into thinking Reynoldss opponent, Deidre DeJear, holds that position. And yet, Bushs name appears in the ad and the incumbent governor explicitly references the rest of the country in her critique of the congresswomans argument.

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Finally, the editorial attacks Reynolds for a lack of substance, remarking that its as though it [Reynolds] believes that insanity is the only plausible justification for supporting defunding the police. The Register makes no affirmative case for the position in its nearly 900 word editorial lambasting Reynoldss 30-second ad. A survey conducted by Pew Research last year shows that just 15 percent of Americans agree with Bush, while 47 percent support more spending on law enforcement.

Reynolds, whom the editorial charges with having adopted Donald Trumps brand of demagoguery, leads DeJear by somewhere between 8 and 17 points, according to the surveys included in FiveThirtyEights polling average of the race.

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