GOP Response to Biden Lays Out Party Agenda for Midterm Election

(Bloomberg) -- Republican leaders selected Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds to deliver their response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address to set up the GOP campaign message for the midterm elections, but the choice also reflects the party's delicate balancing act as it approaches the 2024 presidential race.

Reynolds, who is up for re-election this November and is one of the nation's more popular GOP governors, used her address to key in on the pessimistic mood of the electorate.

“We're now one year into his presidency, and instead of moving America forward it feels like President Biden and his party have sent us back in time to the late 70s and early 80s when runaway inflation was hammering families, a violent crime wave was crashing our cities and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map,” Reynolds said Tuesday, minutes after Biden spoke before a joint session of Congress.

She also called for a stronger national defense and more secure borders while also taking focusing on social issues that are revving up the Republican party's base, including taxes, education and “out of control” crime. All of those will be at the heart of GOP campaigns for the November election, when control of Congress will be decided.

Reynolds, 62, has been a supporter of former President Donald Trump and as governor staked out positions solidly aimed at the Republican base. She's taken an aggressive posture toward reopening her state's economy, opposing mask and vaccine mandates even as she's urged Iowans to get vaccinated. While other GOP governors such as Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida have made national news and become partisan lightening rods on many of those issues, Reynolds has carefully worked through the GOP-led Iowa statehouse to advance her agenda.

The choice of Reynolds to deliver the GOP response keeps the top Republican leaders in Congress, Senator Mitch McConnell and Representative Kevin McCarthy, out of the maneuvering for the 2024 presidential nomination. She has not yet been in the mix of potential contenders. But if Trump decides not to launch a bid for another term, there are multiple senators and governors angling to step in.

“For most of the other obvious top-tier Republicans, giving them that slot would look like the party putting its thumb on the scale,” David Peterson, an Iowa State University political scientist, said.

For the second year in a row, Biden's State of the Union address is also prompting responses from his own party. Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib, a progressive Democrat, is following up on Biden's speech on behalf of the Working Families Party.

Tlaib's speech is geared toward urging Biden to fulfill the promises of his economic agenda, which has been mired in the Senate by disagreements among Democrats.

“Mr. President, the work is unfinished,” Tlaib said in her prepared remarks. “But we are ready to jumpstart our efforts again. We still have time to lower costs for working families and preserve a livable planet for our grandchildren – but we have to act now.”

Representative Colin Allred of Texas is delivering a Democratic response on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Several other members of Congress also promoted their own streamed responses following the State of the Union.