DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds hosted her 6th annual Harvest Festival at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Saturday evening.

Reynolds invited former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines to be the featured speaker at her event. Gaines gained national attention when she tied at the 2022 NCAA Championships with Penn State’s Lia Thomas, a transgender woman.

“Female Republican party, really, Christian female leadership in general is lonely. You guys don’t know how lucky you are. You have Governor Reynolds, you have Attorney General Bird, you have Senator Ernst, you have incredible female sate legislators, you too, men.”

Governor Reynolds kept her remarks about her legislative accomplishments over the last calendar year, along with the special session this summer.

“We banned critical race theory, we ended gender transition surgery for minors and we got porn out of the classroom and the libraries,” said Gov. Reynolds. “And while Minnesota not only embraced but put it into law, abortion up until birth, we came together in a special session to once again protect life. And we passed it by even more votes.”

United States Senator Joni Ernst was in attendance after getting back from Israel with a delegation of lawmakers. She pointed the finger at the Biden administration for the Hamas terror attacks in Israel.

“This administration is an administration of appeasement, of authoritarian regimes,” said U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, (R) Iowa. “If you look at Russia, if you look at North Korea, you look at Iran. He just unfroze $6 billion of assets, which basically gave a credit card, let me do it now and I’ll pay them later, it was the go ahead for Hamas.”

Three of Iowa’s four Republican U.S. Representatives were in attendance. They all three spoke on the Israel Hamas war, while focusing on filling the open seat for Speaker of the U.S. House.

“Whoever that person is, I’m supporting Jim Jordan, I supported Steve Scalise earlier this week,” said Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, (R) IA-02. “We need to get somebody in that chair as fact as we can so that we can move forward.”

“And I have experienced in Washington D.C. the past couple of weeks of leadership, which many of my party are delighting over their ousting,” said Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, (R) IA-01.

“This delegation is committed to finding a leader who will lead, but more importantly, a House of Representatives where your vote, where all 218 republicans are the true leaders in that room,” said Congressman Zach Nunn (R), IA-01.