CLEVELAND — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad thinks the Hawkeye State will turn red in November, thanks to Donald Trump’s selection of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate.
President Obama won Iowa in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, but Branstad thinks Trump will wrestle Iowa back from Democrats’ hands.
“The fact is that a lot of us underestimated Trump,” Branstad told the Washington Examiner on the convention floor. “He won this thing. He deserves our support. We need to get behind him. I’m pretty excited about the choice of Pence for vice president. I think a conservative midwestern governor will be a help to him and I think it means we got a really good chance to win Iowa.”
Branstad’s son, Eric Branstad, formally joined Trump’s campaign as its Iowa state director on Monday. Terry Branstad, who is the longest-serving governor in American history, abstained from endorsing any Republican before the caucus but spoke out against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Asked about the rules fight between anti-Trump delegates and the pro-Trump party establishment, Branstad said he did not think it would be a “big deal.” He likened it to his experience supporting Ronald Reagan over President Gerald Ford in 1976, and noted that he worked to elect Ford that fall.
“We were very, very disappointed, but we all worked for Gerald Ford and the friends I made then are the people that helped elect me,” Branstad said. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”
