Not long after the calendar turned to 2024, Kim Reynolds, the Republican governor of Iowa, signed into X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and posted about the presidential primary, where she has emerged as a key backer of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over former President Donald J. Trump.
But she was not posting from her publicly verified @KimReynoldsIA account. Ms. Reynolds instead used another one, @Kimberl26890376, where in recent months she has shared her unfiltered feelings on the state of affairs in the Republican primary ahead of the Iowa caucuses.
On this occasion, she reposted a DeSantis supporter’s meme. It included two photos side by side — one of Mr. DeSantis smiling with his wife and children; the other of Mr. Trump flanked by four women at his ritzy New Year’s Eve party. “The contrast is overwhelming…” the text read.
Ms. Reynolds’s little-known Twitter account straddles a line somewhere between public and private. It has her photo in the profile picture and lists the user name as “Kimberly Reynolds” (she usually goes by Kim). But it is in no way linked to either her verified political account or her official governor’s one, and it does not identify her as the governor of Iowa.
As of Thursday morning, @Kimberl26890376 had 259 followers, a sign of its obscurity, although the following included a number of influential Iowa political operatives. A person familiar with the matter confirmed it was her account. After The New York Times published this article, the account was suspended.
A spokesman for Ms. Reynolds did not respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Reynolds has had the @Kimberl26890376 account since 2021, according to X, but a majority of her 58 posts have come in recent months and are almost exclusively about the presidential primary. She has used reposts to promote Mr. DeSantis’s media appearances and amplify criticisms of Mr. Trump. In November, for example, she shared a post from another DeSantis supporter who wrote, “Trump has no loyalty but demands it from everyone else. That’s FEALTY. Which makes sense because these people want a king.”
She has also “liked” a range of pro-Desantis, anti-Trump and anti-Nikki Haley content.
And she has used her obscure account to offer gentle critiques of Mr. DeSantis’s campaign strategy, at one point liking a message from another user urging him to hold more town halls. “The campaign needs to get more of these lined up, asap!” the post said.
Ms. Reynolds took a political risk in endorsing Mr. DeSantis when he was well behind Mr. Trump last year, and she has aggressively campaigned to lift him in the state, including appearing in some ads. She also posts about the primary race in her main account, including to mock Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, for her recent remark that New Hampshire voters will “correct” the decision of Iowans.
“I trust Iowans to make their own decisions. No ‘corrections’ needed!” Ms. Reynolds wrote in a post on her main account on Jan. 3.
In December, Ms. Reynolds used the @Kimberl26890376 account to offer encouragement to Mr. DeSantis. “Followed through 100% on promises made!!” she wrote in one post. “Leader!” she wrote in another.
