(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says she was intending to seek a third term as governor, but in the past couple of months she’s been weighing whether she could keep giving 100 percent to the job if she were elected to serve until early 2031. Reynolds spoke with a handful of reporters Saturday as a few hundred kids and grown ups roamed the grounds at the governor’s mansion for an Easter Egg hunt.

“I would be lying if I didn’t say: ‘I love serving Iowans as the governor,’ and so it’s hard to walk away from something that you love, but family comes first,” Reynolds said, “and they are everything to me.” Reynolds, who will turn 66 in early August, said she’s been happy to make her work as governor her number one priority, when her current term ends in 2027, she’s going home. “As I get older and my family is growing and my folks are aging, it’s time for me to pivot and to really put my family first and to be able to spend time with them,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds says the decisions she made during the COVID-19 pandemic are the most consequential actions she’s taken as governor, from reopening schools in the fall of 2020 to the televised news conferences she had that year. “Just really talked to Iowans every single day, being honest with them, tell them what we were facing, but ultimately to put my trust in them to do what was right and because we feed and fuel the world, we had to keep the food chain moving. We were essential,” Reynolds said. “…I just came out of (the pandemic) a different governor — appreciative, not afraid to move on stuff that I believed them, so if you see things that need changed, then you go for it…make the case, take it through the legislature…and hopefully convince them we should be going in.”

Governor Reynolds posed for photos with families who attended the annual Terrace Hill Egg Hunt on April 12, 2025. (RI photo)

The governor told reporters she’s “really proud” things like the tax cuts and state funded savings accounts for private school expenses she proposed are now law — but her decision to not to run for a third term is the right one. “I’m still emotional about it because I love it,” Reynolds said, fighting back tears. “I love what I’m doing and I love this state and I love Iowans.” Reynolds said every so often she’s struck by how surreal her rise through politics has been — from Clarke County Treasurer, to state senator, to lieutenant governor and to taking over as governor in mid-2017.

“I grew up in St. Charles. It is a small community in rural Iowa and even Kevin and I, still, when we drive up the drive we laugh sometimes because we can’t really believe that we’re serving in this capacity.” Reynolds says primaries are a healthy process for a political party and she will not endorse a G-O-P successor, but once Republican voters choose a 2026 nominee for governor, Reynolds says she’ll be all in and will campaign for that person daily. “It’s time to step back and pass that baton to the next person to step in,” Reynolds says. “…I think we’ve left the state in a good position, so I feel good about that as well.” Reynolds posed for photos with many of the families at the egg hunt.

Chad Thompson, the chief operating officer of a financial services firm, told Reynolds his family moved from Minnesota to Iowa in 2023. “She does a great job with her leadership and just leading the state in the right direction,” Thompson says, “so obviously looking forward to whoever replaces her in 2026.”

The 2026 General Election is 570 days away.