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Iowa Guv ‘Will Make No Apologies’ for Donor’s Outsize COVID Aid

Other reports showed top donors used their connections to arrange for their businesses to receive pandemic aid.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday that she “will make no apologies” after a major campaign donor’s company received six times more pandemic aid than other similar companies, the Des Moines Register reports. Reynolds said, “If you called and wanted to try to facilitate a way to get your employees tested so that you could ensure them that they were working in a safe environment—that's what companies were doing. We were doing everything that we could to facilitate that, and I will make no apologies for doing that.” Mary Ann Christensen, a member of the board of Christensen Farms, donated $25,000 to Reynolds’ campaign in late December. In January, the company received $1.86 million from the Iowa Disposal Assistance Program program, six times more than any of its competitors. According to multiple reports, other top Reynolds donors used their connections to her to secure funding from the state to their businesses.