DES MOINES -- The 2026 elections were top of mind during the annual Family Leadership Summit Friday as speakers and conservative lawmakers stressed the importance of electing pro-life candidates to office, alongside pushing for stricter abortion restrictions and commending President Donald Trump for his actions during the first few months of his second term.
During the summit in Des Moines, put on by the conservative evangelical organization The Family Leader, speakers urged audience members to focus on supporting staunchly pro-life candidates.
Bob Vander Plaats, president of The Family Leader, referred to next year's midterm election as a chance to "end the onslaught of abortion in this country," including in Iowa's gubernatorial race.
"2026 is going to be a vortex year for the state of Iowa. The nation's eyes are going to be upon us. I guarantee you we will have one of the hottest governor races in the country, right here," Vander Plaats said. "How many politicians that we have seen, and you guys have seen, who are so pro-life at every chicken dinner you can go to, but when it gets the chance to do something about it, all the sudden they hide behind something?"
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced in April that she will not seek re-election, which has created a domino effect among other key races in Iowa, including congressional and state elections.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary and the youngest governor in the country, closed the summit by asking Iowans to continue to protect conservative values and freedoms.
"America is the greatest country that the world has ever known, because we're the freest country that the world has ever known, but we have to do our part to protect that freedom, to preserve that freedom, and make sure that we have the ability to pass that freedom on to the next generation," she said.
Huckabee Sanders also shared that she met her husband in Des Moines while she was working on her father's presidential campaign in 2008. Her father is current U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa Republican caucuses that year with 34 percent.
"Iowa will always hold a very special place in my heart," Huckabee Sanders said. "We like to joke in our family that he didn't win the campaign, but he got a son-in-law and three grandkids out of the deal so pretty decent trade."
During her remarks, Reynolds teared up while talking about her decision not to run for office next year and reflected on her time in office, citing spending more time with her family as the reason of her choice. She was met with a standing ovation from the crowd.
"It was a really hard decision for Kevin and I to make. It's been an honor of a lifetime to serve this state as your governor, and so we didn't approach it lightly, but I'm missing my family, and they're growing up, and my parents are getting older and I want to be there for them like they've been there for me," Reynolds said. "I hope the next governor of Iowa will build on this grace-filled partnership because no matter who's holding office at the Capitol we have a duty to safeguard and steward the beautiful gift that we've been given."
Reynolds also highlighted the legislation she signed this year, including paid parental leave for state employees, increasing reimbursement rates for obstetricians, gynecologists and physicians, and repealing gender identity as a protected class from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
"Iowa has also accomplished something that no other state in the nation has even dared to attempt. We've removed gender identity from our Civil Rights Code," Reynolds said. "I know that this is a sensitive issue for many who have heard misinformation about what these changes do, and we can never, ever forget that everyone is made in the image and likeness of God."
The removal of gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Act went into effect on July 1. LGBTQ+ advocates in the state argue it will make transgender and nonbinary Iowans vulnerable to discrimination in housing, health care, credit, education and public accommodations.
Vander Plaats commended Reynols' time in office, also choking up while speaking about it. He asked the audience who they want to replace her next year.
"... my answer is simple, I want someone who understands and will continue the legacy that she has started about the anchor being on religious liberty so we can have the gospel go forth," he said.
Throughout the event, speakers celebrated the overturn of Roe v. Wade three years ago and the closure of Planned Parenthood clinics across the country and in Iowa.
In May, Planned Parenthood North Central States announced that it will close eight reproductive health clinics in the upper Midwest, including four of Iowa's six locations, citing a federal funding freeze pushed by President Donald Trump's administration and potential cuts to Medicaid funding as the reasons for closure and staff layoffs.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser reminded attendees they still have more work to do, including placing further restrictions on the abortion pill, mifepristone.
After the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade, the rate of medication abortions in the country increased, making up 63 percent of all abortions in 2023 compared to 53 percent in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit that supports abortion rights.
In 2023, 76 percent of abortions in Iowa were performed with medication, according to KFF. After a law banning abortion when cardiac activity is detected went into effect last July, abortions in the state decreased by 38 percent in the second half of the year, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
During the 2025 legislative session, Republican lawmakers introduced House Study Bill 186, which would've required health care providers in Iowa to tell patients that it may be possible to reverse the effects of a medication abortion. The bill made it out of committee but failed to make it to the House floor.
Dannenfelser also commended a provision of the "One, Big, Beautiful Bill," which Trump signed on July 4, that bans state Medicaid funding from going to health care groups "primarily engaged" in family planning services, including reproductive health care and abortions for one year.
Federal law currently prohibits federal funds from going toward abortions, except if the pregnancy that endangers the life of the pregnant person or is the result of rape or incest.
The provision was recently blocked by a federal judge July 8. Planned Parenthood Federation of America affiliates received about $148 million in HHS grants or cooperative agreements and $1.54 billion in Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's Health Insurance Program payments from 2019 to 2021, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.