By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Iowa Republicans are denouncing a New York jury’s guilty verdicts against former President Donald Trump .

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, who joined a group of Trump supporters at the trial earlier this month, said Trump “deserves better” and the verdicts are “a dark day in American history.”

Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of Marion said Trump “will fight this and we must all fight alongside him to right this wrong.” Congressman Zach Nunn, a Republican from Bondurant, said the justice system was used to target Trump and “the American people will have the final say on Election Day.”

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who endorsed Trump in early March, said in her statement that “the only verdict that matters is the one at the ballot box in November.” U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, who endorsed Trump on the same day Reynolds did, said in her statement that “Iowans are sick of the political persecution” of Trump.

The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party called the trial a “political show” and “an embarrassment for the United States of America.”

State Auditor Rob Sand, the only Democrat serving in statewide office, said as a former prosecutor, he found “juries in both liberal and conservative Iowa counties took the work seriously” and Sand said the jurors in Trump’s New York trial deserve both thanks and respect.

The Iowa Democratic Party released a statement from the national communications director of the Biden-Harris campaign.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley posted a statement on X, saying he expects the case to be overturned on appeal.

Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Davenport said the prosecution was “a blatant weaponization of the judicial system.” Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra of Hull the justice system “should not be used to target political opponents.”