Sand and Lahn cite cancer rates and water pollution; Lahn focuses on farm policy
Iowa voters are choosing between Democrat Rob Sand and Republican Zach Lahn on Tuesday in a close midterm race for governor. The open seat follows Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ decision not to run again, and the outcome could end conservative dominance across state government. Both candidates have campaigned on criticisms of Iowa’s status quo, including a deepening budget deficit, a rising cost of living, dwindling health care access, high cancer rates and water pollution.
The open race comes in a midterm when Republicans face national headwinds, even though Democrats are outnumbered among party-affiliated registered voters. Many of Iowa’s prominent industry groups in agriculture and business declined to weigh in, even as they endorsed candidates in other contests. The Associated Press described the groups’ non-endorsements as a sign of the campaign’s competitiveness.
Budget, education and government
Sand often laments that the country’s political system forces people to pick sides, even though he has only run for office as a Democrat and has donated substantially to the party. He said he would likely need to work with Republican majorities in the state House and Senate, calling divided government good for solving problems. He has criticized Republicans for ignoring a worsening budget deficit that he says emerged from their tax cuts and investment in education savings accounts, which provide public money for private-school tuition.
Sand, 44, has built his candidacy around an anti-corruption agenda as state auditor and his small-town upbringing while trying to keep his distance from partisan politics. The former state prosecutor won his last election by fewer than 3,000 votes and has outperformed other Democrats in previous races, especially in rural areas. His candidacy carries his party’s hopes of restoring Democratic leadership to state government.
Sand said he would also check Republican efforts at the Statehouse to advance bills further limiting abortion or restricting how teachers discuss certain topics.
In debates, Lahn leaned on traditional party positions while contrasting himself with Sand, saying Sand would be a liberal governor who would raise taxes, increase regulations and push a political agenda in public education.
Health care, environment and agriculture
Both candidates campaigned on criticisms that included dwindling health care access, high cancer rates and water pollution. Lahn campaigned on bringing antitrust lawsuits against agricultural conglomerates, questioning the health and safety of products used by farmers, and reducing incentives for out-of-state companies to buy farmland.
Candidate backgrounds and political support
Sand has emphasized his moderate positioning. He has held annual county town halls, publicized findings from his work as a former state prosecutor and state auditor, and used social media to share what he eats around Iowa, his northeast Iowa roots and bowhunting trips.
Lahn, 40, was a newcomer to Iowa politics who was little-known when he began running for governor, and his campaign attracted buzz from grassroots activists and supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement. His general-election campaign scaled up quickly after his surprise victory in the June Republican primary.
Lahn defeated U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, who had President Donald Trump’s backing, by less than a percentage point in a five-way race, drawing support from only about a third of Republican primary voters. Lahn was still relatively unknown to even members of his own party when he won the primary, and some were hesitant to get behind him even after his victory.
Before launching his gubernatorial campaign last November, Lahn worked on launching innovative schools, including one in Wichita, Kansas, funded by Chase Koch, the son of Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch. Lahn also worked in Montana for the Koch-based conservative political organization Americans for Prosperity. In Iowa, Lahn owns an investment company and has revived the eastern Iowa farm that had been in his family for a century.
Lahn pushed back on traditional Iowa Republican positions and said he had already been successful in changing the narrative within the Republican Party.
Campaign attacks and family circumstances
Lahn criticized the millions of dollars that Sand’s wife and in-laws have contributed to his campaign, calling Sand a career politician and presenting himself as a first-time candidate. Sand was a prosecutor under a Democratic state attorney general before running for auditor in 2018. Sand highlighted Lahn’s work for Americans for Prosperity. He also criticized Lahn for only recently returning to live in Iowa, registering to vote two years ago just before the deadline to run in the election and traveling regularly out of the state.
Lahn said his frequent flights to Kansas resulted from his blended family and would not affect his ability to govern. He and his wife, Annie, both have children from previous marriages who do not live full-time in Iowa.
Statewide stakes
A Sand victory would restore Democratic leadership, while a Lahn victory would succeed Reynolds and retain Republican control of the office. Both candidates campaigned on Iowa’s budget deficit, cost of living, health care access, high cancer rates and water pollution, but their campaigns offered sharply different visions for governing.