It was almost midnight when the Associated Press finally declared a winner in the Republican race for governor in Tuesday’s primary. By that time, Randy Feenstra, the presumed frontrunner in the race, had conceded to winner Zach Lahn, and the Iowa Democratic Party and Democratic Governors Association had already sent out statements, both of which began, “Zach Lahn is a career political operative and Kansas carpetbagger.”
Lahn won by 0.77 percent, or approximately 1,650 votes out of the almost 213,740 votes cast in the race, according to the totals compiled by the Associated Press, as of noon on Wednesday. Feenstra is the first, and so far only, candidate endorsed by Donald Trump to lose a Republican primary this year. As of Wednesday morning, Trump, who frequently posts on social media overnight, had not commented on Feenstra’s loss.
“Nobody thought this could be done. We were outspent, opposed by the establishment, told to wait our turn,” Lahn told supporters at a victory party in a West Des Moines hotel. “Well, tonight the people of Iowa had something to say about that — that we’re not going to wait anymore!”
Lahn received 37.96 percent of the votes cast, according to the AP. Feenstra got 37.19 percent. Among the other three candidates in the race, Adam Steen topped the group with 14.49 percent of the vote, while Brad Sherman got 6.93 and Eddie Andrews received 3.43 percent.
The AP was able to declare a winner in the Democratic primary for the open U.S. Senate in less than 45 minutes, as state Rep. Josh Turek from Council Bluffs defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville in a landslide, winning 63 percent of the vote and carrying 96 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Wahls carried Johnson, Cedar and Louisa counties.
According to the analysis of precinct-level results published by the New York Times, Turek easily won in urban, suburban and rural areas. He won 61 percent of the vote in urban areas, 63 percent in suburban areas and 67 percent in rural areas. Turek also won all the demographic groups in the Times’ analysis. He won 52 percent of younger voters, 60 percent of older voters, 61 percent of voters in both lower-income areas and higher-income areas, as well as 66 percent of voters in areas with few college graduates and 58 percent in areas with more college graduates.
“After 10 months traveling this state and hundreds of events meeting with Iowans in every corner of the state, I am proud to say we have won this primary,” Turek said, as supporters at his campaign headquarters in Des Moines cheered on Tuesday night.
Turek, who campaigned on his ability to win over voters who don’t normally vote for Democrats in general elections, addressed those voters in his victory speech.
“Whether you are a Republican, an independent or a Democrat, there is room for you here in our campaign,” he said. “Together we can win this race and together we can change this state and change this country.”
Turek will face Rep. Ashley Hinson in November’s general election. Hinson faced a primary challenge from Jim Carlin, a longshot candidate. Carlin, a former state senator from Sergeant Bluff and hardcore Trump supporter, launched his campaign last June, before Sen. Joni Ernst announced she wasn’t running for reelection. Carlin mounted a longshot challenge to Sen. Chuck Grassley in the 2022 Republican primary. Grassley ignored Carlin, and won the primary with 73 percent of the vote, carrying all 99 counties. This year, Hinson ignored Carlin, and won 74 percent of the vote and all 99 counties.
“When we launched this campaign we did it in the only way that we know how: full speed, no hesitation, no holding back,” Hinson told cheering supporters in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday night.
After thanking President Trump for his support, Hinson told her supporters that Turek doesn’t belong in Iowa.
“He ought to pack up and move to New York City with his friends Chuck Schumer and AOC,” she said, “because Turek does not share our values, he embraces their values.”
Zach Lahn will face Democrat Rob Sand in November. Sand, currently the Iowa State Auditor and the only Democrat in statewide office, has set records for fundraising since launching his campaign for governor last May. Sand was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
In a video posted on social media after Feenstra conceded around 11 p.m., Sand addressed Iowa Republicans.
“To the majority of GOP primary voters who voted for someone other than Zach Lahn, I agree with you,” he said at the beginning of the video. “His lies about his past, and the fact that he still more or less lives in Kansas, means that he’s not the best choice in this race. He claims to be an outsider, but he’s spent his own career working for politicians in dark money groups.”
Sand is referring to Lahn flying to Wichita, where he has a home, something he did on average once every six days between Oct. 1 and May, according to an analysis of the flight records of Lahn’s private plane by the Des Moines Register. Flight records for the private plane showed it spent more time in Wichita than Belle Plaine, Lahn’s current Iowa home, during that period.
Lahn told the Register he spends time in Wichita because children in his blended family live there, and if elected governor “we’d be in Iowa as much as humanly possible.”
“Most of us just live here,” Sand said with a laugh and shrug in the video, referring to Lahn’s promise to spend more time in Iowa if elected.
“He says he’s focused on kids and culture,” Sand continued. “but he’s invested in products that I wouldn’t want to talk about in front of my kids, and then he lied about at what point he got uninvested, too.”
He was referring to Lahn’s million-dollar investment in a FirmTech, a company that makes penis rings (“Put a ring on it,” the company’s site says). Lahn told the Register he was only interested in the company’s high-tech penis ring that monitors bodily functions like a Fitbit, and that he pulled out of FirmTech where it started to produce pleasure-oriented penis rings. But corporate filings published by longtime Iowa political journalist Dr. Bob Leonard contradict Lahn’s account, and show the company was selling the pleasure models throughout Lahn’s years-long time as an investor and company director.
“If he’s going to say all of those things, who knows what he’s going to say or what you can believe when it comes to this campaign for the next five months,” Sand said.
Sand finished with an appeal for Republicans to join him.
“We already have more Iowa Republican donors than the Republican nominee for governor does. Join them. You are welcome in this campaign.”
This year’s general election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 3. It will be the first time since 1968 that Iowa will have both an open Senate seat as well as open governor’s seat on the ballot.
