Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn raised more money than Democratic Rob Sand during the three months between mid-July and the middle of October, according to campaign finance reports published by the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board (IECDB) this week. It’s the first time Lahn, or any candidate running for any office in Iowa this year, has outraised Sand.
Lahn raised $16,871,785 between July 15 and Oct. 14, while Sand raised $16,311,060. Lahn was able to outpace Sand thanks to $12.6 million in donations from two out-of-state PACs. Those donations make up 76 percent of the total amount Lahn raised during the most recent reporting period.
Sand still leads Lahn in fundraising overall in this year’s election, having raised a total of $54,149,727 as of Oct. 14. Lahn has raised $26,941,749 since he launched his campaign for governor at the beginning of November last year. That total amount includes $2.5 million that Lahn loaned his campaign during the Republican primary.
“I’m my own biggest donor,” Lahn said at the start of his campaign, which according to his campaign site ensured Lahn “does not answer to large corporations or special interest — only to God, his family, and the people of Iowa.”
By loaning his campaign $2.5 million, Lahn was indeed his biggest donor during the primary, in which he beat Randy Feenstra by 0.77 of a percentage point. But during the first campaign finance reporting period after the primary, the Right Direction PAC of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) became Lahn’s biggest donor. The Washington D.C.-based PAC gave Lahn $5 million over the course of five weeks during the last reporting period, which accounted for 78 percent of the money he raised between May 27 and July 14.
RGA Right Direction PAC remained Lahn’s biggest donor in the July 15 to Oct. 14 reporting period, giving his campaign $11.8 million. The PAC’s first donation came on July 17, when it gave the campaign $1 million. It gave Lahn $1 million a week for the next four weeks after that. Then on Aug. 21, RGA Right Direction PAC’s weekly donation dropped to $500,000. The next week, it made a $5 million donation. The PAC did not make another donation until Sept. 28, when it gave Lahn $500,000. It donated another $500,000 on Oct. 2, before making its final donation for the period of $300,000 on Oct. 9.
Lahn’s other out-of-state PAC donation for the period came from MAHA Action PAC, also based in Washington D.C. The PAC is associated with Robert F. Kennedy, and Lahn is a supporter of Kennedy and the MAHA movement. It gave Lahn $1 million on Sept. 16.
The Republican Party of Iowa also gave Lahn $1.72 million during the most recent reporting period. That’s a substantial increase from the first post-primary reporting period, when the Republican Party of Iowa donated $130,000 to the Lahn campaign.
The Sand campaign, in contrast, had not received any money from the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) as of the end of the most recent reporting period. Instead, the Sand campaign donated $1.2 million to the state party between July 31 and Oct. 8.
Sand did receive donations from the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) during the reporting period. The national organization, based in Washington D.C., gave the campaign $5.5 million. The DGA contributed $2.5 million on Aug. 31, then $1 million on Sept. 29, followed by another $1 million donation on Oct. 6. A week later on Oct. 13, the DGA gave the campaign $500,000, and the next day it contributed another $500,000. The DGA contributions account for 34 percent of the total amount Sand raised between July 15 and Oct. 14.
Sand also received substantial contributions from his wife Christine and her immediate family during the reporting period. Christine Sand contributed $250,000 to the campaign on Sept. 29. Her brother, Augustine Lauridsen, gave the Sand campaign $500,000 on Oct. 9, and her mother, Nancy Lauridsen, donated $500,000 on Oct. 13. Since Rob Sand launched his run for governor in May last year, Christine Sand and members of her family have donated a total of $12.75 million to the campaign.
According to the IECDB reports, Sand received more than 88,000 individual contributions during the reporting period. Lahn received around 5,000.
Sand entered the final three weeks of the campaign with $5,350,932 and no unpaid bills. Lahn had $403,181 on hand, and $275,859 in unpaid bills in addition to an outstanding $2.5 million in loans that Lahn provided to his campaign during the primary.
