Democrat Rob Sand broke fundraising records again, as his campaign for governor took in $9,385,646 between May 27 and July 14, according to newly published campaign finance reports from the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. Republican candidate Zach Lahn raised $6,372,831, although 78 percent of Lahn’s total amount raised this period came from one […]
Rob Sand
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‘Iowa is acting different’: Cook Political Report founder weighs Democrats’ chances of midterm success in Iowa
Political expert Charlie Cook, the founder of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said Monday he thinks Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand will win Iowa’s gubernatorial election, but the U.S. Senate race between State Rep. Josh Turek and U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson may not be as competitive as Democrats might think. Cook said Iowa is no […]
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‘Anti-establishment’ candidate Zach Lahn celebrates (familiar) Trump endorsement, pledges to continue Gov. Reynolds’ work
“I will tell you, something very special happened today to me,” Zach Lahn told the audience of Republicans gathered at the downtown Hilton in Des Moines on Friday night. “A boy who grew up north of Sioux City in a small town of less than 300 people. I was endorsed for this campaign by President […]
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Josh Turek leads Ashley Hinson in one of two new election polls; Rob Sand beats Zach Lahn in both
Two polls covering the race for governor and the race for Iowa’s open Senate seat were published last week. Rob Sand was one percentage point ahead of Zach Lahn in a New York Times/Siena poll, but in a Fox News poll published one day later, Sand leads Lahn by nine percentage points. For the Senate race, the polls disagreed on which candidate is ahead.
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U.S. Supreme Court sides with Bayer, prohibits lawsuits over company’s lack of warnings about Roundup cancer risk
Bayer, the multinational biotech conglomerate that owns Monsanto, which manufactures Roundup, scored a major victory on Thursday over people suing the company for not including a warning about cancer risks on the weedkiller’s label. In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a state court decision from Missouri, and effectively blocked thousands of other […]
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Auditor: School choice cost Iowans $258 million, is ‘paying tuition for the wealthiest families’
Nearly 79 percent of students who used Iowa’s funding program for K-12 private schools were “already projected” to attend private schools, according to a report released Wednesday by Iowa Auditor Rob Sand. The Iowa Department of Education called the report a “policy advocacy brief” that critiqued statutory provisions of the Iowa Education Savings Account (ESA) […]
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Libertarian candidates kicked off the ballot in Iowa after alleged pressure campaign involving RFK Jr.
The State Objections Panel ruled Monday that two Libertarian candidates running for governor and Congress should be taken off the 2026 Iowa general election ballot, sustaining challenges to their qualifications as candidates. A third Libertarian survived a challenge to his campaign paperwork and will remain on the November 2026 ballot. Republicans filed multiple challenges last […]
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Republican for governor Zach Lahn chooses state Rep. Derek Wulf as his running mate
Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn announced on Friday morning that he’s chosen state Rep. Derek Wulf as his running mate. Wulf is in his second term in the Iowa House representing parts of Black Hawk, Benton and Tama counties. He was chair of the House Agriculture Committee during the most recent session of the […]
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Rob Sand chooses his running mate
Less than a week after officially becoming the Democratic nominee for governor, Rob Sand announced Dave Muhlbauer, a farmer and member of the Crawford County Board of Supervisors, as his choice for lieutenant governor. “Dave has a track record of working with everyone to deliver for western Iowa and knows it’s time to rotate the […]
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Rob Sand warns Iowa is facing ‘a fiscal time bomb,’ calls for four debates with Zach Lahn
Iowa’s state budget deficits are a “fiscal time bomb,” and addressing the problem “before the bomb explodes” will be the top priority if he’s elected governor, Rob Sand told the annual conference of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) in Coralville on Thursday. ABI had scheduled a nonpartisan forum for gubernatorial candidates at […]
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Saeed’s Punk Nite puts on free theme parties with games and nostalgic playlists at Maggie’s Rumble Room
Walking through the yellow-tinted double doors of Maggie’s Rumble Room, you’re likely to see a multi-generational Des Moines clientele purchasing drinks and crowding around pool tables. At the far end of the room hangs a sheet with a shag carpet beneath. Atop the carpet sits a chair, a speaker and a microphone. Before long I […]
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Lahn beats Trump-backed Feenstra by less than 1% of the vote; Turek scores landslide victory over Wahls
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 […]
