Democrat Rob Sand calls for civility in contentious Iowa governor race

“I mean, I don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing, or how they think that’s effective,” Sand said. “I felt bad for all the people around us who were trying to enjoy the fair and having their experience disrupted. So that’s all I had to say about that.”

At the same time, he said his message to his own supporters was, “Don’t behave like the kids from Turning Point USA.”

On Friday, when Sand’s opponent, Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn spoke at the soapbox, he was not heckled, but some people on the edge of the crowd held up signs calling the GOP candidate a “part-time Iowan.” The signs referred to reports that he frequently flew his personal airplane between Iowa and Kansas, because some of his children are based out of Wichita, Kansas, and because he was a previous resident and registered voter in Kansas until 2024.

Lahn commented on the signs during his speech, saying it was “ironic” that what Sand “actually says is that a sixth-generation Iowan is less Iowan than an illegal immigrant.” The Republican also claimed his opponent had made the 2026 gubernatorial campaign “about personal attacks on me and my family.”

But Sand said this view of his campaign is not true. His speech at the Soapbox followed the format of many of his campaign stops, beginning by leading the group in singing “America the Beautiful,” and telling the crowd that Iowa needs an end to one-party control and regain a “balanced government.”

Sand has brought up Lahn’s residency at previous campaign events. At a June event, he referenced a Lahn campaign ad where the GOP candidate said “Iowa jobs are for Iowans.” Sand added: “And that includes governor.”

The Democratic candidate said he did not bring up Lahn during his speech at the fair because “I got plenty of stuff to talk about that doesn’t involve talking about my opponent.”

“At this point, typically when I’m bringing him up in my town halls, I tell people, ‘The most important thing that you need to remember about my opponent is he’s a human being,'” Sand said. “And he’s got people that he loves, and there are people in the world that love him too. And we can have a conversation about who’s better, and we can have sharp disagreements without getting worked up.”

In addition to criticizing Sand for making “personal attacks,” Lahn and Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann held a news conference Friday where they said Sand was falsely portraying himself as a moderate candidate. But Sand said his track record as auditor shows he is not beholden to the Democratic Party. During his speech, he referenced his decision to promote an independent and Republican to senior positions at the state auditor’s office.

“I think that when different people who think differently from each other work together, we actually get to better answers,” he said.

The Democrat regularly brings up that he would be working with a Republican-controlled state Legislature if elected, which he argues would mean measures signed into law must be a compromise between Democrats and Republicans. When asked about concerns about potential gridlock, Sand said he would “work with anyone that I disagree with joyfully” — but said he does not have control over others’ actions.

“I can’t control what other people are going to do,” Sand said. “I can only tell you that if I’m governor, I’m going to be working with everybody to do the stuff that the vast majority of people in this state want to do. The smartest thing for the Legislature to do is to do all the stuff that I just campaigned on. If I win this race, get it done, and then try to have an argument four years from now that’s focused on other stuff where maybe they think they could win. That’d be the smartest thing for them to do, and I hope they’ll do it. If they want to just fight instead, well, I’ll sign stuff that’s good, and those folks can understand that I’ll veto stuff that’s bad.”

But he emphasized there was a current need for change, and that Republicans’ trifecta of control in Iowa has resulted in proposals he said hurt the state from being signed into law. He brought up the state’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program providing public funding for private school tuition and associated costs and a law restricting the state auditor from accessing certain information and going to court for subpoena enforcement as examples of problems that happen “when too few people have too much power for too long.”

“Somebody needs to play goalkeeper up there and be the adult in the room that recognizes a bad idea — like gutting the state auditor’s office, like having no income limits on the school vouchers program that has a total lack of accountability, like defunding water quality monitoring, and on and on,” Sand said.

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