Gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand said he would support increasing pediatric cancer research funding, raising taxes on tobacco and nicotine products and ensuring access to cancer-preventing vaccines — but warned advocates Tuesday these actions will require GOP support.
Sand, a Democrat who currently serves as Iowa state auditor, met with organizers and volunteers with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network at The Empire in Des Moines Tuesday for a “coffee cancer chat.” It was part of a nonpartisan series of events the group is holding with candidates on the ballot in 2026 to ask them about their plans to address high and rising cancer rates in Iowa.
Businessman Zach Lahn, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, is also set to speak with ACS CAN advocates as part of the series in August.
Sand told advocates at the event he believed there were important “distinctions” between him and Lahn when it came to the issue of cancer. The Democratic said his opponent was someone “who wants to ban all future mRNA vaccines,” and who was part of “the campaign on behalf of a dark money group in Montana to try to prevent Medicaid expansion there.”
“I think that Iowans are ready for balance,” Sand told reporters after the event. “… I go back to some of the positions of my opponent. He would ban some of the most promising cancer treatments that are out there today. That is the wrong direction. He cheered on some of the cuts at the federal level to cancer research. That is the wrong direction. Balance and common sense that you get from forcing both parties to work together is a path towards actually addressing real issues with real solutions.”
Dan Capodilupo, director of communications for Lahn’s campaign, said, “Zach has been loud and clear from day one of this campaign that Iowa is facing a cancer crisis. He has been the most vocal candidate in the entire state about solving this crisis and has spoken at length on numerous occasions about his specific plans.”
Sand also criticized Lahn’s running mate, state Rep. Derek Wulf, as “someone who voted to defund water quality monitoring in the state of Iowa” — a major concern as many Iowans and researchers say there may be links between high nitrate levels and the state’s cancer rates. But Capodilupo said the Democratic candidate’s running mate, Dave Muhlbauer, is also a subject of scrutiny on the issue of water quality.
“The Sand Campaign has no room to talk about water quality,” Capodilupo said in a statement. “Rob’s own running mate was fined by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The Muhlbauer family’s cattle feedlot was investigated and fined $7,000 for allowing manure-contaminated runoff to pollute local streams. Rob is projecting onto our campaign and ignoring the elephant in the room, when it comes to his running mate.”
Several cancer patients and survivors, as well as caregivers and medical professionals who treat people with cancer, told Sand about their personal experiences battling cancer and asked the Democrat about policy and funding commitments related to cancer research, prevention and healthcare if he were to become governor.
Bogdan Buzdugan, a pediatric cancer researcher at the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the funding for his research and for other forms of pediatric cancer often comes from patients and “parents continue to fund our research though their child has passed away.”
More support has come from the state in 2026, when the Iowa Legislature approved up to $3 million in pediatric cancer research funding by implementing a 5-cent tax on vapes and alternative nicotine products. But Buzdugan said, “especially if you talk to any senior researcher, especially in the cancer department at University of Iowa, $3 million is almost nothing.”
Sand said if elected governor, he would support expanding funding for pediatric cancer research. He gave “credit where credit is due” to Republicans who advocated for increasing pediatric cancer research funding this year, highlighting support from Rep. Jason Gearhart, R-Strawberry Point, but said the state should be providing significantly more in research funding.
“Nebraska has done over $20 million,” Sand said. “And I’m a very proud Iowan. I think that we all should want to beat Nebraska in cancer research. So that should be table stakes to us, as we look at what Nebraska did for their kids. And for kids in general — of course, since cancer research doesn’t follow state boundaries, but we should say, ‘Oh, you put in that much, we can beat that.'”
Though the GOP-led Legislature did approve a 5-cent vape and nicotine product tax, other legislation raising taxes on these products by a more significant margin — as well as a proposal to increase the tax on tobacco products — did not reach Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk in 2026.
Advocates at the event asked if Sand would support a $1.50 per pack tax increase on cigarettes as well as a 50% tax on tobacco and nicotine products by wholesale price — taxes the organization has argued would serve as a deterrent to tobacco and nicotine use, and reduce lung cancer rates. Sand did not commit to these numbers, but said he supported finding a compromise with GOP state lawmakers on raising these taxes.
“I know that there is support, in both chambers and in both parties, to make sure that our tobacco tax in Iowa and for nicotine products is at a more competitive level, right?” Sand said. “And when we do that, we can also make sure that we are discouraging people from using those products, which again is helping them stay healthier as well as helping everyone else keep healthcare costs low. Now I say to everybody, everywhere I go, you’re never going to get 100% of what you want. … But I am here to tell you that I want to learn more about that and try to find it a level that we can put it at that is going to help improve healthcare outcomes for Iowans, and and put us in a place where we also aren’t just sending everyone somewhere else to go get it instead.”
Sand said he believed it was important to be realistic about what he could deliver. While he said he supported easy access to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which has been linked with significantly lowering instances of cervical cancer especially when a person is vaccinated before age 17, he said it was unlikely the Legislature would want to change a law signed this year restricting minors from receiving the HPV and hepatitis B vaccines without parental consent.
“I’m going to be working with the same Legislature that just voted to pass that, I can’t imagine them putting a bill on my desk that would reverse it,” he said.”
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