State Auditor and Democratic nominee for governor Rob Sand gives a thumbs up to the audience during his Monday, Sept. 28, Tama County town hall held at Otter Creek Lake & Park inside the nature center in rural Toledo. This was Sand’s 97th stop on his annual 100 Town Hall Tour. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

TOLEDO – Roughly five weeks out from Election Day, with polling increasingly turning in his favor, State Auditor Rob Sand, the Democratic nominee for governor, likes the view.

“Pretty good view to sing that song to, isn’t it? Look out the windows here. Hats off to Tama County. You guys have got a great facility here,” Sand, 44, said late Monday afternoon to a crowd of roughly 100 people seated inside the Tama County Nature Center for the 97th stop of his annual 100 Town Hall Tour. Above him, a bull moose mount loomed, positioned near the rafters over the fireplace. His remarks regarding the view – made while looking south out of the building’s expansive windows toward Otter Creek Lake, which was bathed in sunlight following nearly a month of rain – came moments after he led the audience, a self-identified mix of political party allegiances, in singing the first verse of “America the Beautiful.”

Sand has employed the patriotic exercise at all his town halls this summer as a manifestation of his fervent belief that Republicans, Democrats and independents can still “work together” in a state that has been under one-party rule since the 2016 election when the GOP secured a takeover of the Iowa Senate with a six-seat pickup.

The governor’s mansion has been in Republican hands even longer. In 2010, Democratic incumbent Chet Culver lost his reelection bid to former Gov. Terry Branstad. Seven years later, Branstad handed the reins to then-Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds to serve as the U.S. ambassador to China. Reynolds is not seeking reelection this November.

In the open race for governor, Sand – a native of Decorah, attorney by profession and father of two preteen boys with his wife, Christine – will face Belle Plaine-based Zach Lahn, 40, a MAHA-backed businessman, former political consultant/strategist and Iowa native who owns a roughly 155-acre sixth-generation family farm south of Highway 30 in Benton County. Lahn previously lived in Kansas, among other states. He and his wife, Annie, have seven children between them.

Sand leads the audience in singing the first verse to the patriotic hymn “America the Beautiful” near the beginning of Monday afternoon’s Tama County town hall. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

While the Lahns today call rural Iowa home, they continue to maintain a significant presence in Kansas – including a second home – as part of the balancing act inherent to blended families, Lahn told the Des Moines Register in May.

But Zach Lahn was hardly mentioned by Monday afternoon – his name never even crossing Sand’s lips. A brief address only came near the very end of the hourlong town hall.

“We’ve only touched on my opponent just a little bit,” Sand said. “You all have a choice, so let’s talk about it. The most important thing we can remember over the next five weeks about him is that he’s a human being. … There are people who love him in this world, and there are people in this world that he loves. Now, that said, we’ve got some disagreements. … You are not going to be a full-time governor as a part-time Iowan. … He has lived more outside of Iowa, over the last 20 years, than (inside Iowa). … He voted in Kansas in 2018, 2020, 2022. Registered to vote in Iowa in October of (20)24.”

Sand then brought up Lahn’s frequent flying between Iowa and Kansas, telling the room: “When he launched his campaign for governor, over that first six months, the plane that he travels around in spent 75 nights in Wichita, Kansas, to 51 in Belle Plaine, Iowa, where he says he lives. … This is real life. These are real problems that we really have to address, and I don’t think we need to do it with a part-time Iowan as the governor.”

Stumping

Roughly 100 folks turned out to hear Sand speak on Monday afternoon as part of his Tama County town hall in rural Toledo. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

At this point, five weeks out from the Tuesday, Nov. 3 general election, Sand has spent nearly 17 months officially campaigning for governor as a pragmatic Democrat with an independent streak.

His stump speech is fine-tuned these days, but never comes off stiff or overly rehearsed – despite the number of times he’s given it. For those who have developed an allergy of sorts to the Democratic brand in Iowa, especially in rural, red counties like Tama, Sand’s charm of moderating normalcy has been well-received by people from across the political spectrum, leading one of President Obama’s former speechwriters to refer to the state auditor as “a generational talent.”

But when asked about the comment in the press gaggle held ahead of the Tama County town hall, which included this newspaper and C-SPAN, Sand said he never grew up thinking he wanted to be governor, let alone president.

“I don’t think he thought that. I think he was probably interested in watching ‘Misled Youth’ again, Zero Skateboards videos, maybe getting a skate park built finally once and for all,” Sand said in response to the question of whether his 15-year-old self ever dreamed of running for higher office.

“When you were a sophomore in Decorah, you wrote an autobiography,” Sand further explained. “And what I wrote was I was gonna have a computer science degree. I actually did some work for Salamander. It was a local internet service provider in Decorah. It was one of my jobs when I was in school.”

A Rob Sand-Dave Muhlbauer campaign sign pictured this past Monday at Otter Creek Lake & Park during Sand’s town hall stop. The signs, used to guide folks to the nature center, were taken down immediately following the event. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Following his youthful days on the skateboard, Sand went on to attend Brown University and then the University of Iowa College of Law, graduating in 2010. Shortly thereafter, he joined then-Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller’s office, where he was appointed assistant attorney general. In 2018, he ran for state auditor, defeating Republican incumbent Mary Mosiman to become the first Democrat to hold the office since Lorne R. Worthington lost his 1966 reelection campaign. Four years later, Sand narrowly won reelection to become the last Democrat standing at the state level.

Sand began his Tama County town hall by discussing what has become his signature campaign issue – the wholesale inadequacy of the two-party system when it comes to government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” to quote President Abraham Lincoln.

“I think our political system is broken,” Sand said right out of the gates Monday afternoon. “And I think it’s broken largely because it’s run by two private clubs. I’m talking about the Democratic and Republican parties. There’s a lot of leadership in both of them that are much more interested in beating up on each other than they are in actually solving our problems.”

He then talked about implementing “regulations on politicians” such as term limits and expenditure limits. He’d also like to see more in-person, public events.

During the press gaggle, Sand was asked if he would continue to hold his 100 Town Hall Tour if elected governor. “Absolutely,” Sand responded. “I think we should require town halls the way I do them – open to the public (with) at least two weeks’ advance notice on date and time, and you have to take non-prescreened questions. All this is really easy to do, but it sorts the wheat from the chaff when it comes to people who are into politics versus those that are into public service.”

Tama County resident and farmer Berleen Wobeter, herself running as the Democratic nominee against Republican incumbent Dean Fisher in the race for Iowa House District 53, listens to Sand give his stump speech this past Monday afternoon inside the Tama County Nature Center in rural Toledo. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Sand said his idea for the 100 Town Hall Tour came directly from Iowa’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Chuck Grassley.

“Grassley was the one that did the 99-county tour. I remember reading when I was a kid, ‘Chuck Grassley’s coming to town. He’ll be at this place, this date, this time.’ And, I remember thinking, ‘Right, that’s how democracy should work. You show up and you talk to the people that you’re representing.’ We should do that. And if we require statewide and federal elected officials to do it, fewer of them will do things that are obviously bad and corrupt because they know they’re going to have to actually look people in the eye and explain what they did.”

Sand’s stump speech also includes deep disappointment with Iowa’s primary system – a closed system that locks independent voters out of the process.

“We should have more than just the lesser of two evils on the ballot,” he told the audience. “I’m tired of all these things. They’re all instruments used to control us rather than serve us. And the wonderful thing is that we live in Iowa. This is a state that actually has a proud tradition of being a good-government state – more than a Republican or Democrat state.”

During his town halls this summer, Sand addressed what he calls “the people’s primary” – his idea for a primary open to all candidates regardless of party affiliation. All registered voters, again regardless of party, could vote in the people’s primary.

Sand listens as a question is asked during the Q&A portion of his 97th town hall held at Otter Creek Lake & Park this past Monday, Sept. 28, in rural Toledo. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

In the general election, Sand wants to see a system called approval voting implemented – four candidates on the ballot; voters can vote for as few or as many as they like; the candidate with the most people approving them wins the race.

But in order to make such election law changes, Sand acknowledges “we got to work together to do it. … Because the truth is, there’s a lot of folks out there in both these private clubs that want us just to be mad at our neighbors … because it’s easier for them to control us.”

When asked during the press gaggle to name one accomplishment he’d most like to achieve if elected governor, Sand pointed to reforming Iowa’s two-choice political system.

“The reason that we have a crisis of so many different kinds – costs, corruption, cancer, water quality, public education – is because we have a broken two-choice political system where politicians don’t have to work for us, to get reelected. … And if we would actually put regulations on the politicians, and give ourselves more than just two options on the ballot, then the people who are in office would start getting to work solving our problems.”

So why is Sand registered as a Democrat despite his professed hatred for partisanship? When he first registered to vote more than two decades ago, Sand registered as an independent. But upon realizing he couldn’t vote in a primary without picking a party, he went with the Democrats because, by his thinking, “the Democratic Party is looking out for the little guy,” he told the town hall Monday afternoon.

Another reason was water.

“I really like having clean water. … And the Democratic Party makes me focus on clean water.”

He also cites the party’s prioritization of public lands.

“I don’t think that your ability to enjoy God’s creation should depend on whether or not you can buy a slice of it yourself,” Sand, an avid outdoorsman, explained. “And so I think it’s important people have a place to get out here and enjoy God’s creation on their own, no matter how much money they make.”

And then there’s President Bill Clinton.

“I remember (when I was in high school), Bill Clinton balancing the budget (and) using the surplus to pay down the debt. … I remember thinking, ‘Thank you. That’s a lot of money.'”

When asked during the press gaggle to comment on Iowa’s current budget deficit of over $1 billion for fiscal year 2027 and where blame should be laid, Sand pointed to those in charge.

“Obviously, we have had 10 years of one-party control in the state of Iowa. The Republicans in the legislature and the governor are the ones responsible for this, and they should be accountable for it. Now, they want to tell people, ‘Oh, don’t worry. We’ve got a surplus.’ But we’re burning that off at the rate of $1.3 billion a year because they’ve done irresponsible budgeting. They need to fix that. They have a spending problem, and they’ve done a lot to put themselves in this position.”

Q&A

Sand’s stump speech Monday afternoon ran roughly 20 minutes. He then moved on to the Q&A portion of the town hall, handing the microphone first to several registered Republicans in the audience.

His first question was a true softball.

“What’s the best pizza in Iowa?” a gentleman seated near the back asked, eliciting laughter from all points of the room.

“Mabe’s Pizza in Decorah,” Sand replied, proudly, in reference to the legendary pizzeria in his hometown founded as Mabel’s Lunchroom by the late Mabel White in 1953 near Luther College. The establishment is now located downtown.

He was also asked to comment on the Students First Act, which established Iowa’s education savings accounts (ESAs), otherwise known as private school vouchers. Sand has made it clear during the campaign he is a “public school dad.” His children will continue to attend public school if elected governor, he told the newspaper Monday.

“I think the [Students First Act] as it’s currently written is an invitation to waste, fraud and abuse,” Sand said, in part, before later explaining his belief that “the same financial rules should apply to private schools as public schools.”

In addition to oversight written into the law, Sand also thinks the wealthiest Iowans should not benefit from ESAs.

“We have a $1.4 billion budget deficit in Iowa right now. We are giving this benefit to the wealthiest people in the state of Iowa, who, good for them, have all the money and are going to send their kids to private school anyway. Good for them. But why are you giving them tax dollars to do it? That just doesn’t make sense to me.”

He also thinks school choice is a misnomer, telling the audience, “If you’re a private school that takes public money, then you have to take the public. You can’t choose which students come in the front door.”

Questions were also asked about county budgeting, private school busing, legalizing medicinal marijuana, state employment and compensation, the privatization of Medicaid – a move Sand has vowed to reverse if elected governor, and Iowa’s Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund (IWILL) established by a supermajority of voters in 2010 but yet to see a penny of funding.

One of the more poignant moments during the Q&A was an exchange between Sand and a woman named Denise Curtis, a registered Republican and Meskawki Settlement resident. Seated in the back row of the room near the kitchen, she wore a t-shirt commemorating all the women who have served on the Meskwaki Tribal Council, including the very first woman, the late Adeline (Morgan) Wanatee, whose son and grandson, Frank and Dylan Wanatee, were seated next to her in the audience.

All three later told the newspaper they were “thumbs up” on Sand for governor.

“Being that I am pro-life, what is your stance?” Denise asked after briefly praising Sand for his views on medicinal marijuna.

“Look, I’m a believer in a woman’s right to choose. I think that Roe v. Wade was a reasonable compromise, where you could have the freedom to tell people I don’t want you to make that choice, but at the end of the day, that choice was largely a choice, right?” Sand began his response, garnering a hearty round of applause from the room.

But then he pivoted, slightly.

“There are folks in the Democratic Party who claim it’s just health care. I don’t feel that way about it, either. I’ve spoken about this publicly before. You know, we’ve experienced the pain of miscarriage in our house. And we did experience a true sense of loss with that, multiple times. Sometimes I think about a third set of (feet),” Sand said before pausing as he choked up. After regaining his composure, he continued.

“I do think it’s reasonable for us to say, look, at the end of the day, this is a matter of conscience for a woman, her partner, and their doctor to figure out what they mostly, medically, oftentimes need to do in a particular situation.

“I also want to reiterate this: My opponent thinks that we should have a full-on abortion ban from conception – no exceptions for life, no exceptions for the health of the mother. I don’t think that’s right.”

Sand then said there were state legislators in Iowa “who want to come after contraception, who want to come after in vitro fertilization.”

“If they do those things, if I am governor, I will stop them,” he declared before reiterating that focusing so much energy on “social issues” has not been to Iowa’s benefit.

“To the legislature, please get back to being focused on the things that impact 100% of Iowans. We need to clean up our water quality. We need to improve our economy. We need to improve our public education system. We’ve got to get our cancer rates down. And we’ve got to get our costs and our corruption down because those are the places where we can have bipartisanship.”

Parting message

Before closing out the town hall, Sand once again dipped into his displeasure with Iowa’s two-party system.

“The truth is that the vast majority of us know that there’s no good reason that we should have to be Democrats and Republicans. But it’s just really a way to control us, not serve us. And if we’re interested in changing that, then we need to get the message out because this message resonates. It’s one of the reasons I know that we can win this race.”

Sand told the audience that more than 2,400 “grassroots Iowa Republicans” have donated to his campaign thus far, proving, by his calculation, that his message is having an impact.

“People want to trust their neighbors. They want politicians to quit dividing us.”

In just under five weeks’ time, if Rob Sand has his way, the view in Iowa might look very different. More purple? Time will tell soon enough.

Town hall attendees listen as Sand speaks this past Monday in rural Toledo. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER