Rob Sand and Zach Lahn advance to Iowa governor general election

Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand (D) and Republican Zach Lahn are projected to advance to the state’s gubernatorial general election after Tuesday’s primary elections.

Decision Desk HQ projected Lahn the winner of the Republican Primary at 10:34 p.m. CST. With 95% of the votes counted, Lahn held 37.8% of the vote (80,505) over U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra’s (R-IA) 36.9% (78,747). Adam Steen finished third (31,082), while Brad Sherman (14,974) and Eddie Andrews (7,8673) came in fourth and fifth respectively.

2026 will be the first time since 2006 the incumbent Iowa governor is not running for reelection, with Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) not seeking a third term.

Lahn routinely campaigned on the fact that he is not a politician, but a businessman. According to the Kansas Reflector, Lahn served as a fundraiser and director of the Montana branch of the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity. Lahn also founded a private school named Wonder in Wichita, Kan., which opened in 2018 with financial backing from Chase Koch. Lahn also owns a home in Kansas, and he frequently flies to it in a private jet.

Even though a poll released four days before the race showed Lahn leading Feenstra, President Donald Trump gave a last-minute endorsement to the congressman last Friday. Despite Trump backing his opponent, Lahn has voiced vehement support for the president’s agenda and garnered support from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement after calling for removing COVID-19 vaccines from Iowa.

Feenstra has served in the U.S. House since 2021, representing the state’s 4th Congressional District in Congress. The 58-year-old previously spent 12 years serving as an Iowa state senator. In 2020, Feenstra defeated former U.S. Rep. Steve King (R) in the 4th district primary, who endorsed Lahn’s candidacy. Feenstra has routinely backed Trump’s agenda during the president’s second term, defending controversial tariff policies and voting for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, which made significant cuts to rural health care while implementing tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthiest Americans.

The Democratic primary

Sand, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, is looking to become the first Democrat to secure Iowa’s governorship since Chet Culver lost his 2010 reelection bid. The 43-year-old has significantly outraised all of the Republican candidates in the race, with a reported $18.3 million in cash on hand as of May 20. Sand’s wife Christine Lauridsen and her family contributed $4.5 million to his campaign in 2026 alone. Iowa does not impose limits on campaign contributions from individual donors.

Sand is looking to take advantage of a probable blue wave this November, where Democrats are favored to overperform due to Trump’s unpopularity. Cook Political Report shifted the Iowa governor race from “leans Republican” to “toss up” in April. Later that month, a poll conducted by Echelon Insights showed Sand leading Feenstra by 12 percentage points in the general election.

The Iowa Democratic Party has criticized Lahn’s connections to Kansas, labeling him a “carpetbagger” for purchasing a home in the state in 2024 and voting in three straight elections in Kansas from 2018-22.