Iowa governor candidate Zach Lahn backs term limits — except for the office he wants

Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn frequently pitches himself to Iowa voters as a political outsider who opposes establishment norms. However, his public comments about term limits reveal a notable exception.

While Lahn stated during a May Des Moines Register interview that he favors term limits “for most things,” he explicitly defended Iowa’s lack of gubernatorial term limits.

“One of the things I like about the governor not having term limits, and I am actually in favor of term limits for most things. I don’t think they solve everything,” Lahn said.

Days later on the “Barn Talk” podcast, Lahn remarked that he could serve as Iowa governor “for the next two decades.” In the same breath, Lahn contended that he does not want to be a “career politician.”

“No, I have no interest in running for anything else. If I could be the governor of Iowa for the next two decades to turn the ship around,” Lahn said in May. “And I don’t want to be a career politician, but I think that’s one of the things about Iowa that we can do, like, is have a long-term impact.”

Lahn’s term limit exception comes as he faces criticism for his loose connections to Iowa. Multiple outlets, including The Des Moines Register and The Daily Beast, reported on Lahn’s frequent private jet travel to Kansas. The Daily Beast reported that Lahn and his wife own a $2 million mansion in Wichita, Kansas. Lahn, who holds a pilot’s license and owns an airplane, told the Des Moines Register in April that his flights to Kansas allow him to visit the children he and his wife have from prior marriages.

In a statement to Heartland Signal, spokesperson Dan Capodilupo contended that Lahn’s primary residence is in Iowa.

“Zach’s primary residence is in Iowa—he does NOT live in Kansas. This lie has been debunked multiple times,” Capodilupo said via email.

Lahn also voted in Kansas elections in 2018, 2020 and 2022. He claims he moved to Iowa full-time in 2023, which narrowly secured him the two-year residency requirement to run for governor. Lahn says he lives on a homestead in Belle Plaine that has been in his family for six generations, and that he travels to Kansas to see family members.

Capodilupo did not address questions about Lahn’s inconsistent stance on term limits or why he chose to run for governor in Iowa instead of Kansas, where term limits are imposed on the governorship.

Lahn’s opponent, Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, included support for imposing term limits in Iowa in his “Accountability for All” plan.

“Rob Sand supports term limits because after a decade of one-party control, Iowa needs more public servants, not more career politicians who care more about climbing the ladder than solving Iowans’ problems,” Sand’s Deputy Campaign Manager Emma O’Brien told Heartland Signal.

Lahn’s staffer background contradicts outsider pitch

Lahn’s attempt to position himself as a political outsider also conflicts with his history in political campaigning and donor networks. Lahn spent years working as a Republican staffer. His political career includes serving as deputy campaign manager for former U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) in 2011, managing U.S. Sen. Steve Daines’ (R-MT) 2012 congressional campaign in Montana and managing former U.S. Rep. David Young’s (R-IA) 2014 campaign in Iowa.

Lahn also maintains deep ties to major political donor operations. He previously served as Montana state director for Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative advocacy group funded by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch. In 2018, Lahn co-founded a private school in Wichita, Kansas, financed by Charles Koch’s son, Chase, and Chase’s then-wife, Annie. Lahn later married Annie.

Capodilupo argued that Lahn’s previous experience does not diminish his political “outsider” status.

“Zach is an outsider because he has never run for office before, unlike Rob Sand, who has held public office for 20 years. Pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Capodilupo said. “Zach worked as the interim state director at Americans for Prosperity, post college and held positions on a few campaigns. None of this is out of the ordinary, or nearly equates to running for office.”

Sand’s campaign pushed back on that characterization, arguing Lahn’s resume tells a different story.

“Zach Lahn is a career political operative who spends more time in Kansas than Iowa and wants to bring his failed record here to continue Kim Reynolds’ harmful legacy of tanking Iowa’s economy, attacking public education and ripping away access to health care across the state,” O’Brien said.

Tossup race against Rob Sand

Lahn narrowly defeated Trump-backed U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) in March’s Republican primary by 1,652 votes. Lahn’s upset victory was fueled by a platform centered around vaccine skepticism and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. Despite having Trump’s endorsement, Feenstra struggled to garner support from far-right voters.

Lahn is set to face Sand in the November general election. The candidates are competing to replace outgoing Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who is not seeking a third term.

Sand is looking to become the first Democrat to hold the governor’s mansion in Iowa since Gov. Chet Culver (D) won his first and only term in 2006. Recent polls show Sand leading Lahn by as much as nine percentage points in the tossup race.

Sand, whose platform focuses on implementing term limits, expanding government transparency and corporate accountability, also holds a major fundraising advantage over Lahn. In July, Sand’s campaign reported more than $17.95 million in cash on hand to Lahn’s $1.04 million. Sand has received $2.5 million from the Democratic Governor’s Association and more than $4.5 million from his wife Christine and members of her family since launching his campaign in May 2025. The screenshots below show donations made to Sand’s campaign from members of the Lauridsen family, as disclosed to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

Christine Lauridsen Sand serves as the CEO of The Lauridsen Group, her family’s global holding company. Before Sand officially launched his campaign, the Lauridsen’s bolstered his campaign account with $7 million in total contributions in 2024.

Lahn loaned his campaign $2.5 million before the Republican primary. Lahn’s campaign disclosures show that his largest contributions came from the Republican Governors Association’s Right Direction PAC, which donated $5 million to Lahn’s campaign. Below are screenshots of Lahn’s disclosures made to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

Sand’s “Accountability for All” plan does not include support for campaign contribution limits. In an interview with Iowa PBS last November, Sand said he would be open to limiting campaign contributions. Iowa law currently allows individuals, PACs and state parties to make unlimited donations to all political candidates.