Republican Zach Lahn, Iowa’s nominee for governor, says the final stretch of his campaign against Democrat Rob Sand will center on driving Republican turnout and forcing Sand to answer for policy positions Lahn says the Democrat avoids discussing publicly.
In an interview aired Saturday on Breitbart News Saturday, Lahn told host Matthew Boyle that the November contest is about more than taxes or jobs. “This is a fight for the culture of our state and our country,” he said.
Much of the conversation focused on a recently announced $15 billion steel plant planned for southeast Iowa, which President Donald Trump has promoted. Lahn said the project would bring “2,000 new jobs” and reshape the region for decades. “This is a 40-, 50-, 60-year plant that we’re looking at that’s going to change a region of the state,” he said.
Lahn argued Iowa won the investment over competing states, including Illinois, because of its business climate. “Illinois didn’t get it. Iowa got it because we have good, stable governance. We are very business friendly,” he said, crediting a decade of Republican control of the legislature and governor’s office.
He said landing the plant also required cooperation with the Trump administration, something he suggested Democrats nationally have resisted even when it might help their own constituents. “It would have picked a state that was more friendly to the project,” he said of the alternative had Iowa not worked with Trump.
Attacks on Sand’s record
Lahn used the steel plant discussion to pivot to criticism of Sand’s tax record, saying Sand has opposed every tax cut Iowa has passed “in modern history.” He went further, describing Sand as “a radically liberal Democrat that is running as a moderate” who is “beholden to very radical people on the left.”
Ahead of a scheduled debate between the two candidates on Tuesday, Lahn said he intends to press Sand on positions he claims the Democrat no longer discusses: benefits for illegal immigrants, support for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, gun control, and partial-birth abortion. “The voters of Iowa deserve to understand where my opponent stands on the issues that he will not talk about anymore,” Lahn said.
Boyle also referenced a photo Lahn posted of Sand wearing a Biden-Harris face mask. “That’s not AI, by the way,” Lahn said.
Polling skepticism, Council Bluffs rally
Lahn dismissed current polling in the race, pointing to pollster Ann Selzer’s widely criticized 2024 Iowa survey, which he said missed the final result by roughly 16 to 17 points. He argued pollsters struggle to reach Republican voters. “You cannot get Republicans to take the polls,” he said, claiming surveys are picking up more Kamala Harris voters than Trump voters “in a state that Donald Trump won by 13 points.”
He said skewed polling can be used strategically. “They want to give more hope, and they want to depress Republicans,” Lahn said, likening the effect to political betting markets. He pointed instead to turnout at his own events: “We’re having hundreds of people show up to town halls and rallies that we’re doing across the state.”
Lahn specifically cited Vice President JD Vance’s recent appearance in Council Bluffs, the seat of Pottawattamie County, as evidence of the race’s stakes. He called Vance’s speech there “very rousing” and “energetic,” adding that “the majority of it was about my race because they understand what’s at stake here.” Lahn said he hopes Trump will also visit Iowa to help mobilize voters, calling the contest “a turnout battle for Iowa.”
Lahn noted Iowa Republicans hold a voter-registration advantage of “over 180,000” compared to Democrats statewide.
Retail politics in the final stretch
Lahn said he plans to spend the campaign’s last month doing direct voter outreach rather than relying heavily on advertising, which he said produces “a diminishing return” close to Election Day amid heavy spending on Iowa’s Senate race, the governor’s race, and three contested U.S. House races.
He pointed to his primary win, which he called “the biggest upset in the country,” built on “50, 60 town halls” that grew from eight attendees at the first event to 200–300 at later ones. “You have to get in front of the people,” he said.
Lahn also referenced the Senate race between Republican Ashley Hinson and Democrat Josh Turek, saying he received a mailer as a registered Republican describing Turek as willing to “work with Donald Trump to seal the border.” He called the mailer an example of Democrats trying to mislead Republican voters. “This is the type of lies that are being put out to try to fool Republicans into thinking that they’re one of them, and it’s happening all across the country,” he said.
While defending a decade of Republican governance in Iowa, Lahn said he is also campaigning on changes the state still needs. “We’ve had a Republican governor and legislature for 10 years, and I’m running on things we need to improve because there are things we need to improve,” he said.
Asked about national Democrats moving South Carolina ahead of Iowa in the presidential nominating calendar, Lahn said Iowans were offended, describing the national Democratic Party as “hardly recognizable” and controlled by “rich coastal elites” with disdain for the Midwest.
Lahn closed by urging Iowans to contact friends and neighbors about the stakes of the race. “We have to make sure that we are fighting to protect the culture of our state and our country,” he said.
