Candidates
Public events, campaign finance and stated positions for Iowa's two major-party candidates for governor, side by side.
Candidate activity
Where the money comes from
Itemized contributions from Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board records, January 1, 2026 through the most recent available data — the same window for both candidates, so the totals are a fair comparison. (Rob Sand has been a statewide officeholder for years; an unbounded pull would include fundraising unrelated to this race.) Cash-on-hand and debt figures come from each committee's own periodic disclosure report and reflect a different, more recent snapshot — see the note on each card. Donor street addresses are intentionally excluded — city/state only. Browse every individual donation →
Zach Lahn (R)
| Date | Name | City, state | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 10, 2026 | #8681 RGA Right Direction PAC | Washington, DC | $1,000,000 |
| June 26, 2026 | #8681 RGA Right Direction PAC | Washington, DC | $1,000,000 |
| June 12, 2026 | #8681 RGA Right Direction PAC | Washington, DC | $1,000,000 |
| June 5, 2026 | #8681 RGA Right Direction PAC | Washington, DC | $1,000,000 |
| July 2, 2026 | #8681 RGA Right Direction PAC | Washington, DC | $500,000 |
| PAC / committee | Total YTD | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| #8681 RGA Right Direction PAC | $5,000,000 | 6 |
| #9161 Republican Party of Iowa | $130,000 | 1 |
Rob Sand (D)
| Date | Name | City, state | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 13, 2026 | #8583 Democratic Governors Association | Washington, DC | $2,500,000 |
| April 20, 2026 | Nixon Lauridsen | Ankeny, IA | $1,419,000 |
| March 24, 2026 | Christine L. Sand | Des Moines, IA | $1,000,000 |
| April 10, 2026 | Nicholas C. Rowley | Decorah, IA | $830,000 |
| April 17, 2026 | Nixon Lauridsen | Ankeny, IA | $600,000 |
| PAC / committee | Total YTD | Contributions |
|---|---|---|
| #8583 Democratic Governors Association | $2,500,000 | 1 |
| #6086 Iowa State Education Assn. PAC or ISEA PAC | $400,000 | 1 |
| #8019 AFSCME PEOPLE | $300,000 | 1 |
| #8026 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC IBEW | $200,000 | 1 |
| #8058 NEA Fund for Children and Public Education Non-Federal Itemi | $200,000 | 1 |
| #8038 United Food & Commercial Workers Active Ballot Club | $100,000 | 1 |
| #6089 Operating Engineers Local 234 Political Fund | $75,000 | 2 |
| #OSF50348 Way Back PAC | $25,000 | 1 |
| #8182 Omaha & Southwest Iowa Building & Construction Trades Counc | $10,000 | 1 |
| #8795 MID-AMERICA CARPENTERS REGIONAL COUNCIL PAC | $10,000 | 1 |
| #6017 Central Iowa Building and Construction Trades CouncilPAC | $10,000 | 1 |
| #6148 Iron Workers Local 67 PAC | $8,000 | 3 |
| #6432 Plumbers & Pipefitters Local Union #25 PAC | $5,000 | 1 |
| #8137 Iron Workers Local Union 21- Legislative Fund | $3,500 | 2 |
| #8096 Plumbers Local Union No.16 Cope Fund | $2,500 | 1 |
| #8339 Steamfitters & Plumbers L.U. 464 COPE Fund | $2,500 | 1 |
| #8262 Bridge Structural & Ornamental Ironworkers Local 111 PAC | $800 | 1 |
| #9159 Poweshiek County Democratic Central Committee | $500 | 1 |
| #9018 Buchanan County Democratic Central Committee | $500 | 1 |
| #9139 Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee | $500 | 1 |
| #9092 Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee | $500 | 1 |
Stated positions, six issues
Drawn from each campaign's own published materials and public statements. We do not assign truth ratings here — read the sources and judge for yourself.
Zach Lahn
End state tax credits and development incentives for out-of-state and foreign corporations. Prioritize Iowa-owned companies for economic-development support and state contracts. Offer tax rebates or down-payment assistance to young Iowans who stay in or return to Iowa.
Rob Sand
Let eligible state employees live and work anywhere in Iowa instead of concentrating jobs in major cities. Expand the "Statewide Work, Statewide Jobs" model already used in the State Auditor's Office. Remove unnecessary four-year-degree requirements from state jobs.
Zach Lahn
Continue education savings accounts as a form of parental choice. Create "innovation zones" giving school administrators and teachers more flexibility. Reduce standardized testing and revoke teaching licenses when teachers are found to be pushing a political agenda.
Rob Sand
Create universal all-day pre-K. Require annual audits and stronger public oversight of the private-school voucher program. Add income limits, restrict voucher-driven tuition increases and prioritize investment in public schools.
Zach Lahn
Focus on reliable Medicaid care delivery and prompt payment for health care providers. Lahn has said concerns he previously raised about Medicaid expansion have largely been addressed by subsequent federal changes.
Rob Sand
Begin reversing Iowa's privatized Medicaid system on the first day of the administration. Crack down on pharmacy benefit managers. Expand insurance coverage for telehealth, including audio-only care.
Zach Lahn
Require independent state safety testing of products used in Iowa. Prevent chemical companies from receiving immunity from liability. Offer farmers incentives to reduce agricultural runoff. Direct Iowa universities to focus more research on the state's cancer and water problems.
Rob Sand
Increase funding for water-quality monitoring. Make manure-management plans publicly accessible. Offer conservation tax credits to farmers. Create dirty-water alerts, expand radon testing and establish a Cabinet-level cancer task force.
Zach Lahn
No comparable public statements collected yet for this topic.
Rob Sand
No comparable public statements collected yet for this topic.
Zach Lahn
Further limit the governor's emergency powers. Transfer more authority from state government to counties and municipalities. Use legal action against the federal government to challenge regulations and return authority to the states.
Rob Sand
Create a single public primary open to all voters, advancing up to four candidates to the general election under approval voting. Require statewide elected officials to hold 20 publicly announced town halls each year, including unscripted questions.
Did they take questions?
Event format and media access, tracked the same way as everything else here: sourced, not editorialized. We do not infer access where the record doesn't say.
Took press questions: No · Took audience questions: No
The Gazette, Jul 4, 2026
The Gazette, Jul 4, 2026
Aircraft, residency and citation record
Secondary material specific to Lahn's public record. Rob Sand has no comparable record in these categories as of this writing.
Aircraft record
Public ADS-B records show activity for tail number N512MM, registered to Buckeye Creek Ventures LLC of Belle Plaine, IA. These records show the aircraft moved — they do not establish who was aboard or the purpose of a flight.
Residency record
Voter registration, flight data and campaign statements do not, by themselves, settle legal residency. Courts and election officials make that determination — this section gathers the dates and records in one place.
Iowa's constitution requires 2 years of state residency immediately before the ELECTION (not before candidacy announcement). Next general election: November 3, 2026. Source: Iowa Constitution, Art. IV; Ballotpedia summary
| State | Registered | Elections | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| KS | by at least 2018 – 2024 | 3 election(s) on record | Kansas Reflector, May 29, 2026, citing Kansas voter registration records |
| IA | 2024-10-17 – present | 0 election(s) on record | Kansas Reflector, May 29, 2026, citing Iowa voter registration records |
Public-record timeline
City/state and license-state only, pulled from public traffic citations and one Kansas district court filing. Full street addresses, DL numbers, DOB, and family-court details (parties, custody, support) are intentionally excluded -- those aren't relevant to the residency question and the divorce case involves a private individual. A citation address is where someone was stopped/listed at that moment, not a formal domicile determination -- treat this as evidence to weigh, not proof.
Public-record citations
A traffic citation or the address on it is evidence to consider, not automatic proof of legal domicile.
Reported events by county
See the interactive map on the homepage; the same data in table form:
County table (same data as the map on the homepage)
| County | Lahn events | Sand events |
|---|---|---|
| Adams | 0 | 1 |
| Appanoose | 0 | 1 |
| Benton | 3 | 0 |
| Black Hawk | 2 | 0 |
| Boone | 0 | 1 |
| Buena Vista | 0 | 1 |
| Calhoun | 0 | 1 |
| Carroll | 2 | 0 |
| Cerro Gordo | 3 | 0 |
| Cherokee | 1 | 1 |
| Clarke | 0 | 1 |
| Clay | 0 | 1 |
| Clayton | 1 | 1 |
| Crawford | 1 | 1 |
| Dallas | 1 | 0 |
| Decatur | 0 | 1 |
| Delaware | 0 | 1 |
| Dickinson | 1 | 1 |
| Dubuque | 1 | 0 |
| Emmet | 0 | 1 |
| Fremont | 0 | 1 |
| Greene | 0 | 1 |
| Hamilton | 1 | 1 |
| Hancock | 0 | 1 |
| Harrison | 1 | 1 |
| Humboldt | 0 | 1 |
| Ida | 1 | 1 |
| Jasper | 2 | 1 |
| Johnson | 2 | 0 |
| Jones | 0 | 1 |
| Kossuth | 0 | 1 |
| Lee | 1 | 0 |
| Linn | 2 | 0 |
| Lucas | 0 | 1 |
| Lyon | 1 | 1 |
| Mahaska | 2 | 0 |
| Marshall | 1 | 1 |
| Mills | 1 | 1 |
| Monona | 0 | 1 |
| O'Brien | 0 | 1 |
| Osceola | 0 | 1 |
| Page | 0 | 1 |
| Palo Alto | 0 | 1 |
| Plymouth | 1 | 1 |
| Pocahontas | 0 | 1 |
| Polk | 8 | 1 |
| Pottawattamie | 2 | 1 |
| Poweshiek | 1 | 0 |
| Ringgold | 0 | 1 |
| Sac | 0 | 1 |
| Scott | 4 | 0 |
| Shelby | 0 | 1 |
| Sioux | 1 | 1 |
| Tama | 1 | 0 |
| Taylor | 0 | 1 |
| Union | 0 | 1 |
| Wapello | 1 | 0 |
| Warren | 1 | 1 |
| Washington | 1 | 0 |
| Wayne | 0 | 1 |
| Webster | 1 | 1 |
| Winnebago | 0 | 1 |
| Winneshiek | 0 | 1 |
| Woodbury | 3 | 1 |
| Wright | 0 | 1 |