Governor Candidate, Rob Sand
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General Election: Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Rob Sand grew up in Decorah, a small town in northeast Iowa that's home to the Vikings and, as Rob likes to say, some of the best pizza in the state. His dad's family has been in Winneshiek County since they got off the boat from Norway, and Rob grew up fishing and hunting with his dad in the area. He found his first taste of public service in high school, working to get a skatepark built in his hometown — a small, local project that planted the seed for a career built around showing up for the people around you.
Rob started his career in public service as an Assistant Iowa Attorney General, where he served as the state's chief public corruption prosecutor. He locked up scammers, taxpayer abusers, and thieves, prosecuted well over a dozen sexually violent predators, and put away some of the worst sexual offenders in the state. He led the prosecution of every criminal case tied to the Iowa Film Office tax credit scandal and took down corrupt politicians from both parties along the way. He also uncovered and prosecuted the largest lottery-rigging scheme in American history, a case he later wrote about in his true crime book, The Winning Ticket.
In 2018, Iowans elected Rob State Auditor, defeating an incumbent Republican and becoming the first Democrat to hold the office since the 1960s. He won again in 2022, the only Democrat reelected to statewide office that year. As Auditor, Rob has uncovered more waste, fraud, and abuse than any other State Auditor in Iowa history — more than $29 million in misspent money since taking office. He created PIE, the Public Innovations and Efficiencies program, which rewards Iowa cities, counties, and school districts for efficiency; it's been so effective that every county in Iowa participates, and it's been copied by other states, including by a Republican State Auditor in Mississippi.
Rob has built a reputation for working across party lines even when it costs him politically. In the Auditor's office, he's had both an Independent and a Republican in senior leadership, and he's promoted — not fired — employees who donated to his political opponents. He says it's not about right versus left for him, but right versus wrong, and he's built a coalition of Iowans from across the political spectrum who are backing his run for governor in 2026.
Fun facts: Rob wrote a true-crime book about the biggest lottery-rigging scheme in American history, a case he personally prosecuted. He and his wife Christine have two sons and a dog named Pow. When he's not working, you'll find him bowhunting, fishing, biking, or taste-auditing pizza at the nearest Casey's.
Rob Sand isn't running for governor as a career politician — he's running as Iowa's watchdog, the guy whose entire professional life has been about following the money and holding power accountable, regardless of party.
Lowering costs and protecting taxpayer dollars. As State Auditor, Rob built a record of finding waste, fraud, and abuse that no other Auditor in Iowa history has matched. As governor, he wants to restore the Auditor's ability to find misspent tax dollars after Des Moines insiders stripped those powers in response to his success.
Health care and Medicaid. Rob's office has documented a troubling amount of illegal denials of care under Iowa's privatized Medicaid system. As governor, he's pledged to reverse that privatization the same way it was imposed — by executive order — to stop Iowa families from getting hit with denied claims and higher out-of-pocket costs.
Public education. Rob wants to restore the promise on Iowa's own state quarter — "foundation in education" — starting with universal all-day pre-K, paid for by ending the flow of taxpayer dollars into private school vouchers for Iowa's wealthiest families. He's also pushing for real oversight of the hundreds of millions of dollars currently spent on the voucher program with little accountability.
Rural Iowa and state jobs. As Auditor, Rob created Statewide Work, Statewide Jobs, letting his own employees live anywhere in Iowa instead of forcing them into Des Moines, Ames, or Iowa City. As governor, he wants to extend that model to more state employees, to help revitalize small towns that have been losing jobs and young people for years.
Political reform. Rob is one of the few candidates in either party willing to say plainly that neither party solves enough problems to deserve a monopoly on Iowans' choices at the ballot box. He supports a public primary open to all voters, with the top four finishers advancing to a general election decided by approval voting — a system designed to reward candidates who are honest and civil rather than the most divisive.
Rob has also rolled out detailed proposals on cannabis legalization and taxation and on expanding health care access, with more policy plans promised throughout the campaign.
Rob Sand is the only Democrat currently holding statewide office in Iowa, and his run for governor sits at the top of the entire Black Hawk County Democratic ticket in 2026 — which makes his campaign matter well beyond his own race.
A watchdog record Black Hawk County voters already trust. Rob has been on the ballot statewide twice already, in 2018 and 2022, and Black Hawk County has been part of his winning coalition both times. His record of rooting out waste and fraud gives local Democrats an accountability-focused message that travels well in a mid-sized industrial county like Black Hawk, where residents are skeptical of both corporate special interests and government waste alike.
Turnout at the top of the ticket. With Josh Turek running a genuinely competitive statewide race for U.S. Senate and Lindsay James running to flip Iowa's open 2nd Congressional District, having a strong, well-funded gubernatorial campaign at the top of the ballot helps anchor turnout for the entire Black Hawk County Democratic slate — from the legislature down to the courthouse.
A message built for John Deere's hometown. Rob's focus on lowering costs, protecting Medicaid, and reversing the privatization that's led to denied health claims speaks directly to the kind of working families who make up much of Black Hawk County. His record of bipartisan credibility — including support from self-described "Rob-publicans" — also gives local Democrats room to make the case to independents and disaffected Republicans in a county that has elected Democrats up and down the ballot for years.
The first open governor's race in two decades. With Governor Reynolds not seeking a third term, this is the first open gubernatorial race in Iowa since 2006 — and national analysts have rated it a genuine toss-up. For Black Hawk County Democrats, that competitiveness is an opportunity: a strong local organizing push in support of Rob's campaign can help elect Democrats at every level of the ballot this November.
Rob Sand's opponent this fall is Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer from Belle Plaine who won a crowded, five-way Republican primary in June 2026 — an upset over Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra.
Experience. Rob has been elected statewide twice, serving two terms as Iowa's State Auditor and building a record as the state's chief watchdog for taxpayer dollars. Lahn has never held elected office. His background is in business — he and his wife founded Homeplace Ventures, an investment firm focused on agriculture, real estate, and technology — along with co-founding a private school in Wichita, Kansas.
Residency and roots. Lahn has run on a "sixth-generation Iowan" and "Iowa First" message, but reporting from the Des Moines Register and Iowa Capital Dispatch found he registered to vote in Iowa only in October 2024, after years living in Wichita, and has continued flying back to Kansas dozens of times during the campaign, where his wife owns a home and some of their children still live. Rob, by contrast, has lived and worked in Iowa his entire adult life, first as a prosecutor and then twice-elected as a statewide official.
Platform and priorities. Lahn has aligned himself with the Make America Healthy Again movement, focused his campaign on rural communities, opposition to abortion, and what he calls removing political "indoctrination" from classrooms, and picked Rep. Derek Wulf of Hudson — right here in Black Hawk County — as his running mate. Rob's campaign centers on lowering costs, protecting Medicaid, restoring oversight of school vouchers, and rooting out the kind of government waste he's spent two terms exposing as Auditor.
Track record on accountability. This is the sharpest contrast of the race. Rob's entire public career has been built around independent oversight — uncovering more than $29 million in misspent taxpayer money and building a program now used in every Iowa county. Lahn has no comparable record in government accountability; his campaign has instead emphasized his outsider status and self-funded candidacy.
The bottom line for Black Hawk County voters: this race pits a two-term statewide watchdog with a deep, documented record of fighting waste and corruption against a first-time candidate whose own residency and time in the state have themselves become a campaign issue.