State Auditor Candidate, Taylor Wettach
Candidate Website: Taylor Wettach for State Auditor
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General Election: Tuesday, November 3, 2026
Taylor Wettach is a seventh-generation Iowan, raised in the state's public schools, churches, and small towns around Muscatine. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a law degree from New York University School of Law, and he went on to practice international trade and national security law at the major firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Wettach says he left that firm after it agreed to provide an estimated $125 million in pro bono legal work to the Trump administration, calling it an abuse of power that violated his oath to the Constitution and his Iowa values. “I quit my job rather than go along with an abuse of power,” Wettach said.
Wettach originally launched a campaign for Iowa's 1st Congressional District in July 2025. In January 2026, he switched races to run for State Auditor instead, an office he says needs an independent watchdog willing to speak truth to power. He's been endorsed by former Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart, and former Governor and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Taylor Wettach is running to keep Iowa's Auditor's office an independent watchdog for taxpayers — and to defend the powers of that office against recent Republican efforts to weaken it.
An independent watchdog. “Iowans deserve a fair, honest and independent watchdog,” Wettach has said. “Someone who speaks truth to power, follows the money and stands up for Iowa taxpayers.”
Restoring the Auditor's investigative power. In 2023, Iowa Republicans passed a party-line law restricting the Auditor's access to state records, barring the Auditor from suing agencies that withhold information, and creating a governor-influenced arbitration board to settle disputes. Wettach has made restoring the Auditor's independence and investigative authority a central part of his campaign.
Rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. Wettach says the Auditor's core job is to follow the money and expose waste, fraud, and abuse of Iowans' tax dollars, wherever it's found.
A nonpartisan office. “Accountability isn't a Democratic value or a Republican value — it's an Iowa value,” Wettach has said, framing the race as right versus wrong rather than left versus right.
Connecting oversight to everyday costs. Wettach ties fiscal oversight directly to the costs Iowans face every day — healthcare, housing, utilities, food, and childcare — arguing that a watchdog Auditor's office protects family budgets, not just government ledgers.
Showing up statewide. Wettach has committed to engage directly with taxpayers all across the state about how their money is being spent.
Taylor Wettach's race for State Auditor is an open-seat contest with unusually high stakes for Iowa Democrats: outgoing Auditor Rob Sand — the only Democrat currently holding a statewide office in Iowa — is running for Governor, and Iowa Republicans have made clear they see this as their chance to flip the state's last Democratic-held statewide office.
The Auditor's office reviews spending by county and local governments across Iowa, including Black Hawk County government, the Waterloo and Cedar Falls school districts, and cities and townships throughout the Cedar Valley — meaning the independence and investigative power Wettach is campaigning to defend has a direct bearing on oversight of local government spending here at home.
For Black Hawk County Democrats, Wettach's campaign is both a defensive and offensive priority in 2026: defending the only statewide office Democrats currently hold, while making the case that independent, nonpartisan fiscal watchdogs matter regardless of which party controls the rest of state government.
Taylor Wettach's opponent for Iowa Auditor of State is Republican Chris Cournoyer, Iowa's current Lieutenant Governor, who is running for the open Auditor seat rather than as an incumbent in that office.
Background. Wettach is an attorney who spent his career representing clients in international trade and national security law before walking away from a major law firm over a matter of principle. Cournoyer holds a computer science degree from the University of Texas, worked early in her career as a website designer, and later served as president of the Pleasant Valley Community School District school board before her election to the Iowa Senate in 2018.
Political career. Cournoyer served in the Iowa Senate from 2018 until Governor Kim Reynolds appointed her Lieutenant Governor in December 2024, chairing the Education Budget Committee and floor-managing Reynolds-aligned legislation, including a 2024 bill reorganizing state boards and commissions. Wettach has not previously held elected office.
The office itself. Cournoyer is not the sitting Auditor — she's running for the seat Rob Sand is vacating to run for Governor. Wettach has made defending that office's independence, including its investigative powers limited by 2023 Republican legislation, the center of his campaign; Cournoyer's Senate record includes support for the broader Reynolds administration agenda that included those restrictions.
What's at stake. Iowa Capital Dispatch described the 2026 Republican primary for this seat as an effort “to flip state auditor seat to GOP control” — a reflection of how central this race is to whether Iowa Democrats retain any statewide office in 2026.
The bottom line: This is a race between an attorney who left a lucrative career over a matter of principle to become an independent taxpayer watchdog, and a sitting Lieutenant Governor and longtime legislative ally of Governor Reynolds seeking to bring the state's last Democratic-held statewide office under full Republican control.