LINE IN THE SAND

Democrats Flip Deep Red State in Stunning Blow to Trump

A Democrat won the governor’s race in the state that elected Trump three times.

Iowa elected its first Democratic governor in 20 years on Tuesday night when Democrat Rob Sand beat Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn in the Hawkeye State.

The Iowa governor’s race was seen as one of Democrats’ likeliest chances of turning a governor’s mansion from red to blue thanks to Sand’s deep ties in the state and a vulnerable GOP opponent.

The 44-year-old state auditor was a rare Democrat to win Iowa statewide twice, first in 2018 and then again in 2022, even as it became increasingly red in recent years and moved to elect President Donald Trump three times, including by 13 points just two years ago.

Sand previously served as the assistant attorney general of Iowa from 2010 to 2017.

The Iowa Democrat ran an extremely focused, issue-driven campaign on the ground in Iowa where he ventured to every part of the state since announcing his bid in May 2025 and largely avoided the national dialogue about the Democratic Party.

His opponent, Lahn was a longtime GOP political operative originally from Iowa, but he repeatedly faced accusations of carpetbagging having lived for multiple years in Kansas before gearing up for his gubernatorial bid.

Lahn has repeatedly pushed back that his blended family required him to continue to return to a home in Kansas as flight tracking showed his plane repeatedly flying back and forth to the state.

The Daily Beast exclusively revealed Lahn had a Strava fitness account only showed him biking near his Kansas home last year before it was quickly deleted amid questions.

The 40-year-old Republican also voted in Kansas in 2018, 2020 and 2022, and only registered to vote in Iowa in 2024 just in time to qualify to run for governor in the state this year.

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The Swamp

Trump previously endorsed Lahn’s opponent Iowa Rep. Randy Feenstra in the Republican primary but then quickly backed the GOP nominee after his preferred Republican candidate lost.

It was one of several times where GOP primary voters bucked Trump and chose a nominee that was not who the president had backed, but both the president and Vice President JD Vance repeatedly returned to the state in an attempt to help Lahn pull out a win in the final stretch of the campaign season.

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Sarah Ewall-WicePolitical Reporter

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