NO PLACE LIKE HOME

MAGA Gov Candidate Busted Living in Luxury Out of State

The Trump-endorsed candidate in the toss-up Iowa governor’s race now faces carpetbagging accusations.

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A MAGA governor hopeful has secretly been living in a multimillion-dollar mansion hundreds of miles away from the state he wants to run, contradicting his humble farmer claims.

Zach Lahn, the Trump-endorsed candidate in the Iowa gubernatorial race, has actually been living in Kansas for years, in a $2 million mansion, not in Iowa as he claims, a Daily Beast investigation can reveal.

In 2024, Lahn and his wife Annie, the ex-daughter-in-law of billionaire donor Charles Koch, purchased their Wichita property, which he later transferred to an LLC in what appeared to be a move meant to hide his ownership—and true residency—as he planned to run for governor a few states over.

The Kansas mansion sits on a large plot of land with a private lake. The luxurious home came equipped with an indoor pool, with one real estate outlet even calling the property “a place on Earth that was closest to heaven.”

Lahn also owns property in Iowa, having bought his great-grandmother’s farm in his hometown of Belle Plaine, but there does not appear to be any indication that he treats this as a primary residence.

Records reviewed by the Daily Beast indicate that he has never claimed any property in Iowa as his primary residence. When he refinanced the Iowa property in 2021, he and Annie waived the Iowa Homestead Tax Credit, a sign that they do not consider the Iowa property to be their primary home.

Flight records also reveal that while Lahn, a licensed pilot who owns his own plane, travels to and from campaign events, he regularly flies in and out of Wichita to attend those events.

These flights include his trip from Wichita to his “hometown” in June for a campaign event. He even flew from Wichita to Des Moines to submit his paperwork for his nomination at the State Capitol.

Voting records also show that Lahn has voted in Kansas elections in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 cycles. He told The Wall Street Journal, however, that he voted in Iowa in 2024.

Lahn, a graduate of the University of Colorado, worked for years in Republican politics in Colorado and Montana in his early adult life. He also worked for the Koch-affiliated group Americans for Prosperity.

In 2017, he and his current wife, Annie, met while they were both still married to their former partners.

Before getting married, they co-founded and still sit on the board of the Wonder School, an unorthodox, for-profit K-12 school in Wichita that boasts that it “doesn’t hire teachers.” Tuition currently costs $10,000 a year, and after graduation, only about a third of students go on to attend a 4-year college.

The Lahns applied for their marriage license in Montana just 11 days after his divorce was finalized. With their combined kids from previous marriages, the couple co-parents seven children.

In addition to his luxury mansion in Kansas, Lahn sold his multimillion-dollar mansion in Whitefish, Montana in October. The house, which was valued just under $5 million dollars last year, was described online as a “ski-in, ski-out mansion” that came equipped with an outdoor spa and hot tub. He still owns a plot of land on the same road.

Lahn’s campaign has focused on what he calls an “Iowa First” agenda, as he has attacked corporate agriculture and has touted his endorsement from RFK Jr.’s “MAHA Action.”

But with his apparent strong roots in Kansas and Montana, it remains unclear why Lahn chose Iowa to launch his political career.

He has not publicly commented on carpetbagging accusations, and when reached for comment by the Daily Beast, his deputy campaign manager, Meg Deneen, again did not comment on Lahn’s out-of-state life. Deneen instead attacked his opponent, Rob Sand’s in-law’s multimillion-dollar real estate in Aspen, Colorado, and Sand’s prior work as a model.

When Sand’s campaign was reached for comment, Emma O’Brien, deputy campaign manager, accused Lahn of “lying to Iowans from day one of this campaign about where he lives, how much time he spends in Iowa, and his background.”

Lahn narrowly beat House Republican Randy Feenstra in the state’s primary election in June.

Feenstra had been endorsed by Trump in the primary, but Trump has since turned sour on him since Lahn’s upset win. Trump reportedly regretted his endorsement because Lahn was “much more Trump” than Feenstra.

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The gubernatorial race is currently viewed as one of the most competitive in the country, and a potential pick-up for Democrats as the 2026 midterm elections are expected to be a catastrophe for Republicans.

Polling shows that his opponent, Sand, the state’s Democratic auditor and the only Democrat who holds a statewide office in the Republican-leaning state, has a slight edge in the race.

As it relates to the carpetbagging accusations, a recent poll from Emerson College found that 76 percent of Iowa voters said it is important that a candidate has lived in the state for most of their adult life.

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