CBS News projects Rob Sand will win the Iowa governor’s office, the first Democrat to be elected to the governor’s mansion since 2006 and defeating Zach Lahn, an outsider Republican who had defeated President Trump’s pick in the GOP primary in May.
Although Sand ran as a Democrat, on the trail, he has blasted the two-party system and is pushing for nonpartisan primaries. He emphasized bipartisanship and problem-solving on the campaign trail, which helped win over the growing population of independents in the state. Even so, Iowa has become steadily more Republican over the past decade. Going into Election Day, there was not a single Democrat in the House delegation, and Sand is the only statewide elected official in Iowa. Mr. Trump won Iowa by over 13 points in 2024.
Sand, 44, was first elected as state auditor in 2018, and he was reelected in 2022.
While Sand ran as a moderate, Lahn sought to cast him as too liberal for Iowa. But the state has been hit hard by tariffs, oil and gas prices and the Iran war. Three of the 18 U.S. service members who have died in the conflict had ties to Iowa. Sand hit the Republican establishment hard on those topics, and Lahn tried to distance himself.
Lahn, a 40-year-old farmer and a businessman, ran
Lahn, a 40-year-old farmer and a businessman, ran arguing the “entire establishment” was “set up against me.” Ahead of the primary, he was backed by the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action and MAHA Action, a group created by allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. He ultimately won by 1,700 votes.
But although Mr. Trump had endorsed Lahn’s opponent in the primary, the president and several top administration officials campaigned for him, including Vice President JD Vance and, in an unusual move for a defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.
Two-term GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds announced in April 2025 that she would not be running for reelection. It seemed likely a Republican would succeed her when Sand announced his candidacy one month later. He had been widely expected to run before that, entering the race with $8 million already raised.
Sand ran unopposed in the primary and spent the past year barnstorming the state, including making a 100-stop campaign trip. He outraised Lahn throughout the campaign, and hit Lahn for having recently voted in Kansas as recently as 2022.
