Sparks fly in first Iowa governor’s debate: 5 takeaways

Accusations of carpetbagging, attacks over family wealth and barbs over culture war issues dominated the first televised debate between Republican Zach Lahn and Democrat Rob Sand as the two vie to replace retiring Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) next month.

Lahn and Sand participated in an hour-long debate hosted by KWQC and held at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa on Tuesday, as the two make their pitch to become the next Iowa governor.

Lahn accused Sand of being a “radical liberal” who’s lied about Lahn’s family roots while Sand suggested Lahn only offered “platitudes” showing that the GOP candidate “doesn’t have the demonstrated knowledge or experience.”

Democrats believe they have a unique opportunity in Sand to win the Iowa gubernatorial race, which hasn’t been represented by a member of their party in two decades. The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates Reynolds’s seat as “lean Democrat.”

Sand and Lahn will participate in three more debates before Election Day.

Here’s 5 takeaways from the first Iowa governor’s debate:

Lobs thrown over candidates’ family backgrounds

One running theme throughout the night was the personal attacks lobbed between the two candidates over their family backgrounds and roots.

Sand hit Lahn over his ties to Kansas and suggested he wouldn’t be able to govern Iowa full-time if elected.

“You literally voted in Kansas in 2018 and in ‘20 and in ‘22. You registered to vote in Iowa less than two years ago,” Sand said during the debate.

“This is not about why you’re in Kansas. This is about the fact that you’re not in Iowa,” he added.

Lahn told The Des Moines Register in May that he regularly flies between Iowa and Kansas because he has a blended family, with children in both states. The Kansas Reflector reported that same month that Lahn, who co-founded a private school in Wichita, had previously voted in Kansas as recently as 2022.

Lahn has defended his residency track record in Iowa, saying he’s spends most of his time in the Hawkeye State and that he wants to present in his children’s lives. He told The Des Moines Register that if he were elected governor, there would be a “different arrangement” and that “we’d be in Iowa as much as humanly possible.”

“This issue is about one thing — it’s about my children. That’s it,” Lahn shot back during the debate. “I have a blended family, and they split time. And I’m going to tell you right now: I am not going to be intimidated on this.”

Lahn, meanwhile, attacked Sand over his wife’s familial wealth. Sand is married to Christine Lauridsen Sand, the chief executive of Lauridsen Group. The Lauridsen Group includes six different companies geared toward health and nutrition.

Sand’s in-laws, Nixon and Nancy Lauridsen, have donated millions of dollars to the Iowa Democrat , while his wife and other relatives have also donated money to his gubernatorial campaign. Lahn has self-loaned himself money on the campaign trail, though substantially less.

“Rob, you’re now encountering somebody who’s not going to be intimidated by how much money your family has — it just won’t happen,” Lahn said.

Lahn also brought up the culture wars during different parts of the debate, including accusing Sand of being in favor of promoting gender ideology and transgender issues in schools.

“You just in July were sitting with somebody who’s asking you if you’d be banning books on transgenderism in elementary school classrooms, and you said ‘no,’” Lahn said. “You said you’re not going to take on the culture war bills, which just means that you would allow a book on transgenderism to be put in an elementary school.”

Sand has said he doesn’t believe transgender girls and women should be playing in women’s sports leagues but has also objected to a 2025 law passed in the state that removed gender identity from the Iowa Civil Rights Code.

“You should not be fired from your job in the state of Iowa for being different. You should not be evicted from your apartment,” Sand told attendees at a town hall last year, according to The Gazette.

Sand gives shoutout to Nebraska’s GOP governor

The Iowa Democrat gave a shoutout to Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) during the debate, lauding the GOP governor for investing heavily in the state’s public school system.

“Let me praise a Republican: The Nebraska Governor, Jim Pillen, actually put the biggest single investment in Nebraska history into Nebraska public schools. That’s part of the reason that they’re beating us now,” Sand said during the debate when discussing Iowa’s low-ranked school system.

Nebraska created the Education Future Fund in 2023 to offer additional financial resources to the state’s school systems that hadn’t been included in the funding formula for schools while easing property taxes, according to The Nebraska Examiner. The fund was created with an initial $1 billion investment, with the expectation that $250 million would be added each year.

However, the Examiner reported last year that because more funds are being taken out than being put aside, with a projection that the fund could run out of money by the 2027-2028 school year.

Lahn defends opposition to COVID-19 vaccine

Lahn stood behind his opposition of the COVID-19 vaccine during the debate, saying he talked “very specifically about the COVID vaccine and believing we need to pull the COVID vaccine off the market. I stand by it.”

The GOP businessman called Sand “COVID Karen” and said Sand was “lockstep with Anthony Fauci” over the issue, arguing the Iowa Democrat was in favor of mask mandates and locking down schools and churches.

Republicans have attacked Democrats over their past support for COVID-19 restrictions and mandates as officials took steps to curb the pandemic in 2020, arguing that those measures infringed on people’s rights and went too far.

Iowa Republicans have pointed to Sand’s previous posts supporting mask mandates and criticizing President Trump for pressuring governors reopen churche s during the pandemic.

“Setting aside the idea that the president of the United States has no authority to order governors to reopen churches, he’s tempting people,” Sand said in a video in May 2020. “He’s trying to make them feel pressure that they need to be in a building, that they need to be there. We don’t need to be in a building to worship God. We don’t need to be in a building to worship Jesus.”

Candidates find common ground on property taxes

Despite a contentious debate driven mostly by personal attacks, the two men appeared to find common ground on the issue of whether local governments should have more control over their property taxes in comparison to leaving it to the state legislature.

Both men signaled they preferred localities have more say on taxes.

“I’m a believer in local control in the vast majority of issues,” Sand said. “I think that the people who are closest to the people they are governing tend to do a better job because they know their communities, they know their strengths and weaknesses.”

“I think this is something that Rob and I actually probably agree on,” Lahn said later. “I think local control is a good thing. I’m glad to hear him say that.”