Iowa’s race for governor has entered its final stretch ahead of Tuesday’s election, with Republican Zach Lahn and Democrat Rob Sand making their closing appeals to voters to succeed Gov. Kim Reynolds, who chose not to seek reelection.
Zach Lahn Rallies Supporters at the Horizon Events Center
The closing days of the campaign have brought starkly different strategies into focus. Zach Lahn leaned heavily into the Make America Healthy Again movement at a Wednesday rally at the Horizon Events Center in Clive, where supporters waited in long lines for burgers and fries from Steak ‘n’ Shake, a chain that has replaced seed oils with American beef tallow.
“I am here for a very simple reason: I am not for sale,” Lahn told the crowd of more than a thousand attendees who gathered alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Opening speakers framed the race as a battle for public health against corporate influence. Kennedy, appearing in his personal capacity, described clean water as a public resource that polluters are taking from Iowans. Lahn pledged to prioritize cleaning up nitrate-polluted waterways, reducing high cancer rates, banning vaccine mandates, and expanding Iowa-grown school meals.
Meanwhile, Democrat Rob Sand brought a bipartisan pitch to a dimly lit brewery near the University of Iowa campus on Oct. 28, 2026, speaking to a crowd of about 75 mostly student supporters, according to Iowa Public Radio.
“So our education system has gone from fifth in 2018 to now being in the bottom half,” Sand said, arguing that the state has moved in the wrong direction under Republican control over the past decade. He pointed to falling standings in personal income growth and criticized political tactics that rely on division. They’re trying to make us scared of our neighbors because then it’s easier for them to pick our pockets,
Sand told the crowd.
The Battlegrounds of Policy and Public Health
Lahn’s platform intersects with voters like Ankeny Republican Nola Ryan, who supports his anti-abortion stance, lower taxes, and school choice, while connecting the MAHA message with her farm upbringing. Yet Lahn’s healthcare positions have drawn sharp pushback from Democrats, who have accused him of threatening emerging mRNA cancer treatments and backing research and rural healthcare cuts.
Lahn told reporters he supports promising cancer therapies while distinguishing individualized treatments from mass-produced products. I think those are great. If they’re promising, great. We need them in the state for sure. But those are very individualized interventions,
Lahn said. It’s not a mass-produced product like a vaccine would be. It’s a therapy, and I support them.
On the other side, student attendees like Tim Lesnick voiced support for Sand’s efforts to clean up government, legalize marijuana, and raise the minimum wage, highlighting an appetite for structural change among younger voters.
The Electorate on the Eve of Election Day
Recent polls show Sand leading Lahn, though Iowa State University political scientist Kelly Shaw cautions that predictions can be wrong. Shaw noted that while Republicans retain a numerical advantage in a state where President Donald Trump won easily two years ago, people who don’t belong to either party will help decide the race.
“Democrats are energized; they have not been previously, and so they seem pretty energetic in terms of attending rallies, getting signs out,” Shaw said.
As both campaigns push through their final hours, Sand is urging volunteers to help drive turnout. Please, over the next week, take the time that you can to help us move this state in a better direction and make it not redder or bluer, but better and truer,
Sand said.
Lahn similarly urged supporters to make their voices heard at the ballot box, framing the choice around generational priorities. We are going to send a message that Iowa is not for sale,
Lahn said. That we are here for the next generation, and we are going to prioritize them over these groups that seek to exploit and extract from the state of Iowa.
