Democrat Rob Sand is projected to win Iowa’s governor race, marking a stunning loss for Trump-endorsed Republican businessman Zach Lahn.
Sand, Iowa’s state auditor, is the first Democrat to win a gubernatorial election in the state since 2006 after running unopposed in the June primary. His triumph follows Democrats boosting their investment in rural Midwestern communities as voters became increasingly frustrated with the Trump administration.
Tuesday’s results are a major blow to President Donald Trump, who visited Iowa to campaign for Republicans shortly before Election Day.
Polls ahead of the election showed Sand leading Lahn by a slight margin, giving Democrats hope that they could pull off a rare win in Iowa, where Trump won by 13 points in the 2024 presidential election.
The two candidates combined spent more than $46 million on the race, with Sand spending $28.9 million to Lahn’s $17.5 million, campaign finance reports show.
Both men ran on similar issues, promising to address Iowa’s rising living costs and cancer rates.
Sand, 44, defeated a Republican incumbent in 2018 to become the first Democratic auditor since the 1960s. He appealed to voters with a nonpartisan message, saying he wanted to reverse the privatization of Medicaid and establish universal pre-K.
Along the campaign trail, he stressed that his time in state government had taught him the value of working across the aisle with his Republican colleagues.
Lahn, 40, a first-time candidate, pitched himself as a conservative focused on lowering taxes for families and improving the state’s public education system.
His campaign saw a boost from supporters of the Make America Healthy Again movement in Iowa who are aligned with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and oppose ultraprocessed foods and farming pesticides.