BREAKING: Zach Lahn Lied About Saving His Family Farm and Growing up on a Farm
MeidasTouch News: “Lahn has been living an upscale lifestyle on income he has earned as an out-of-state investor … especially since the value of his farm grew 133% in the past decade”
DES MOINES – A new investigative report from MeidasTouch News caught Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn lying again — this time about being a family farmer. In reality, Lahn “earned his money in investments, and has spent his career as a political consultant while not actually living in Iowa.”
Lahn consistently claims “his family ‘lost’ their farm in 2005,” which he repurchased “to continue the farming legacy of his family.” But MeidasTouch uncovered an interview where Lahn admits he was “offered the family farm by his grandmother … but he turned her down” and said “no, I’m gone” when he had the chance to step in to prevent its sale. According to his former classmates and county assessor records cited in the report, Lahn also lied about growing up on a small farm in rural Plymouth County, and actually grew up in the heart of Sioux City.
Lahn has “pushed a misleading campaign narrative about living and working as an Iowa farmer on a family farm” by posting “videos of him working while always wearing the same outfit … that look like they were all taken on one day.” He has “never taken the family farm tax credit,” and flight records from his private plane show he spent “just 47 days on his farm during the harvest months” of 2024 and 2025 combined — a figure the report calls “a very low number for a working farmer.”
From Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Terra Hernandez:
“Zach Lahn lied to Iowans about being a farmer, saving his family farm, and even growing up on a farm — all to cover up the fact that he lives in Kansas and made a career out of being a paid political operative. Lahn will lie about anything and everything to get elected, and Iowans can’t trust a word he says.”
Read more from MeidasTouch News here, or key points below:
- Iowa Republican Gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn has pushed a misleading campaign narrative about living and working as an Iowa farmer on a family farm. Lahn claims to be a sixth-generation farmer who grew up on a farm, and that his family “lost” their farm in 2005 before he repurchased it in 2014.
- But in reality, Lahn has earned his money in investments, and has spent his career as a political consultant while not actually living in Iowa … There are also charges from his former classmates that he never lived on the family farm while growing up.
- In campaign ads during the Republican primary, Lahn tried to tout his Iowa farm credentials by claiming to be raised on a sixth generation family farm. On the campaign trail, Lahn also heavily criticized “out-of-state investors” who treat Iowa like a commodity from which to “extract” wealth.
- But the Daily Beast reported in August of this year that Lahn does not live on his Iowa Farm, but rather in multi-million dollar mansions in Kansas and Montana.
- Lahn has been living an upscale lifestyle on income he has earned as an out-of-state investor, exactly the type of out-of-state investor who buys up farm land in Iowa that he has attacked on the campaign trail. Among other investments, Lahn has invested $1 million in a sex toy company called FirmTech, even though he claimed he had to “scrape together” $185,900 to repurchase his family’s farm in 2014. Lahn bought more land in 2022.
- Lahn further claims that his family “lost” their farm in 2005, and then he repurchased it in 2014 to continue the farming legacy of his family and pass it on to future generations. But during an interview on the Shawn Ryan Show in March of this year, Lahn said that he was offered the family farm by his grandmother after the death of his great-grandmother, but he turned her down.
- It was Lahn’s backing out of owning the family farm that caused it to be sold, not that the family “lost” it.
- “In 2005, my family farm was sold,” Lahn said. “My great-grandmother passed away, and my grandma had called me at the time, and I was in college, and she asked me if I wanted anything to do with the farm. I didn’t know what that would be, but I was out in Colorado at the time. I was like, no, I’m gone.”
- Moreover, social media posts and statements by his former high school classmates suggest that Lahn has NEVER lived on a farm. A former neighbor posted on social media that Lahn was lying about growing up on a small farm, claiming that he actually lived in Sioux City, Iowa and not his dad’s farm in Plymouth County.
- [The] claims are corroborated by local county assessor records. Lahn’s Father, James Lahn, purchased his home in Plymouth County in January, 1999. Lahn would have been around 13-years-old at the time.
- When Lahn did show up on his farm for photo ops during this campaign he appeared to do it all in one day, posting multiple videos of him working while always wearing the same outfit. Though posted on multiple days over the summer, Lahn has several Instagram reels that show him working on the farm that look like they were all taken on one day.
- Flight records also show Lahn spent just 47 days on his farm during the harvest months of September to December in 2024 and 2025 combined. A very low number for a working farmer. Between September and December 2024, Lahn’s plane spent 92 Days in Wichita, Kansas and only 15 days in Belle Plaine, Iowa where his farm is located.
- Between September And December 2025, Lahn’s plane spent 53 days in Wichita and only 32 days in Belle Plaine. Moreover, tax records show that Lahn has never taken the family farm tax credit; a requirement for which is that the farm is actively worked by the owner or an immediate family member.
- Far from being a farmer, Lahn has spent most of his career as a political consultant. From 2010 until 2018, Lahn worked in high level campaign management and fundraising positions for conservative candidates and advocacy groups.
- From 2014 to 2018, right about the same time he repurchased his family’s farm, Lahn worked for [a] conservative advocacy group.
- Fundraisers for national political organizations are hired because of the amount of insider connections they have. After a decade of working in Republican politics, Lahn moved on to high-dollar fundraising for an organization whose primary role was to advocate against healthcare expansion for Americans.
- As a state director in Montana, Lahn targeted Republican state legislators who wouldn’t sign a pledge to vote against Medicaid expansion as part of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. “These are legislators from some of the most conservative parts of the state,” Lahn said to reporters in 2015 as state director. “We’re putting in the resources to educate voters in their district on what’s exactly going on.”
- For a so-called family farmer, Lahn seems to spend a whole lot of time off his farm and inside his mansions in Kansas and Montana running Republican political campaigns. Managing congressional political campaigns is more than a full time job, leaving some to wonder when Lahn managed to haul in his crop. Especially since the value of his farm grew 133% in the past decade. Lahn has repeatedly criticized “out-of-state investors” who treat Iowa like a commodity from which to “extract” wealth.
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