IDP Statement on GOP Gubernatorial Primary Results
DES MOINES – IDP Chair Rita Hart released the following statement on the result of the Republican gubernatorial primary:
“Zach Lahn is a career political operative and Kansas carpetbagger who can’t even commit to living in the state he wants to lead. When he’s not in Kansas, Lahn has been busy pushing an extreme agenda that’s squarely out-of-touch with Iowans, like supporting unaccountable private school vouchers, pushing costly tariffs, courting Steve King, and backing even deeper cuts to Medicaid. Lahn enters the general election on the back foot after a bruising five-way primary that forced him to burn through his cash and tore Iowa Republicans apart. Meanwhile, Rob Sand has spent the last year building historic grassroots momentum with Iowans of all political stripes. Iowans have had enough of failed one-party rule and untrustworthy political insiders like Lahn. The more they get to know him, they will see exactly why Lahn is wrong for Iowa, and they will send him back to Kansas in November.”
What you need to know about Kansas man and career political operative Zach Lahn:
- Lahn is a career political operative and Kansas carpetbagger who spends more time at his home in Wichita than in Iowa, and has lied to Iowans since the start of his campaign about where he lives.
- Lahn registered to vote in Iowa right before the deadline to run for governor and “voted in Kansas elections in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 cycles.”
- Lahn took out a primary mortgage on his Kansas home in July 2024 — just three months before registering to vote in Iowa — despite claiming to be a full time Iowa resident since 2023.
- Lahn is now refusing to answer questions from reporters about his longstanding ties to Kansas.
- Lahn lacks support with the grassroots — the majority of his fundraising comes from out-of-state donors, not from Iowans.
- One of Lahn’s largest donors is a violent individual who was arrested for assaulting police officers during the January 6th Capitol riot.
- Lahn has also bragged about being endorsed by Iowa’s national embarrassment: disgraced former Congressman and proud, avowed white supremacist Steve King.
- Lahn supports policies and holds investments that are deeply out-of-touch with Iowa families.
- Lahn has backed Kim Reynolds’ unaccountable private school vouchers that rip tax dollars away from public schools and claimed Iowa is spending too much money on education.
- Even though Iowa’s public school rankings have dropped 15 spots in less than 10 years, Lahn wants to leave the door open to even deeper cuts and further attacks on Iowa’s already-underfunded public schools.
- Chaotic tariffs have pushed Iowa’s agriculture industry to the brink of another farm crisis — as farmers are already struggling under the weight of a four-year downturn and filing for bankruptcy at the highest rate in the nation — but Lahn downplayed the impact, saying “the tariffs are not the issue.”
- Lahn has a history of opposing Medicaid expansion, a position even more extreme than Iowa’s privatized Medicaid scheme that ripped care away from working families and cost taxpayers more money than it claimed to save.
- Lahn supports an abortion ban from conception without exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother, which would put access to birth control and IVF in jeopardy.
- Lahn has pushed extreme health care conspiracy theories and pledged to ban mRNA vaccines in Iowa that are used to prevent dangerous infectious diseases.
- Lahn has backed Kim Reynolds’ unaccountable private school vouchers that rip tax dollars away from public schools and claimed Iowa is spending too much money on education.
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