New Report Exposes Zach Lahn’s Longstanding Ties to Corporate Agriculture
Iowa agricultural antitrust policy expert: Lahn, “at his core, is an all-star, major league political operative”
DES MOINES – New reporting from Mother Jones exposes Kansas carpetbagger Zach Lahn’s record as a political operative funded by agribusiness interests tied to “the same monopolistic, polluting practices Lahn now rails against.”
Lahn “was closely associated with” corporate interests “that control 75 percent of the nation’s fertilizer market” and have been accused by Iowa farm groups of monopolistic practices. During his long career in politics, Lahn spent years working as a political fundraiser for an out-of-state dark money group that “campaign[ed] for Republican candidates in Iowa who were friendly to Big Ag and corporate interests.”
Iowa farmers are now questioning “whether Lahn’s transformation into an anti-corporate crusader is sincere.” As Mother Jones notes, despite the fact that “Lahn often rails against out-of-touch, out-of-state owners of Iowa farmland … he was one of those out-of-state landowners until recently.” Lahn’s self-proclaimed farmer act, which fails to paper over his long history in politics, is also under scrutiny. Reporting shows Lahn actually lives in Kansas, and his campaign “declined to answer our questions about Lahn’s role in the farm’s day-to-day operations.”
From Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson Terra Hernandez:
“After making a career out of working for corporate polluters and special interests that have driven up costs for Iowa farmers, Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn is now desperately trying to rewrite his real record. Lahn spent years putting polluters first and actual farmers last — Iowans won’t buy his election-year lies.”
Read more from Mother Jones here, or key points below:
- Lahn, “at his core, is an all-star, major league political operative,” says Austin Frerick, an expert on Iowa politics and agricultural antitrust policy and the author of Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry.
- Until recently, Lahn didn’t appear particularly worried about Big Ag’s machine—to some extent, he was closely associated with it.
- The group was waging a war of attrition against Obamacare, and Lahn urged Montana’s Republican legislators to vote against the state’s Medicaid expansion, then tried to run them out of office if they supported it.
- [They were] also busy campaigning for Republican candidates in Iowa who were friendly to Big Ag and corporate interests … that control 75 percent of the nation’s fertilizer market and that farmer advocacy groups have accused it of monopolistic practices in Iowa.
- Lahn didn’t register to vote in Iowa until October 2024, barely meeting the state’s two-year residency requirement for gubernatorial candidates. And the Daily Beast recently reported that Lahn never claimed the Belle Plaine farm as his primary residence, suggesting that he might not live in Iowa at all. (Lahn says he moved to the farm in 2023.) Last summer, Lahn met with MAHA leader Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of health and human services, for the first time. (He says he now considers Kennedy a friend.) In July 2025, Lahn’s wife registered to vote in Iowa. Four months later, Lahn launched his campaign for Iowa governor.
- Lahn’s campaign declined to answer our questions about Lahn’s role in the farm’s day-to-day operations.
- When it comes to attacking Lahn, Democrats still have plenty to work with. Much of Lahn’s “Iowa First” rhetoric revolves around … right-wing social positions, some of which might scare off moderate voters. In a nod to MAHA’s anti-vaccine wing, Lahn has vowed to pull mRNA Covid shots off the market and end school vaccine requirements. In ads and debates, he’s promised to drive “Marxists” from Iowa schools and push for a life-at-conception law, effectively eliminating Iowa abortion access. He accepted an endorsement from former Iowa Rep. Steve King, who lost his seat in 2020 after making a slew of racist comments, including questioning why the terms “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” were offensive.
- Then there’s Lahn’s portrayal of himself as an Iowa farmer. In May, the Des Moines Register reported that Lahn still flies to Kansas an average of once a week; the Iowa Democratic Party has portrayed him as a “Kansas carpetbagger” ever since. While Lahn often rails against out-of-touch, out-of-state owners of Iowa farmland, his critics note that he was one of those out-of-state landowners until recently. “It takes one to know one,” says Secchi, the University of Iowa natural resources economist.
- For some Iowa farmers, the biggest question is whether Lahn’s transformation into an anti-corporate crusader is sincere—and whether he’s also willing to stand up for them on issues outside MAHA’s wheelhouse. In the months since Lahn became the Republican nominee for governor, the party’s mainstream has rallied around him. A PAC associated with the Republican Governors Association recently contributed $5 million to his campaign, and Trump endorsed him as a “patriot.”
- But Trump has not been a reliable friend to Iowa farmers, who are being crushed by tariffs and gutted by fertilizer costs, which have steadily risen as the war in Iran drags on. The Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts to USDA services and regenerative farming initiatives were brutal. So were the One Big Beautiful Bill’s cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, which agricultural communities increasingly rely on. “We need a governor who will stand up for Iowa when our Iowa interests are being ignored,” one soybean farmer, who asked to go unnamed, told me—including, he added, by the president.
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