DAVENPORT, IA —
Iowa Democratic Auditor Rob Sand and Republican businessman Zach Lahn met for their first debate in the Iowa gubernatorial campaign on Oct. 6, clashing over their loyalties to the state and campaign finance sources.
Sand criticized Lahn for his time in Kansas, calling attention to Lahn’s voting record in that state and saying he would not be “full-time” governor if elected in Iowa.
Lahn accused Sand of being funded by wealthy family members and said his moderate campaign message misled Iowans about his more left-leaning beliefs.
The candidates also debated possible solutions to Iowa’s high cancer rates.
KWQC-TV hosted the debate at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.
PolitiFact fact-checked some moments and statements from the debate.
Sand: “It’s not about why you’re in Kansas. It’s about the fact that you’re not in Iowa.”
Lahn: “That’s simply not true. You have no proof.”
Sand repeatedly criticized Lahn for being a “part-time Iowan”, referring to Lahn’s frequent trips from Iowa to Wichita, Kansas.
Lahn cites his blended family and a custody agreement as the reason for traveling to and from Wichita. Lahn and his wife both have children from previous marriages who live in Kansas.
Lahn has a family farm in Belle Plaine, Iowa, which he purchased in 2014, and a home in Kechi, Kansas.
From Oct. 1, 2025, to May 14, 2026, Lahn’s company plane made 37 flights to Wichita, Kansas, the Des Moines Register reported. The newspaper also reported that of the 37 flights, Lahn’s plane reportedly landed overnight in Wichita on 75 nights and in Belle Plaine on 51 nights.
Lahn says he moved to Iowa full time in 2023.
Sable: Lahn “voted in Kansas in 2018, ’20 and ’22.”
That’s correct.
According to the Kansas Secretary of State, Lahn voted in Kansas in the August 2022 primary. He also voted in Kansas in the 2018 and 2020 general elections. His last recorded vote in Kansas was in August 2022.
Lahn voted in Iowa in the 2024 general election and in the Belle Plaine municipal election in November 2025. Prior to his 2024 votes, his last vote in Iowa was in the 2016 general election.
Lahn: Sand is “funded by a huge amount of money from his family, the largest donation in Iowa history.”
This is largely correct.
During that campaign, Sand received more than $10 million in donations from family members of his wife, who owns an Ankeny-based holding company. Iowa law, unlike federal law, places no limit on the amount a person can donate to a campaign.
Sand’s wife, Christine Lauridsen Sand, is CEO and co-owner of the Lauridsen Group, which owns businesses in health, agriculture and nutrition.
Lauridsen family members have donated $13 million to his campaigns since he first ran for auditor in 2018, with about $11.5 million coming in this campaign cycle, according to Iowa campaign finance data. Since 2023, Christine Sand has donated $4.5 million and her father, Nixon Lauridsen, has donated $4 million to Sand’s campaign.
Sand has raised $37.8 million in total so far this cycle, a record for a campaign in Iowa state office.
Lahn’s largest donor this cycle is the Republican Governors Association, which gave $15.5 million, according to a campaign finance filing. Most of that came from his latest campaign fundraising report, which reported about $10 million since the start of the campaign, including a $2.5 million loan to himself.
Nitrate fertilizers and cancer
Responding to a question about what steps he would take to combat high cancer rates in Iowa, Lahn said he would work to reduce high levels of nitrate, a chemical compound used for fertilizer, in Iowa’s water. He linked this problem to the Sand family business.
Lahn: “My opponent’s family gave him $13 million, and part of that money came from selling high-nitrate fertilizers. »
Sand: “No, my family, my in-laws’ company does not sell nitrate fertilizer. »
Lahn: “It’s on the website, it’s literally on the website. »
This requires context.
Lahn was referring to donations from the Lauridsen Group, a holding company run by Sand’s wife and family.
One of his companies, Boyer Valley Co., makes “high-nitrogen organic fertilizer” from chicken byproducts, according to its website. Organic fertilizers have a lower nutrient content than synthetic fertilizers and release nutrients more slowly.
They are further broken down into nitrates by microorganisms in the soil and can pollute waterways if misused.
Boyer Valley’s products are marketed for gardens, while concerns about pollution from nitrogen fertilizers focus primarily on large-scale agricultural operations.
Sand: Iowa’s public education system “is now in the bottom half.”
This statement is largely accurate.
Many institutions ranked Iowa education, but the two largest ranked it in the bottom half.
In the past, Iowa ranked first among states in K-12 education, and that number has fallen over the past 30 years.
U.S. News and World Report ranked Iowa sixth in the nation for elementary and secondary education in 2017. In 2026, that ranking fell to 26th nationally.
According to a 2026 report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private philanthropic organization, Iowa ranks 27th in the nation in education. The report says fewer preschoolers in Iowa are enrolled in school and the state has a lower reading proficiency rate than in 2019.
Lahn: “Thanks to the tax increases he criticized, the average family of four would save an average of $7,500 a year. »
FAKE.
Sand has criticized tax cuts at the state and federal level, but the savings don’t total $7,500.
Sand took aim at Iowa’s 2024 income tax cuts, which set a flat tax rate of 3.8% starting in 2025. This change is expected to save the typical Iowa household about $410 in 2025, on top of savings from previous tax reforms.
Sand also opposed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, highlighting its negative effects on Medicaid and rural hospitals. The law made President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent and added new tax cuts. The expansion and other tax cuts in the bill saved Iowans about $3,100 on average in 2026, according to a Tax Foundation analysis.
The tax savings from the bills Sand criticized would average about $3,500, not $7,500.
This story was produced in partnership with PolitiFact.
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