Sand completes second 99-county town hall tour of gubernatorial campaign

As Iowa Auditor of State Rob Sand completed a 99-county tour for the second time in his gubernatorial campaign, he called for supporters to keep momentum up and bring “divided government once again” to Iowa.

Sand held the final stop of his 2026 town hall tour Wednesday at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines.  More than 1,800 people attended the Democratic candidate’s event, braving the rain and congested parking lots to attend.

Polls and political forecasters show Sand leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn in the weeks ahead of the Nov. 3, 2026 election. While Sand told the crowd not to be complacent or assume he will win, he also said he was hopeful about the election outcome.

“I think we can win this campaign,” Sand said. “I don’t think it because the polls show that we’re leading. They do. That’s nice. I think it because I know Iowans, and I know people are looking around the state, going, ‘What happened to our state?'”

As he has at each preceding town hall, Sand began Wednesday’s event with the crowd singing the first verse of “America the Beautiful” together. After sharing some of his family history and political beliefs — speaking extensively about his opposition to the two-party political system — Sand took questions from the audience on topics from cannabis legalization to Flock cameras.

The Democratic candidate specifically called on two people who had identified themselves as registered Republicans earlier in the event to ask him questions. One of the Republicans spoke in opposition to the state’s Education Savings Account program, the law providing public funding for private school tuition and associated costs — a program Sand has also been critical of as he calls for oversight measures and income limits.

The other Republican who spoke at the event criticized Iowa’s public school system, saying more families were turning to private schools because they did not feel the public schools were adequately teaching kids about math, science, history and English — a comment that received a colder reception from the crowd.

“Let’s be nice, everybody,” Sand said. “Larry’s here to share his opinion in a room that he knew might not have a lot of people who shared it. That takes some courage … Larry’s concern was he thinks that the quality of Iowa’s public schools has gone down — and what are we doing to fix that? That’s a good question. Because whether or not we have an agreement or a disagreement about the quality of them, don’t we always want them to be better?”

Sand said he would advocate for a 5% increase to K-12 funding in his first term as governor if elected, but added that he would not make further commitments.

“A lot of people might say, ‘Well, Rob, what about the next year?’ Well, we have a $1.4 billion budget deficit, a 5% increase moves that in a different direction,” Sand said. “We’ve got specific plans for how to bring the deficit down. We should treat cannabis the way we treat alcohol, we should make data centers pay all their taxes, and we should put income limits back on the school vouchers program. Those three things alone would cover about half of the deficit, once we get the program up and running, but we’ve got room to grow from there.”

While Sand said he aims to bring “balance” to the Iowa statehouse, the body currently has a Republican trifecta – alongside GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds, Republicans hold a majority in both the Iowa House and Senate.

While this dynamic could change in the 2026 election, the Legislature is reconvening Friday, one month before the Nov. 3 election, to pass a measure providing tax incentives for a $15 billion steel mill project planned for Lee County. Trump, joined by several Iowa Republicans, announced the Mesabi Metallics project in the Oval Office on Monday.

While Reynolds has said state lawmakers will be considering changes to the state’s Major Economic Growth Attraction (MEGA) program, which provides incentives for large-scale development projects representing more than $1 billion in capital investment, the details of the legislation are not yet public.

Sand told reporters he wants to learn about the specifics of the potential tax breaks before giving a “hard answer,” adding that he wants to make sure the incentive package and steel mill project is something that serves Iowans.

“Certainly, you’d want to make sure that we are not paying out up front,” Sand said. “These folks had some real problems in Minnesota, and so we want to make sure that they’re actually making their investments of whatever money they’re bringing to Iowa before we would release — in, like, a stair-step fashion — any public benefits from the state side. And we want to make sure that we’re not overpaying.”

Some Democrats have expressed concerns about the bill’s scope expanding to include amendments restricting gubernatorial powers. One of the powers some Republicans have expressed concerns about is the ability for a governor to appoint a successor to longtime U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s seat if he were to pass away while serving in office.

Grassley, who is 93 years old, told a group of Iowa Republicans last week, “I don’t plan on dying in office, but if I did, I don’t want a Democratic governor choosing my successor.”

Sand said he does not believe the special session will include a discussion on the governor’s powers, referencing Reynolds’ proclamation that the “sole and singular purpose” of the special session will be to amend the MEGA program.

“I would assume that they would be faithful to that,” Sand said.