DAVENPORT, Iowa — Republican Zach Lahn and Democrat Rob Sand clashed over residency, taxes and schools Tuesday night in the first of four televised debates in Iowa's closely watched governor's race, trading personal attacks in a contest that national analysts rate as leaning Democratic.
The debate, hosted by KWQC at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, comes just a week before early voting begins Oct. 14. Sand, the sitting state auditor, and Lahn, a regenerative farmer, will meet three more times before Election Day on Nov. 3.
Sand repeatedly hammered Lahn's ties to Kansas, citing public voting records showing the Republican voted in Kansas in 2018, 2020 and 2022 and registered to vote in Iowa less than two years ago.
"This is about the fact that you're not an Iowan," Sand said. "There are 3.1 million people who live here, and they need to have a full-time Iowan."
Lahn keeps a second home in Wichita, Kansas, where children from a previous marriage live. He is married to Annie Koch, the former daughter-in-law of Americans for Prosperity co-founder Charles Koch; the couple also has a 2-year-old together. Lahn, a pilot, frequently flies between the two states. In May, he told the Des Moines Register the arrangement would change if he were elected governor.
Lahn called the residency attack "the central lie of Rob Sand's campaign" and accused Sand of dragging his children into the race through television ads questioning whether he could meet the demands of office while spending time in Kansas.
"The issue is I have a blended family and my kids split time," Lahn said. "That's the issue."
"I will spend whatever effort necessary to defend my children from people who'd like to exploit them like you," he told Sand. "And my promise to the voters of Iowa is this: I will also defend your children from people who'd like to exploit them like Rob Sand."
Speaking to reporters afterward, Sand said the issue "is not about why you're in Kansas," adding that "3.1 million people won't have a full-time governor."
Lahn countered by going after Sand's party identity, painting the Democrat as "a radically liberal Democrat that is running as a moderate" who is "beholden to very radical people on the left." During the debate he accused Sand of wanting to raise taxes on Iowans and said Sand has opposed every Iowa tax cut "in modern history."
Ahead of the debate, Lahn said he intended to press Sand on positions he claimed the Democrat no longer discusses publicly, including benefits for immigrants without legal status, support for the Green New Deal, gun control and late-term abortion.
Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said in a statement after the debate that Sand has been "dodging and disguising his real positions" and that "tonight, that facade started to crack."
The candidates also diverged on policy. Lahn did not directly answer whether he supports raising Iowa's minimum wage; Sand said he does, without naming a level.
On education savings accounts, Sand wants the auditor's office to have authority to audit how private schools spend ESA money — about $8,000 per child, available to any Iowa family regardless of income — and has called for income limits. Lahn said he favors third-party auditing of private schools receiving state dollars but called the auditor's office "a political branch of the government" that "can't be trusted." Sand proposed a 5% increase in public school funding in his first year.
On affordability, Lahn said he had pitched Vice President JD Vance on allowing red dyed diesel for highway use; President Donald Trump signed an executive order doing so Oct. 5 during a Nebraska rally, effective through year's end, and Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a state-level proclamation Oct. 6. Lahn said harvest-season diesel prices would fall by 57 cents a gallon. Sand, meanwhile, called for capping utility fees, importing prescription drugs from Canada, capping insulin prices and rolling back Medicaid privatization toward a nonprofit managed-care model.
Sand leads Lahn by about 7 points in the Real Clear Politics polling average, while registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in Iowa by about 180,000. Both the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball rate the race as "leans" Democratic.
Three debates remain: Oct. 14 in Sioux City (KTIV), Oct. 21 in Johnston (Iowa PBS, 90 minutes) and Oct. 27 in Cedar Rapids (KCRG and The Gazette).