Democratic State Auditor Rob Sand announces campaign for Iowa governor

DES MOINES — State Auditor Rob Sand, the only Democrat to hold statewide elected office in Iowa, announced Monday he is running for Iowa governor in 2026.

Sand, 42, a lawyer and former prosecutor in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, has served as state auditor since 2019.

“I’ve spent my career fighting for Iowans — locking up corrupt public officials, violent criminals, scammers and thieves, rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, and holding members of both parties accountable,” Sand said in a statement. “Now, I’m taking my fight to the governor’s office to serve all Iowans by lowering costs, continuing to make government accountable to taxpayers, and working with both parties to create more opportunities to help Iowa families not just get by, but thrive and live healthy lives.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, announced last month she will not seek another term.

Reynolds’ surprise announcement creates an open race that resets the field in Iowa ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and presents opportunities for both Republicans and Democrats. It’s the first time an incumbent will not appear on the ballot in the race for Iowa governor since 2006 — and only the third time since 1982.

Sand said Reynolds’ decision not to seek re-election did not a factor in his decision to run for that office in 2026. He is the first major Democrat to officially enter the race.

A handful of Republicans have publicly expressed interest in running, including Iowa U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra from Hull.

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Feenstra filed paperwork Monday with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board to set up a campaign for governor in 2026. But so far he has not publicly announced a campaign.

As of now, former one-term Republican state lawmaker Brad Sherman, a pastor from Williamsburg, is the only declared Republican candidate for governor.

“I want to welcome Rob Sand to the race, and I look forward to showing voters that a conservative government here in Iowa works, and works well,” Sherman said in a statement.

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Former state prosecutor

Sand raised $8.6 million last year, although $7 million of it came from his wife, Christine, and in-laws, Nixon and Nancy Lauridsen, campaign finance report shows. He finished the year with $7.5 million in his campaign account.

Sand’s in-laws have donated to Reynolds campaign in the past. The Lauridsen Group manufactures and sells proteins such as butter, eggs and poultry products.

Republicans point to the large amount that Sand raised from family members, claiming it represents an effort to buy his way into office.

Sand pushed back on the criticism, highlighting the more than 28,000 smaller individual donations made to his campaign over the course of the year. In comparison, Reynolds had more than 2,800 individual donations in 2024. And Fred Hubbell, the Democrats’ unsuccessful candidate for governor in 2018, received roughly 17,400 individual donations in that entire four-year election cycle.

“I’ll be interested to see if any Iowa Republican effort has the same level of grassroots support that I have,” Sand told The Gazette.

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A Decorah native, Sand served in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office from 2010 to 2017 as a prosecutor of public corruption cases, including of the largest lottery rigging scheme in American history.

He was elected state auditor in 2018, the first Democrat to be elected to that office in roughly 50 years. The office, referred to as the “taxpayers’ watchdog,” is responsible for auditing the financial operations of Iowa’s state and local governments and provides guidance to certified public accounting firms performing such audits.

In his first term, Sand said his office identified more than $29 million in misspent funds since he took office, and created an efficiency program to help public entities find ways to save money.

Republicans have accused Sand of using the auditor’s office for partisan attacks, pointing to audits focused on Reynolds’ use of federal COVID-19 aid.

Sand has said he manages his office in a nonpartisan manner, noting he appointed a Republican, an independent and a Democrat to his senior leadership team, and has promoted people who made campaign contributions to his opponent in 2018.

He was reelected in 2022 by less than 3,000 votes, or about three-tenths of a percentage point, after his Republican challenger dropped his request for a statewide recount, saying he did not have sufficient resources to proceed and claimed the Republican Party of Iowa would not help support the effort.

Sand faces tall task

Sand faces an uphill climb. The last time Iowans elected a Democrat as governor was when Chet Culver won the office in 2006 before being ousted by Republican Terry Branstad after one term.

Iowa, once seen as a purple state, has since shifted sharply to the right in, with Republicans controlling the governor’s office, agenda-setting supermajorities in the Iowa House and Senate all but one statewide office and the state’s federal delegation.

Republican President Donald Trump won the state by 13 percentage points in 2024 and Reynolds by 18 percentage points in 2022.

Recent voter registration data shows more than 190,000 more active registered Republican voters in the state than Democrats.

A larger share of Iowans, though, approved of Sand's job performance than of Reynolds, Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird or the Republican-led Iowa Legislature, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll from September 2024. The poll showed Sand with a 53 percent job approval rating.

Sand often draws on his experience growing up in a small town in northeast Iowa, hunting and fishing. He said has said he appeals to a bipartisan coalition of voters across all parts of Iowa, urban and rural.

Sand said he’s dedicated to eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” and suggested the state put its roughly $2 billion budget surplus “to work” by funding government efficiency measures across the state.

In a video posed to social media Monday, Sand said he is running “because we need more public service and less politics.”

“A lot of politicians yap about making a place redder or bluer — I want Iowa to be better and truer,” he said.

Asked how he would work with a Republican-controlled Legislature, Sand told The Gazette: “Happily.”

“I will work with anybody to do good, period.” he said. “I don’t care what party they’re in.”

Sand has repeatedly clashed with Republican leaders regarding oversight and access to information related to the state’s taxpayer-funded private school financial assistance program.

Most recently, GOP state lawmakers on the House Government Oversight Committee grilled him about the improper distribution of about $27 million in court fees. Republicans have said Sand should have alerted lawmakers more quickly about the problem. Sand has defended his office’s work on the issue and accused other state leaders of playing politics in their criticism of his office

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Sand also has criticized the Legislature for passing laws restricting the auditor’s office from accessing certain information and limiting the office’s subpoena power, instead directing disputes over access to records between government offices and agencies to a three-member arbitration panel rather than a court.

Republican Party of Iowa Chair Jeff Kaufmann called Sand an “out-of-touch liberal pushing a radical agenda” of higher taxes and transgender rights.

“Our state needs a governor who will fight for low taxes, family-first values, and freedom from government overreach ー not some left-wing elitist who is more interested in being a social media influencer that doing the job he was elected to do,” Kaufmann said.

Republican Governors Association Communications Director Courtney Alexander expressed similar criticism of Sand as an “extreme liberal.”

“Democrats’ media darling Rob Sand is just another extreme liberal, supporting guys playing in girls’ sports and opposing President Trump’s agenda. Sand would turn Iowa into Tim Walz’s Minnesota: higher taxes and radical liberal values,” Alexander said in a statement.

Asked how he and his office would address questions of bias involving future audits of the governor’s office, or the office of a potential political opponent, Sand said the state auditor’s office would continue to follow professional auditing standards designed to ensure auditors maintain objectivity.

The Associated Press and Erin Murphy of The Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com