This Iowa Democrat is stirring hopes of a red state comeback by charting his own path

By Jeff Zeleny, CNN

Independence, Iowa (CNN) — Of all the cities to visit in Iowa, Rob Sand did not stop here in Independence because it’s a fitting metaphor in his campaign for governor.

Yet, he surely needs voters to believe that it is.

“I think our political system is broken,” Sand told a crowd seated closely around him. “Mostly because it’s run by two private clubs and they’re more interested in beating up on each other than they are in solving our problems.”

The town of Independence, which sits along the Wapsipinicon River in eastern Iowa, is the Buchanan County seat. That fact alone made it an essential stop along the way to fulfill his summer pledge of holding 100 town hall meetings, hitting every county across the state.

Sand, 44, is a Democrat, but he seldom dwells on that piece of his biography.

He’s a bow-hunting, scripture-quoting, plaid-shirt wearing father of two, his audiences quickly learn during his campaign stops. He bemoans the red-blue political divide as “bizarre and so emblematic of the abyss that we have fallen into.” He assails the two-party system.

“Why do we have to only pick from the lesser of two evils?” Sand said. “Why do we make independent voters less equal?”

Iowa has not elected a Democratic governor since 2006, but Sand’s candidacy and his congenial approach to politics has stirred a sense of optimism for the party. Republicans privately acknowledge their one-party rule faces its biggest threat in years.

Sand, the state auditor, is the only Democrat to hold statewide office. He faces GOP businessman and farmer Zach Lahn, who surprised party leaders by defeating President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate, Rep. Randy Feenstra, in the June primary.

The governor’s race, along with a wide-open contest for the US Senate and three fiercely competitive congressional seats have made the state, once again, among the most closely watched battlegrounds. It’s one of the biggest tests anywhere for the Democratic brand.

But as Sand campaigns in one town after another, he mentions very little of that political freight, almost as though he’s trying to draw attention away from the magnitude of the election. He spends more time explaining why he’s a Democrat than expressing pride to be one.

“I don’t know why it has to be Democrats and Republicans,” Sand said, repeatedly casting a pox on both major parties’ houses. “Seriously, says who? Why?”

A patriotic sing-along

He begins every one of his town hall meetings by asking for a show of hands from Republicans and independents in the room, with a polite round of applause for each group. It’s followed by a slightly louder reception for Democrats, who make up the majority of each crowd.

As he stood near the wooden bar in the overcrowded Sanity Room, a watering hole in downtown Independence, he asked the Iowans to join together and sing the first verse of “America the Beautiful.”

It’s an open question whether a simple act of patriotism can soften a partisan divide, but Sand does it without apology at every stop, stepping to the side as he sings along with most everyone else in the room.

“Shouldn’t politics always be like that?” Sand said after the applause subsided. “Bring a bunch of people into a room, acknowledge first that you disagree and then say, you know what? Left-wing, right-wing – one bird! We’re all still in this together, so let’s work together.”

Whether its post-partisan, pragmatic or both, he stands out as a rare candidate in a noisy political season seeking to lower the temperature in his quest to appeal to Democrats, independents and Republicans alike.

Mathematically, at least, his success depends upon it. The number of registered Republicans surpasses Democrats by more than 180,000 voters in the state.

“There’s a lot of people out there who are happy to do politics to gin up anger and to make people full of hatred for their neighbors and their friends,” Sand said in an interview. “I’m trying to do the opposite.”

John Fish, a Republican who attended a town hall meeting in Allamakee County, said he had heard about the “America the Beautiful” routine. He said he was surprised to find it less corny than he imagined and found himself singing “from sea to shining sea” right along with everyone else.

“I thought it would seem cheesy, but at the time it was not,” Fish said, walking away with a favorable impression of Sand. “Politicians all kind of say the same thing, ‘We’ve got to come together, we’ve got to do this thing,’ but for some reason he seems a little bit more believable than most.”

‘Why would I talk about the president?’

Not so long ago, Iowa was one of the nation’s most competitive swing states.

Former President Barack Obama won here twice. And when Trump carried the state in 2016, Iowa was home to 31 of the nation’s 206 “pivot counties” – more than any other state – that voted for Obama twice and then Trump.

That same year, Republicans won full control of Iowa’s government – a trifecta in the House, Senate and governor’s office. The GOP has held onto power ever since, boosted by Trump’s subsequent victories in 2020 and 2024.

Over the last decade, the state has moved significantly to the right: funding private school vouchers with tax dollars, restricting most abortions to around six weeks and lowering income taxes, which helped contribute to a $1 billion budget shortfall. Iowa also has the second-highest rate of new cancer cases in the country.

“We got a water-quality crisis, a cancer crisis, an education crisis, an income crisis, a corruption crisis, and a crisis of high costs,” Sand said.

As Sand made his way through a swath of those counties this week across eastern Iowa, he did not mention Trump by name.

His campaign has issued statements criticizing the Trump administration – including the recent policy to allow more imported beef into the country, which infuriated Iowa cattle producers – but Sand said he makes a point of not dwelling on the president.

“I am running to be the governor of Iowa,” Sand said. “Why would I talk about the president, no matter who the president is?”

Yet, even in a governor’s race, the absence of Trump’s name is striking, given how ubiquitous the president is and how central criticizing his policies have become to the message and motivation for Democrats.

When asked whether he could effectively tap into the anger and discontent in the electorate without mentioning some of the root causes – from tariffs to the price of gas to the cost of groceries – Sand demurred.

“I don’t want people to have to be angry at politics,” Sand said in an interview. “But I’m also not going to invalidate anyone’s feelings about what their view is on the world.”

Creating distance or sparking discord?

Some people who came to see Sand this week said it was a welcome change to not hear a single mention of Trump.

“His approach is quite refreshing. What we need right now is to bring people together, instead of trying to hate,” said Eloise Dillavou, a Democratic voter. “There’s no other way to do this. We have to come back to sanity and kindness.”

As he walked away from a campaign stop, Paul Skrade, a local teacher, carried a Sand yard sign. He said he feels hopeful about November, but added: “I wish he were more progressive, but I think he’s our best opportunity, honestly.”

He touches upon a question raised privately by several Democratic activists: Distancing yourself from the party may be understandable, but is it necessary to sound so hostile?

They particularly blanche when Sand makes comments like this, as he does during his town hall meetings: “I didn’t read the platform. I still haven’t read the platform. If you have put your time into making the Democratic platform, find a better use of your time.”

For all of the talk elsewhere about the fight for the direction of the Democratic Party, the Iowa race may offer another path for how Democrats seek to move beyond the Trump era and try to compete in red-state America – if, of course, Sand is successful.

The Republican Party of Iowa has repeatedly blasted Sand for seeking to downplay his deep Democratic roots, even as officials acknowledged his effort to create his own identity. “A liberal with better brand is still a liberal,” said Jade Cichy, a party spokesperson.

To be sure, a Democratic revival is complicated by the shortfall in registered voters.

August voter registration data from the Iowa Secretary of State shows that 712,087 voters are registered with the Republican Party, with 528,758 voters registered as Democrats and 559,741 voters not affiliated with either major political party.

That makes independents a critical piece of the winning puzzle, which Sand made pointedly clear during a stop at the Ampersand Taproom during his Fayette County town hall meeting. Asked by an attendee to list his top three priorities, Sand began with election reform, including opening primaries to independent voters. He included water quality and cancer prevention.

He delivered a blistering critique of what he called a “broken” two-party system.

“It’s leading us to hate people that we used to love and we need to change it,” Sand said. “And that resonates not just with independents and Republicans, but it resonates with Democrats, too.”

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CNN’s Jeff Simon contributed to this report.