‘What I am sick of is politicians who run around and make promises that they know that realistically they’re not going to be able to keep,’ Sand told NR.
Clive, Iowa — What is Rob Sand’s big vision if he wins his state’s governor’s mansion? Divided government.
As the state auditor runs to upset Republicans’ ten years of one-party control of Iowa’s government, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate is not pledging transformational change, even to his base. At a get out the vote rally Thursday at a sports bar just outside of Des Moines, Sand made clear to his supporters that he would almost certainly be working with a Republican legislature, so he would not commit to pursuing a Democratic wishlist.
“Here’s what we get if we win this race: balanced government,” Sand said in his remarks. “I’m not overpromising. I’m not under promising. I’m promising you that every single bill that passes, every single budget that passes, has to have bipartisan support.”
In a midterm election cycle where the name of the game is energizing the party base and in an age where politicians at the national level are promising big ideas and programs, Sand is running on the boring work of lawmaking. True, most politicians in competitive races promise to work on bipartisan initiatives, but Sand, who is leading his Republican opponent in the polls, is asking voters to put him in a position where his job depends on working across the aisle.
“We know that we’re going to have a legislature that is run still by the Republican Party if we win this race,” he said. “If that’s news to you, good afternoon, you slept in. It’s 2026, and I don’t know what year you fell asleep, but that is where we are.”
Sand’s most ambitious goals focus on reducing political polarization. He has called for an end to closed party primaries in favor of a jungle primary that would send the top four finishers to the general election. Voters would choose one candidate from those four, rather than pick a winner through ranked-choice voting. On Thursday, he called for various reforms geared toward improving government efficiency.
“Independent voters should be equal participants in our democracy,” he said. “We shouldn’t be forced to pick between the lesser of two evils. Yes, we should have term limits, but that’s not enough. We should have age limits. We should have mandatory prison time for people who steal from taxpayers.”
Sand has also worked to insulate himself from Republican attacks on issues where Democrats are especially vulnerable — namely, cultural issues and immigration.
He has opposed biological males participating in girls’ sports and criticized President Joe Biden’s record on border security. Asked Thursday whether he would cooperate with federal immigration authorities at a time when Democratic governors and mayors have refused to honor detainer requests, he indicated he was open to working with ICE but stopped short of embracing the agency completely.
“Bottom line on this stuff for me is, what are they asking us to do? What does Iowa law say? What’s in the Constitution? What’s going to promote public safety?” Sand told National Review. “So, it could be ICE. It could be some other federal organization. It could be this president. It could be the next one. I don’t really care the party affiliation. I care about public safety for Iowans. I care about constitutional rights.”
While he has said he is in favor of legal abortion, Sand is not running on liberalizing Iowa’s abortion laws, which ban abortion past the sixth week of pregnancy. He’s clear that he will not be able to do so with a GOP legislature.
“What I am sick of is politicians who run around and make promises that they know that realistically they’re not going to be able to keep,” he told NR. “What I’ve been clear about with Iowans is that I will be able to veto additional restrictions on contraception, restrictions on IVF, restrictions on surrogacy.” Sand also promised to veto a bill that would completely ban abortion.
His Republican opponent, Zach Lahn, who has attempted to center cultural issues when speaking to conservative audiences, has attacked Sand for his stance on children’s access to LGBT books. Iowa law already prohibits sexually explicit books in schools and regulates the teaching of LGBT issues. Asked earlier this year by an author — who wrote a children’s book celebrating families with two mothers, two fathers, and nonbinary parents — if he would “fight book bans in Iowa,” Sand said he would oppose new ones.
“If they try to do any more book bans, I’m going to veto them,” he said. “My pledge is that I’m going to veto culture war bills. I think that’s one of them. I want the legislature to be focused on issues that impact 100 percent of Iowans.”
When Lahn attacked Sand for his answer in a debate, Sand noted the law that is already on the books.
Ultimately, Sand is avoiding polarizing cultural issues on the campaign trail. At his Thursday rally, he acknowledged that Republicans in his state had worthwhile ideas and pledged to work with them in office.
“We know that there’s nobody with a monopoly on good ideas, and we also know that the people who are mostly wrong are only mostly wrong. Every once in a while, a blind hog will find an acorn.”