Iowa’s lone Democratic statewide officeholder Rob Sand announces 2026 bid for governor

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State Auditor Rob Sand, the only Iowa Democrat currently serving in statewide office, announced a bid Monday for the open governor’s race in an effort to break up a long streak of Republican leadership in the state.

Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds made a surprise announcement last month that she would not seek a third term, leaving a wide open Republican primary and offering Democrats a glimmer of hope that they could make inroads in a midterm year with President Donald Trump in the White House.

“In Iowa, we know it’s not about right versus left, but right versus wrong,” Sand said in his announcement. “As governor, I will always do what’s right for Iowans.”

It’s an uphill battle in a state that Trump won by 13 percentage points in 2024 and Reynolds by 18 percentage points in 2022. The state has shifted dramatically in favor of Republicans since 2006, the last time there was a governor’s race without an incumbent candidate.

Sand was first elected state auditor in 2018 by a margin of about 4 percentage points over his Republican opponent. But his election was far more competitive in 2022, when he won by less than 3,000 votes, or about three-tenths of a percentage.

Recent voter registration data show nearly 200,000 more active voters registered as Republicans than Democrats.

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

His campaign will also benefit from an amassed $8 million in campaign contributions last year, most of which came from his extended family’s pockets.

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This story has been updated to correct that Sand is state auditor, not state treasurer.