Todays News

Democratic governors rally support for Sand in a final push before Election Day

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and former Gov. Tom Vilsack help get out the vote for Rob Sand

Rob Sand, Democratic candidate for Iowa governor, said Sunday night that whatever his supporters have going on over the next 48 hours leading up to Election Day, it's "probably less important" than encouraging people to vote.

Sand spoke with supporters at an event in Des Moines alongside Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and former Iowa governor and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on the same day President Donald Trump stopped in Dubuque to support Sand's opponent, Zach Lahn, and other Republicans on Tuesday's ticket.

While encouraging attendees to get out the vote ahead of the election, Sand said they could tell undecided voters that with him in Iowa's Capitol, it would "force" policymakers to work together by returning the state to a divided government instead of single-party control.

"We're on the cusp of returning Iowa to a balanced government, where everything that happens has to be a bill that has bipartisan support," Sand, the current state auditor, said.

Sand and Lahn are competing in an open race as Gov. Kim Reynolds is not running for reelection. If Sand wins, he would be the first Democrat in the seat since 2011. He argued a Democratic governor would balance what will likely remain a Republican majority in the state Legislature.

Sand pointed to Iowa's history as a state that for many years elected U.S. senators from both parties, that created an independent redistricting commission and initiated a merit-based judicial nomination system.

"People on the other side right now, they want you to think that we have been a state that's been about right versus left - no, we have been a state about right versus wrong," Sand said. "We have been a state about people working together, regardless of partisanship, who recognize that the real divide is not between neighbors who vote differently, but between regular Iowans and the people who have the responsibility to be representing all of us."

Beshear, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association and has campaigned in support of Sand in the past, said he and Sand understand that people "aren't as partisan as the national media wants to tell us they are."

He said voters aren't thinking about elections every day -- they're thinking about problems related to the roads they drive on, the schools they take their children to or whether or not they feel safe.

"What Rob gets, is when we move the needle on those things, we don't move a state to the right or the left, we just move it forward," Beshear said. "We lift everyone up. We leave no one out, and we move the needle in ways that improve Iowa, Kentucky, and the United States of America."

Beshear is not the only Democratic governor who has flown in to support Sand. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly stopped in Iowa in support of Sand's campaign, and Beshear said the Democratic Governors Association has "been all in" and invested more than $10 million to "get Rob Sand elected."

Beshear has been governor of Kentucky since 2019, winning reelection in 2023. He was rumored to have been a potential vice president candidate when Kamala Harris ran for president in 2024 and has generated speculation about a 2028 presidential run.

At the Sunday night event, Beshear asked voters if they were ready to win the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House and the governor's race.

"And after we do all that, in 2028 are you ready for a Democratic president?" Beshear shouted above the cheers in the room.

On the eastern side of the state Sunday evening, President Donald Trump supported Iowa's Republican candidates, including Lahn, during his second visit to the state in as many weeks.

Iowa has a number of races that election forecasters and some polls indicate could flip congressional majorities in favor of Democrats. The Cook Political Report has listed the race between Sand and Lahn as "lean Democrat."

At the event in Dubuque, Trump said Lahn was Iowa's "only choice" for governor.

"On election night, Iowa is going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it," Trump said before inviting Lahn and U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson on stage. "America belongs to those who love it."

Before rallying with Sand, Beshear was in Council Bluffs Sunday to support Josh Turek, the Democratic candidate running against Hinson for U.S. Senate.

Iowa Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, who is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn to represent Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, also rallied with Sand, Beshear and Vilsack on Sunday night.

Trone Garriott said her goal is to be someone who is "showing up" for Iowans.

"We need a new governor," Trone Garriott said. "And we also need to make sure that there is a Legislature that is not going to get in the way of our new governor's efforts to make life better for our neighbors. And we've got to send some people to Washington who are going to be showing up for the people of this state."

Vilsack said he was "grateful" and "proud" of the Democrats across the ballot, but that he was "most grateful" for Sand and his work to present a "blueprint for a different politics."

The Democrat and former governor said Sand's campaign has shown that it's "not the party label at the end of the day, it's the character of the candidate."

"It's the vision of the candidate that matters, and that leadership involves understanding that when you are the governor of this great state, you are not the governor of a specific party or a specific part of the state, you are governor of all of the state."

Encouraging attendees in the final push for the vote, Sand said that democracy is "not a spectator sport."

"I don't know what's on your to-do list for tomorrow or the day after that ... It's probably less important than winning a new direction for Iowa for literally decades to come," Sand said.