Rob Sand, Iowa's Only Democrat in Statewide Office, to Run for Governor
Rob Sand, Iowa's elected state auditor and the only Democrat now holding a major political office in the state, said on Monday that he would run for governor next year, boosting his party's hopes of gaining a policymaking foothold in a place that Republicans dominate.
Mr. Sand has won two statewide elections, but to become governor he would need to overcome a decade of political trends favoring Republicans. Since President Trump became the leader of the party, Iowa Republicans have amassed large legislative majorities and won all six seats in the state's congressional delegation.
The incumbent governor, Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said last month that she would not seek re-election to a third full term, setting up an open Republican primary that could attract several prominent conservatives.
Iowa is expected to be one of several Midwest states with closely contested governor's races next year. Republicans are hoping to capture governorships now held by Democrats in Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Mr. Sand has been a highly visible state auditor, examining state agencies and at times clashing with Ms. Reynolds. He has also worked to build a personal political brand that is distinct from his party. In his announcement video, posted to social media on Monday, he described his background as an auditor and prosecutor without once mentioning that he is a Democrat.
'I'm doing it because we need more public service and less politics,' Mr. Sand said in the video about his run for governor. 'A lot of politicians yap about making a place redder or bluer. I want Iowa to be better and truer.'
Iowa was once a swing state. Former President Barack Obama carried the state twice, and the Democrats had a majority in the State Senate until the 2016 election.
Under Ms. Reynolds, however, the state government has moved in a sharply conservative direction. Lawmakers have passed restrictions in recent years on abortion, transgender people and school library books, and have limited the power of Mr. Sand's office as auditor. So far, voters have rewarded the Republicans. Mr. Trump carried the state in each of the last three presidential elections, including by a 13-point margin in 2024.
Over that time, Mr. Sand has become a political outlier. Two other Democrats in statewide office, the treasurer and attorney general, lost their seats by narrow margins in the 2022 election. Mr. Sand won re-election that year by about 3,000 votes out of about 1.2 million cast.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
19 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' cracks down on Biden's student loan 'scheme,' top Republican says
The chairman of a key Senate panel is claiming victory against former President Joe Biden's student loan plans as part of President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill." "The Biden administration was attempting to forgive student loans for people who willingly took on the loan and required the taxpayer, including people who never went to college and would never make what the person who took the loan would ever have the hope to make," Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., told Fox News Digital. "So we end that transfer of that student loan on the taxpayers, and that's probably our biggest savings." Cassidy's committee released its portion of the Trump agenda bill late on Tuesday. A press release for the legislation said it "ends Biden's student loan schemes that transfer debt onto the 87 percent of Americans who chose to not go to college or already paid off their loans" and "also prevents future Democrat administrations from implementing schemes." The bill specifically takes aim at Biden's expansion of Borrower Defense to Repayment regulations and Closed School Discharge regulations, which Republicans have held up as costly policies that shift federal student loan borrowers' burdens onto other taxpayers. Various versions of Biden's plans had previously been struck down in court. The bill would also eliminate federal Grad PLUS loans, a program used by graduate-level and professional students to pay for their studies, which can be used for graduate students' entire cost of attendance. It would instead keep in place a $20,500 annual limit for Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans on graduate degrees, capped at $100,000 total, excluding undergraduate loans. For professional degrees, it keeps a $50,000 annual unsubsidized loan limit and a $200,000 total cap. The legislation is also aimed at cracking down on taxpayer funding subsidizing degrees from lower-performing universities. Colleges that see people with undergraduate degrees earn less than the typical high school graduate in their state, or graduate programs where attendees then earn less than the normal bachelor's recipient, would be blocked from federal student loan programs. "What we've got was a situation where people can borrow more money than they can effectively pay back, and that destroys their life, leaving them with a debt burden which keeps them unable to do other things in life. And there's at least some sense that universities offering these programs know that's the case. And so we attempt to fix that," Cassidy said. "So we have provisions that would say that if the degree being acquired does not end up paying more, the person receiving that degree doesn't get more on average than a person who did not get that degree, then the federal government is not going to lend them money." To encourage more people to pursue non-collegiate degrees, the bill would also establish a Workforce Pell Grant. Pell Grants are currently aimed at low-income students pursuing bachelor's degrees and are generally not repaid. "For example, a student gets a commercial driver's license. They're going to go out and make $100,000 a year after a couple of years of driving, I am told. And so we want to enable those people to accomplish that," Cassidy said. Foreign income would be taken into account when evaluating Pell Grants, while farm and small business assets would not, under the GOP bill. Those and several other measures in the legislation would add up to roughly $300 billion in taxpayer savings, Cassidy said. Senate Republicans are currently working through their version of Trump's massive agenda bill, which passed the House late last month. Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to pass a sweeping bill advancing Trump's agenda on taxes, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. They are also working to use it to bring down the national debt – nearing $37 trillion – with the aim of cutting $1.5 trillion in federal spending. Reconciliation allows the party in power to completely skirt the minority, in this case Democrats, by lowering the Senate's threshold to advance from 60 votes to 51. The legislation must adhere to a specific set of rules, however, including measures that deal with the budget, taxation, or the national debt. Both the House and Senate must agree to identical versions of the bill before it gets to Trump's desk for a signature. The House's version passed 215 to 214, and leaders there have implored the upper chamber to change as little as possible. Cassidy acknowledged there were some changes made but was optimistic about how they'll be met in the House. "There's several things, but one thing I think that they're going to like is that we do fully fund the Pell Grant program. You know, we address the shortfall there. And so I think they're going to like it," he said. "It's going to give low-income students access to career education. We need those kind of career type jobs to make sure that all this manufacturing and construction has a workforce to address it. And so we think it helps the needs of society. We think it helps the needs of the student." House and Senate GOP leaders had previously set a goal of having a bill on Trump's desk by the Fourth of July. Cassidy declined to comment on whether that was a feasible benchmark but argued that lawmakers should be ready to extend that timeline – and possibly shrink their summer recess – to get the final product. "As far as I'm concerned, the most important thing is to get it right. So if there is a delay, the president said it today – if there is a delay, that's not that big of a deal. The most important thing is we get it right," he said.
CBS News
19 minutes ago
- CBS News
Kosovo agrees to accept U.S. deportations of migrants from other countries
The European country of Kosovo has agreed to a Trump administration request to allow the U.S. to deport a small group of migrants to the landlocked Balkan nation who are not from there, U.S. and Kosovar officials told CBS News. Officials in Kosovo, Europe's youngest country, agreed to host 50 deportees from other countries, the latest agreement in a broader and aggressive effort by the Trump administration to convince countries around the world to accept migrants who are not their citizens. In a statement to CBS News, Kosovo's embassy in the U.S. confirmed the deportation agreement. "In response to the request from the United States regarding the reception and relocation of third-country nationals, we have expressed our willingness to cooperate with the United States in addressing this matter under established conditions," the embassy said. Kosovo's embassy said the deal would allow 50 deportees from other nations to be "temporarily relocated" to Kosovo, while officials there work to facilitate "their safe return to their home country." It's unclear who exactly could be sent by the U.S. to Kosovo or which countries they would be from. Typically, the U.S. uses third country deportation agreements to deport migrants whose home countries won't take them back, in some cases because of strained diplomatic relations. Kosovo's embassy said the government in Pristina would seek "the opportunity to select individuals from a proposed pool, provided they meet specific criteria related to the rule of law and public order." In a statement to CBS News, the U.S. State Department said, "We welcome cooperation on this key Trump Administration priority." "We are grateful to our partner Kosovo for receiving third country nationals removed from the United States and facilitating those aliens' safe return to their home countries," the State Department added. Formerly part of Yugoslavia, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. The country is recognized by more than 100 nations, including the U.S. But other nations do not recognize its independence, including Serbia, which considers Kosovo one of its regions. Kosovo considers the U.S. one of its strongest allies on the international stage. After the chaotic American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, Kosovo agreed to host Afghan evacuees who required extra vetting due to security flags. Since President Trump began his second term and launched a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration, the U.S. government has approached nations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other parts of the world, seeking deportation deals. The second Trump administration has already deported several hundred Asian and African migrants to Costa Rica and Panama. It sent more than 200 Venezuelans accused of gang ties to El Salvador, where they were imprisoned at an infamous mega-prison. And it has tried to deport migrants to violence-torn Libya and South Sudan, though those efforts have been stymied by U.S. courts.
Forbes
20 minutes ago
- Forbes
JD Vance Calls Lack Of Rate Cuts ‘Malpractice' After Soft Inflation
Vice President JD Vance went after the Federal Reserve for declining to lower interest rates, as President Donald Trump has continuously demanded, in the latest White House criticism of the historically operationally independent central bank. Vance's criticism followed the May consumer price index release which revealed less inflation than ... More economists expected. 'The president has been saying this for a while, but it's even more clear: the refusal by the Fed to cut rates is monetary malpractice,' Vance posted to the X social media platform Wednesday morning. Vance's critique came immediately after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released May's consumer price index inflation report, which revealed less price increases than economists anticipated. Trump has loudly called for the Fed to lower rates since taking office in January, even teasing the firing of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
