(Iowa Capital Dispatch) As Republicans running for Iowa governor took the stage for another debate, the candidates honed in on policy differences regarding issues like legal immigration and addressing Iowa’s high cancer rates.
Four of the five GOP gubernatorial candidates — farmer and businessman Zach Lahn, former Iowa Department of Administrative Services director Adam Steen, state Rep. Eddie Andrews and former state lawmaker Brad Sherman — participated in the event, recorded Saturday and aired Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, who is also running to become the Republican nominee, declined participating the debate, hosted by KCCI and Gray Media. Feenstra also skipped debates held by Iowa Press in April and Moms for Liberty in January.
While Iowa has had a Republican governor since 2010 with former Gov. Terry Branstad and Gov. Kim Reynolds, the candidates shared areas where they saw room for improvement.
Iowa’s high and growing cancer rate was one of the issues discussed as a top concern for candidates. While Reynolds and the GOP-controlled Legislature have taken steps to research the causes driving Iowa’s cancer rates higher than the national average and surrounding states, the candidates said they would take additional steps to address potential risk factors if elected.
Lahn, who has been endorsed by the Make America Healthy Again PAC, said environmental factors were “absolutely” involved in Iowa having higher rates. He pointed to issues like high nitrate loads in Iowa waterways and farmers’ exposure to glyphosate, a chemical pesticide, as factors behind new and increasing cancer instances. He spoke against proposals to provide pesticide companies immunity against “failure to warn” lawsuits related to consumers developing cancer canter using their products — and criticized some readings of the Iowa Cancer Registry findings that show farmers have a lower cancer instance rate than the average state population.
“That report that came out that said farmers have lower instances of cancer — that is not actually what it says,” Lahn said. “What it says, they have lower total cancer, and what that’s attributed to, per the report, is a healthy lifestyle factor. When you look at the specific cancers that are caused by these products, they are actually much higher in their cancer rate. We have to do this because for a long time, large companies have been lying to our farmers about the safety of their products, and we need to get truth on our side.”
On nitrates, Lahn also said the state needs to do more to “incentivize different types of nitrogen application for our farmers” to reduce runoff through refundable tax credits for implementing best practices.
Other candidates, including Sherman, said they supported making nitrate reduction methods — currently voluntary for farmers — required in order to address the state’s water quality problems. While he did not specify what kind of requirements he would support, Sherman said he believed there more stringent requirements in place, saying the issue was a “life issue.”
“It is the job of government to protect life. That is one of government’s primary jobs, … so, yes, government has to get involved,” Sherman said. “Now, we can do lots of different things to educate people and make it voluntary, but when lives are being threatened, government has to step in. So, I think there’s a balance there that we have to find. We don’t want to force people, but there is a place for governments to step in and regulate and say, ‘we have to protect life.’”
Steen said he believed “government has usurped its authority, and it jumps into areas that it shouldn’t jump into,” and said he did not believe a move to “over-regulate” industries would solve the state’s water quality program. He said he believed Iowa farmers were voluntarily working to address the issue, and that current rules set by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and other government entities are inhibiting efforts to reduce nitrate loads.
“I believe in our farmers, I believe in Iowans,” Steen said. “I believe they’re doing what they’re called to do, and I believe that they’re doing everything they can do to protect their families and the families across Iowa. … Through the DNR, there are antiquated rules right now that don’t allow proper testing for innovation. Up in northwest Iowa right now, there’s products and services that Iowa farmers can use right now that would spot-check where nitrates are being put on, too much or too little, within their fields. DNR regulation does not allow that product and that service to exist, and we need to get rid of those regulations.”
Candidates differ on legal immigration to fill jobs
While all candidates have spoken in support of Trump administration efforts to deport individuals who have committed crimes, the GOP gubernatorial hopefuls also shared differing views on how best to approach changes to the legal immigration system — particularly in providing H-1B visas to temporary foreign workers. Andrews said he has worked as a co-pastor for a Hispanic church and worked to help some people get legal immigration status, but believed that more focus needed to be put on American-born workers.
“I talked to a young lady who’s like 20 years old, literally 150 applications she put in, and she’s just looking for a reasonable wage,” Andrews said. “And so, I think we do need to prioritize Iowans and Americans here (first), and as people come and are welcomed into and assimilated into our society and become Americans second.”
Lahn said in a campaign ad he would support banning H-1B visa holders from being employed by the Iowa state government and universities if elected — and added that he would require state contracts to include information on how many Iowans will be hired, which he said would “be inversely correlated to how many H1-Bs you have.”
While some business organizations and employers have pointed to immigrant and foreign workers as a way to address current workforce shortages in the state, Lahn said he believed the H-1B program “is one of the most abused immigration programs that we have,” proposing these jobs go to Iowans.
“The reason is, Iowa people will do these jobs. I reject the idea that our people won’t do these jobs,” Lahn said. “We have some of the most hardworking kids in the country. You go to any other state, and you graduate from Iowa high school or Iowa college, you give them a resume, it says you’re from Iowa. What do they say? ‘We love hiring Iowans.’ I want to be hiring those Iowans here, that’s why we need to bring our kids back home, and that’s what we’ll be fighting for as governor.”
Steen said he supported deportation efforts, especially as related to undocumented immigrants, but did not have issues with the current system in place for legal foreign workers.
“If they self-report, and they’re here legally and we know that and they’re tracking them, and they’re paying taxes, I’m all for it,” Steen said.
The five GOP candidates are appearing on the June 2 primary ballot, with the victor set to face off against Auditor Rob Sand, who is running unopposed as a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, in the 2026 general election.
