(Iowa Capital Dispatch) Crawford County Supervisor Dave Muhlbauer was officially nominated and approved Saturday at the Iowa Democratic Party state convention as State Auditor Rob Sand’s running mate for the 2026 Iowa gubernatorial campaign.
Muhlbauer, a fifth-generation farmer, said Iowans are upset with the state’s direction, and that the state is “potentially looking” at a farm crisis, citing tariffs and a six-year high in farm bankruptcies. He called for “rotating the crops” — in other words, changing the state’s elected leadership — to address these issues.
“People are frustrated, they see who our current elected officials serve and it is powerful insiders and special interests and they feel left behind,” Muhlbauer said. “I am a real farmer and know a thing or two about rotating crops. Let me say this loud and clearly, it is time to rotate the crops here in Iowa.”
The IDP state convention was held at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, with 423 people in attendance. The event featured speeches from Iowa Democrats running for statewide and federal office, including Muhlbauer, Sand, state Rep. Josh Turek, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate and Taylor Wettach, a candidate for state auditor and lawyer from Muscatine.
Sand and Muhlbauer spoke with reporters after their speeches. When asked about criticism from Republicans wh0 allege his family farm has contributed to water pollution, Muhlbauer said he found the attacks “ironic and hypocritical.”
“I just find it rich that they want to attack farmers. It just tells me how disconnected they are with the challenge we face,” Muhlbauer said. “I feel like I’m better suited to face those challenges and help fix the problem. Farmers want to be a part of the solution and they want their voices to be heard.”
Farmer and businessman Zach Lahn, the Republican candidate for governor, has faced criticism from Democrats, including the Sand campaign, for previously living and being registered to vote in Kansas as of 2024. Lahn routinely flies back and forth from Kansas to Iowa as some of Lahn’s children are based in Wichita. Lahn is also a co-founder of a private school in Wichita.
In a June 9 statement on X, Lahn accused the Sand campaign of lying about his Kansas residency, claiming that the Gazette misquoted him by reporting that he and his family would “move to and live in Iowa full-time” if elected governor. Lahn also claimed that Sand believes that all illegal immigrants “deserve a place” in Iowa.
“I’m a sixth-generation Iowan living on the same farm that’s been in our family for 125 years. I never said anything like this. Notice there’s no quote? It’s because they don’t have one. I didn’t say it,” Lahn said. “Rob Sand claims to be a different kind of politician, but he started this campaign by lying about me and my children in a deeply personal way. Meanwhile, Rob thinks every illegal deserves a place in Iowa, but our family isn’t Iowa enough for him?”
When asked about Lahn’s comments, Sand said all his campaign has done is “repeat” Lahn’s own words.
“He said, ‘If elected, I will change my living situation and be here as much as humanly possible,’” Sand said. “This is a guy who admits he’s not really in Iowa all that much. That’s all. That’s not a lie. It’s his own words. People should hear them. I want everybody in this state to hear those words from Zach Lahn because I think it tells you most of what you need to know.”
Sand added that accusations from Lahn and other Republicans claiming he thinks “every illegal deserves a place in Iowa” is a “lie.” He said he believes Ian Roberts, former Des Moines Public Schools superintendent, should be deported.
“They don’t want to have a conversation about what they’ve been doing in Iowa with 10 years of one-party control. I have said repeatedly, people who have a criminal record, we ought to just deport him. I don’t know why we’re paying to put Ian Roberts in prison,” Sand said. “We’re giving him three hots and a cot, and he’s not supposed to be here. We ought to just send him away. I agree that people who are attacking public safety are harming public safety, I have been clear from the beginning that I don’t want them here, but they’re going to lie about what I believe, because they don’t want to talk about what they’ve done.”
During his speech, Sand said that Iowa has ranked toward the bottom of the U.S. in key metrics under one-party leadership.
“We have arrived at the point where, for the last three years, we have averaged 48th for personal income growth,” Sand said. “We are 50th for economic growth and we are number one for cancer growth. Just this week, the Annie E. Casey Foundation said that we are in the bottom half for education. That’s not good enough.”
Sand said when he was growing up, Iowa had a government where Republicans and Democrats worked together, despite differences, and that has been missing in the state over the past decade.
“We haven’t had that in the state of Iowa for a long time,” he said. He accused Republicans of misplaced priorities, saying as Iowa’s educational ranking is in the “bottom half” of the country, “those jokes over in the State Capitol building” are focused on making the state auditor’s job harder.
Turek, Wettach express optimism about flipping seats
Turek, who defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls to win the Democratic nomination for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat in a heated primary race, received loud cheers and a few boos from attendees when taking the stage. He did not address the boos.
Turek said that the 2026 election presents an opportunity for Democrats to gain control in Iowa, saying that he is hopeful about the party’s chances.
“This is not the Iowa I grew up in. This is not the state that we all love, but I’m also feeling hope here in Iowa for the first time in a very long time,” Turek said. “The status quo is not working. We need to fight for the people, not the billionaires and large corporations.”
Wettach, during his speech, said he believes Democrats have the best chance to gain more control in Iowa in a decade.
“As your state auditor, I would expand transparency, so folks know where their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are going,” Wettach said. “Democrats, independents and Republicans are recognizing how vital this fight is and how important it is to make sure we continue to have an independent watchdog in this office. This is the year we have the best chance that we have had in 10 years to turn things back in our state, but it’s going to take everybody.”
Photo: Crawford County Supervisor Dave Muhlbauer, lieutenant governor candidate left, and State Auditor Rob Sand, gubernatorial candidate take questions from media members after their speeches at the Iowa Democratic Party state convention, June 13, 2026, Roosevelt High School, Des Moines. (Photo by Kadin Luhmann/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
