MAGA-aligned businessman Zach Lahn has released a new television advertisement attacking his Democratic rival in the Iowa governor's race, State Auditor Rob Sand — but a central detail of the spot is completely false.

"On our farm here in Belle Plain, we see it every day. Gas, groceries, everything's expensive. Iowa families are hurting," Lahn says in the ad (shared on X). "But Rob Sand wants to raise your taxes by $7,500 a year. You can look it up. He is a billionaire. He doesn't get what regular folks go through."

Sand is far from a billionaire. As political commentator Christopher Hale noted on X, Lahn's own net worth is roughly 10 times that of Sand's.

There is a billionaire named Robert Sands, who co-owns the Constellation Brands import company — the beverage-alcohol giant whose U.S. beer portfolio includes Corona and Modelo — but there is no relation between Rob Sand and Robert Sands.

The backdrop to the race is a long string of Democratic setbacks in Iowa. President Donald Trump has won the state's electors three times in a row, carrying Iowa in 2016, 2020 and 2024, and the GOP has beat back Democratic officeholders and office-seekers in the vast majority of major races over the last decade. The governorship itself is open this cycle: Republican Governor Kim Reynolds, who succeeded Terry Branstad in 2017 and won re-election in 2022, announced she will not seek another term.

The Iowa gubernatorial race, however, has attracted intense national attention. Sand, the only current Democrat to hold statewide Iowa office, first won the auditor's post in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022, and he is now making a well-funded and competitive bid for the top position — a job Democrats have not held since Chet Culver left office in January 2011. The respected, nonpartisan Cook Political Report concluded Sand is currently the favorite to win after a series of polls showed him ahead, and the fall contest will follow June 2026 primaries in which both parties pick their nominees.

Source: Rawstory