(KIWA) — More than 70 people attended a campaign stop with Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn Friday night, October 16, at the Forster Community Center in Rock Rapids.
Lahn spoke and answered audience questions for about an hour while the Central Lyon/George-Little Rock Lions played their final regular-season football game just blocks away.
During his remarks, Lahn also highlighted a personal connection to the community, saying he lived in Rock Rapids as a small child.
Campaign Priorities and Property Taxes
Asked why he is running for governor, Lahn pointed to protecting Iowa’s culture and addressing long-term challenges.
“I’m running to protect the culture. That’s why I got in this race in the very first place. I think, you know, people understand that if we don’t have safe communities, law enforcement that supported good schools, we don’t have a high trust society that we’re building into that a lot of the other things really don’t matter. But the long term systemic issues is what I’ve been running on since the beginning, keeping our kids in the state, saving family farms, making public education number one in the nation, and stopping the cancer crisis in our state.”
Lahn was also asked about the most challenging issues people raise on the campaign trail.
“Property taxes. It’s one of the biggest issues we face, and there’s not a simple answer to it because they’re funds that are needed on the local level and they’re, you know, they’re going to essential services oftentimes. But that’s probably one of the most challenging ones to say, how do we provide real, meaningful long term reform and change? And I think Iowa could be one of the first states in the country to provide that for single family primary residences. And so that’s probably one of the most most challenging that people are facing.”
Iowa Residency and Rock Rapids Roots
Asked why opponent Rob Sand’s campaign claims he does not live in Iowa, Lahn disputed the allegation.
“He’s not telling the truth, and that’s been debunked many times. Actually, one of the news organizations that is very friendly to him actually fact checked that as well and said that he’s not telling the truth about this. And so I spent a handful of years in Kansas. I have a blended family, my kids split time. I’ve been very open about this. But you know, I’m an Iowan, have been an Iowan. I grew up in northwest Iowa myself. I left and came back like so many Iowa kids.”
During his speech, Lahn said his family lived in Rock Rapids when he was a small child. He said his sister was born at Merrill Pioneer Community Hospital in Rock Rapids in 1989 while the family lived in the community.
While Lahn owns property in Kansas, he and his family live in Belle Plaine, Iowa, where he is registered to vote.
October 21 Debate to be Rescheduled
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand has withdrawn from the October 21 debate on Iowa PBS following the death of his brother-in-law, 42-year-old Walter Lauridsen, who was struck by a vehicle on a southern Iowa highway last Thursday.
Sand’s campaign says he is focused on his family and is working with Lahn’s campaign to reschedule. Lahn expressed support for Sand’s decision and asked Iowans to pray for the family.
The candidates have debated twice and are also scheduled to meet October 27 on KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids.
