Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn pitched his “Iowa First” campaign platform to local voters during a town hall event at the Sioux Center Public Library on Monday night. Lahn, a first-time candidate and one of five Republicans vying for the nomination in the June 2 primary, outlined a platform centered on rural economic preservation, public school reform, and the state’s escalating public health concerns.
Curbing Corporate Out-migration and Land Ownership
Lahn expressed deep concern regarding economic trends affecting local populations, raising an alarm over youth demographics.
He emphasized the cultural stakes of this demographic shift, noting that “you cannot pass on your culture and your traditions if your people are leaving.” To retain young residents, Lahn suggested implementing targeted financial incentives, saying, “if you’ve graduated from Iowa high school or Iowa College, having an incentive to move back home, maybe it’s an income tax abatement to help with a down payment on a home, to bring our people back.”
Lahn also addressed the loss of approximately 10,000 family farms over the last two decades, attributing the decline directly to out-of-state entities.
Lahn targeted large investment firms expanding into residential properties, stating, “There’s a trillion dollar hedge fund that’s buying up single family homes. It’s called Blackstone… buying up single family homes and then renting them back to Iowa’s young people and to create a class of renters versus owners.” He pledged decisive action to block the practice: “As governor, I will absolutely sign legislation that bars institutional investors from buying single family homes in the state of Iowa, because our neighborhoods are not profit centers for Wall Street.”
Transforming Public Education
On education, Lahn emphasized the need for executive leadership to actively champion the public system school system.
He argued that current metrics fall short, stating that “right now we are teaching a lot to standardized testing.” To address this, Lahn recommended sweeping structural changes to foster better classroom autonomy: “The governor can come in and create innovation zones to take out the red tape and the bureaucracy, to allow superintendents and teachers to innovate in the classroom, and parents to opt in to different models of schooling.”
Additionally, Lahn proposed a zero-tolerance policy for political agendas in public classrooms, asserting that accountability must be enforced at the state level: “if a teacher is found to be indoctrinated, a student in the class pushing political viewpoints, that the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners will be tasked with revoking the teaching licenses of those teachers.”
Addressing the Water Quality and Cancer Crisis
A major theme of the town hall focused on environmental safety and public health. Lahn linked rising levels of nitrates and agricultural chemicals in Iowa’s groundwater to the state’s historically high cancer rates, framing environmental safety as an ideological priority: “clean water is a pro-life issue” and “lowering our cancer rates is a pro-life issue.”
Lahn delivered a stark warning regarding the severity of the public health metrics.
To address these concerns, Lahn called for independent, state-sponsored scientific research rather than a total reliance on federal regulatory agencies that he believes have been captured by industry interests. When asked how local institutions like Dordt University could contribute to these efforts following a recent water quality research grant, Lahn praised the potential of local student researchers.
Lahn concluded by framing water quality, chemical corporate liability, and public safety as central tenets of a long-term conservative platform heading into the primary election on June 2.
