Zach Lahn (R)
Republican nominee · Previous political staffer, campaign manager, fundraiser
Visit campaign site →Sixth-generation Iowan raised in Plymouth County. Earned a political science degree from the University of Colorado in 2009. In 2014 he purchased the farmhouse built by his great-great-grandfather. He lives there with his wife, Annie, whom he co-founded Wonder School with in 2018. They co-parent seven children. Certified FAA pilot. No prior elected office.
Lahn was a Republican campaign staffer for over a decade, working across three states directly out of college. He was a staffer to Colorado State Senator Greg Brophy in 2009, deputy campaign manager for Cory Gardner's 2010 U.S. House race in Colorado and staff assistant in Gardner's congressional office in 2011, and campaign manager for Steve Daines' 2012 U.S. House race in Montana and state director in Daines' congressional office from 2012 to 2013. He returned to Iowa in July 2013 to manage David Young's campaign in Iowa's 3rd Congressional District, and in January 2014 joined the campaign of Young's primary rival, former Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz. Young ultimately won the nomination and the seat. In 2014, Lahn became Montana state director for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group founded by Charles and David Koch that lobbies for lower taxes, lighter regulation, and limited government. Lahn stepped down from state director after he led AFP's unsuccessful campaign against Montana's Medicaid expansion, moving to a fundraising role through 2018.
In 2018 he co-founded Wonder, a private K-12 school in Wichita, Kansas, where he is listed as co-founder and "head of school." The school was launched by Annie Koch, at the time married to the son of Charles Koch, and Lahn. He also founded Homeplace Ventures in 2016, an agriculture, real estate, and technology investment firm, and was a founding board member of the Jordan B. Peterson Institute. Lahn was also an early investor in and director of FirmTech, a men's sexual health company.
Lahn says he moved back to Iowa in 2023. Voter records show he registered in Iowa in October 2024 after voting in Kansas in 2018, 2020, and 2022. He describes his 2026 gubernatorial run as a self-funded outsider campaign and is his first candidacy for elected office.
Cornerstone of his campaign and the basis for MAHA Action's first-ever endorsement. His water plan funds IWILL (Iowa's Water and Land Legacy trust) and pays farmers "stackable" incentives for practices like saturated buffers in the most affected watersheds, rather than new taxes or regulation, which he says would accelerate farm consolidation. He supports independent state safety testing of farm chemicals and would push the legislature to ban paraquat. He would veto any bill granting pesticide companies liability immunity and proposes state pricing on early cancer-detection blood tests for vulnerable Iowans. He also supports ending school vaccine requirements, saying the choice belongs to parents and doctors.
Lahn says the farm economy is why he entered the race, and he pledges antitrust suits against consolidated agricultural input companies and meatpackers. He would create a higher property tax class for farmland owned by out-of-state investors, with exemptions for Iowans who live on and farm their land, and would confiscate any Iowa land illegally owned by China. He would reserve state economic development incentives for Iowa-headquartered companies and opposes eminent domain for private projects like the carbon pipeline. He also backs "farm freedom" bills letting farmers sell more products, including meat, directly to neighbors, and a goal of at least 80% Iowa-grown food in public school meals.
Lahn calls youth outmigration his top issue after cancer, stating that Iowa ranks fourth in the nation for young people leaving the state. He proposes letting Iowa high school graduates opt into a full state income tax exemption, with the exempted money deposited into an account usable only for a down payment on a first home in Iowa. The program would also be open to Iowa graduates who move back, and he has said it would likely be targeted at shortage fields such as the trades, nursing, and mental health. He frames it as both an affordability measure and a message that Iowa wants its young people to stay.
Lahn frames his outsider campaign as the answer to insider corruption, saying he answers "only to God, my family, and the people of this state," and argues that politicians in both parties have ignored Iowa's problems while special interests dominate. He criticizes a "revolving door" between large companies and regulators such as the EPA, which he says has let industry influence government decisions. He has not taken a public position on reversing Senate File 478 (the bill passed to limit the state auditor's authority) or on Sand's proposed term limits, open primaries, or mandatory town halls.
Lahn says Iowa's privatized Medicaid is "largely working" and would keep the managed care model. He would bar insurers from owning pharmacies or providers, use AI to detect fraud, and prohibit AI from denying claims. He opposes full cannabis legalization, citing studies he says show minimal revenue gains in Colorado, but supports expanding medical access. He would keep ESAs (Education Savings Accounts) with third-party audits, and he says data centers should pay their full share of power costs and higher property taxes, with counties free to pause new projects.
- President Donald Trump
- Republican Party of Iowa
- Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement
- Turning Point Action
- Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds
- CEO of The Family Leader, Bob Vander Plaats
- Former U.S. Rep. Steve King
- Total individual contributions: 6,113
- In-state: By count: 4,914 of 6,113 (80.4%) By dollar volume: $4,657,478 of $24,566,507 (19.0%)
- Out-of-state: By count: 1,199 of 6,113 (19.6%) By dollar volume: $19,909,029 of $24,566,507 (81.0%)
- Small-dollar donors ($100 or less): By count: 4,539 of 6,113 (74.3%) By dollar volume: $187,849 of $24,566,507 (0.8%)
Source: Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board (IECDB), as of October 14, 2026. webapp.iowa.gov/iecdb
