Rob Sand holds campaign event with new running mate at Manning restaurant
Dave Muhlbauer felt at home with the roughly 200 people packed into a restaurant in Crawford County to see him and his new political colleague.
“Our family’s been here a long time. You guys all know us,” said Muhlbauer, a farmer and county supervisor from Manilla whom Rob Sand picked to be his running mate in Iowa’s gubernatorial election.
Sand and Muhlbauer held their first campaign event together as the Democratic ticket for Iowa governor on Wednesday night in Manning.
Sand, the Iowa state auditor from Decorah, is the Democratic candidate for governor. Zach Lahn, an investment and venture firm owner from Belle Plaine, is the Republican candidate.
Muhlbauer’s nomination as Iowa Democrats’ lieutenant governor candidate will be made official Saturday at the party’s state convention.
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand speaks while his running mate, Dave Muhlbauer, watches during a campaign event in Manning on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
Dave Muhlbauer comes from a family that has a long record of public service: both his father, Dan Muhlbauer, and grandfather, Louis Muhlbauer, served as Crawford County supervisors and members of the Iowa legislature.
“The thing that I really take to heart with my family and their tradition is that when they talk about what they’re doing, whether it’s politics or farming or serving communities (through) public service, they just have this genuine care that they want to know that people are going to be OK, and that they can make good decisions to help them out. And the genuine care for people is just rooted in who they are,” Dave Muhlbauer said during Wednesday night’s event.
“That’s the way I approached being a (county) supervisor and a farmer, and that’s why it made it really, really easy for me to say yes to Rob — because Rob has that same genuine care that my family has.”
Lahn has not announced his running mate and lieutenant governor nominee. That person will be formally appointed Saturday at the Republican Party of Iowa’s state convention.
During the Wednesday event, Sand and Muhlbauer were asked about water quality, artificial intelligence and data centers, small town economic development and innovation, education and the state’s taxpayer-funded financial assistance for private school tuition, and transgender athletes — a topic that was broached during a Q&A with the audience.
Sand said he agrees with the recent state law that prohibits transgender girls from playing in girls sports and disagrees with the removal of transgender Iowans from the state’s Civil Rights Act.
“I do agree with that (law that bars transgender girls from girls sports). They shouldn’t. It’s not fair,” Sand said, drawing a small smattering of boos from the back of the crowd. “Everybody is created in the image of God. And I always try to go by the golden rule. That doesn’t mean that you give people an opportunity that isn’t fair for others.”
Dave Muhlbauer, the Democratic lieutenant governor candidate, poses for photos with supporters after a campaign event in Manning on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
Republican decry audio clip
Earlier Wednesday, Iowa Republicans pointed to audio from a prior campaign event in which Sand talked about statehouse Republicans’ changes to the state’s system for nominating judges.
Republicans said Sand’s comments contradict his campaign messaging as a candidate who wants to work with both political parties.
Iowa Republicans passed legislation that gave the governor more authority in the state’s judicial nominating process. They changed state law to give the governor more appointees on the commissions that nominate judicial candidates from which the governor chooses.
Republicans at the time said the change was needed to provide balance on the commissions, which they felt were dominated by lawyers. Democrats and other critics asserted the changes politicized the commissions.
In the audio, which was posted on social media by the conservative political website Iowa Field Report, Sand said he would like to reverse those changes but would make the change effective for after his four-year term as governor would end.
“Because they need to take their medicine on that one, don’t they,” Sand says in the audio. “You want to have a governor who has more impact on how the judges get appointed in Iowa? Well, we’re going to have that for a little while, then, because that’s what you asked for, isn’t it?”
Rob Sand and Dave Muhlbauer, the Democratic ticket in Iowa’s gubernatorial election, talk to reporters at a campaign event in Manning on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
The Republican Party of Iowa and the Republican Governors Association issued statements about the video, and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and the Lahn campaign’s rapid response account made social media posts about it.
“Rob Sand and his entire campaign is one big fraud. ‘Better and Truer?’ More like bitter and bluer,” Republican Party of Iowa spokeswoman Jade Cichy said in a statement, referring to one of Sand’s campaign slogans, “Not redder or bluer, but better and truer.”
“Make no mistake: if Sand becomes governor, his administration would be focused on settling political scores, not solving problems,” Cichy said. “The mask has slipped, and Iowans can see exactly what a Sand administration would look like — revenge first, leadership second.”
Speaking to reporters after Wednesday’s campaign event, Sand affirmed his comments from his previous event and deflected the criticism that it conflicts with his campaign messages of unity and working across political lines.
“It does not conflict with my message of accountability,” Sand said. “(Iowa Republicans) did a thing that they know is wrong, and I’m literally out there saying if elected governor I will actually take away my own power before I would have a second term. I would say that’s a good thing to do."
“But I’m a big believer in accountability," Sand added. "If you say you want a thing, then let’s give it to you.”
