Citizen-run Iowa accountability project. We follow the money, check the claims and link the receipts. Independent. Biased in favor of the truth.
Iowa, USA
Joined September 2026
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1/8 👋 A quick introduction to Iowa First Check.
We’re an independent citizen-journalism project tracking Iowa’s 2026 governor’s race between Rob Sand and Zach Lahn.
Our goal is simple: keep facts, records and context in the discussion.
iowafirstcheck.com
Iowa First Check retweeted
Actually, considering how the Iowa GOP has driven the state into the ground under single party rule, that seems to boost the Register's credibility...
You forgot about the Black Hawk County Sheriff, WCF Financial and your running mate’s parents who are also all trying to doom your campaign with LIES AND DECEIT.
The whole fucking planet is against poor little average Iowa farmer Zach Lahn. Someone hand him a Kleenex.
Zach Lahn claimed he wasn’t paid for Wonder but was. Best case scenario they are both rich liars. May well be…not sure why Lahn thinks he has any room to talk when they post about these issues and almost nothing on policies.
Rob Sand claims that he has no other income outside of his state salary.
In 2022, his salary was $103,212... That same year, he personally donated $131,000 to his Auditor campaign and an additional $30,000 to the Iowa Democrat Party.
He donated more money to his own campaign than he made as a state employee.
Rob is actively hiding how wealthy he is from Iowans-- and it's because it would reveal that he's a billionaire trying to buy an election.
Be nice to fuckwits like Gary. They don’t want to have to use words that make sense to make their points. Agree with their gibberish.
Iowa First Check retweeted
Zach Lahn - not his in-laws, ZACH- reportedly sold a $5M ski-in, ski-out mansion in Montana in Oct. ‘25.
Since June, the Republican Governors Association has donated $15.5M to Lahn (70-75% of recent cash donations).
@thomasarchitect, you need to think your attacks through.
Rob Sand’s family sold a $77M Colorado ranch in 2024.
One of the biggest sales in state history. 👀
That kind of liquidity helps explain the nearly $13 million his wife and in-laws have put into his campaign.
That’s not “grassroots.” That’s one family funding a candidate.
Vote Zach Lahn for Governor.
#LahnForGovernor #IowaFirst #LFG
Gary doesn’t know the definition of majority maybe. Its over 50%.
Rob Sand’s family donations aren’t even a plurality of his support. It is easily measurable. How did people like Gary become so fucking dumb?
Kauffman is a blabbering dumbfuck. However Rob Sand has made his stance clear on this topic, and it has angered many on the left.
.@RobSandIA wants us to believe he’s a moderate, but he’s bringing in the former Democrat Minority Leader who led the charge against banning men from girls’ sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms and prohibiting gender identity instruction in schools to stump for him. #IAGov
If I lived in Iowa, but got all my mail in Kansas, that would be wildly inconvenient.
I also thought this was a really odd defense. I assume @ZachLahn got surprised and will now have to clean it up. Like he did with the “as much as humanly possible” line.
Defense of 24 absentee ballot being mailed to Kansas is my favorite part:
“All my official mail has gone to my assistant for years,” he explained.
So his assistant is in… Kansas? #IAGov
Iowa First Check retweeted
I typically am of the thought I won’t run for Congress again in my new hometown, although it’s bluer where I am than where I ran. But then, I see another Dem candidate fall for the trans bait bullshit in a way that will not get them any additional votes but will cost them Dem votes, and I think about running again someday just so I can run an ad saying trans rights are human rights and that I’m not going to take the bait. Our trans friends are not a political inconvenience. They are 4x more likely to be victims of assault, and do not themselves pose an above-baseline threat to anyone. You can’t be the party of justice and human rights while throwing such a harmed and vulnerable community under the bus. It just doesn’t work.
17.5% of Zach Lahn’s donations have come from individuals, much lower than Rob Sand has received whether you count his whole political career or just this cycle.
So, Rob Sand is certainly closer to grassroots than Lahn is.
iowafirstcheck.com/money.htm…
Rob Sand’s family wrote him an $11M check from their fertilizer empire and called it “grassroots.” Zach Lahn loaned his own campaign $2.5M, took the RGA money every nominee gets, and still gets the “divorce settlement” smear from the NYT.
One’s running on Iowa issues. The other’s running on his in-laws’ checkbook.
Iowa First Check retweeted
By this logic, Annie Lahn and 3 of the children Zach claims to father are from a billionaire family. Not hypothetical billionaires; Forbes list billionaires.
.@ZachLahn: "My opponent is from a billionaire family and they're trying to buy this election... but as we go around the state,... we're seeing more and more consolidation and more people come to our team and we believe that this is a race we're going to win on November 3."
Iowa First Check retweeted
TRUMP on HIGH GAS PRICES: We’re making money like we’ve never made before. They’ll say: President Trump is bragging about all the money they're making while people are suffering at the pump. I don’t give a damn. We’re making a freaking fortune.
Guessing @ZachLahn will say this story is another @RobSand plant.
The @nytimes details Lahn’s deeper-than-acknowledged Koch ties, consulting payments approaching $250K a year—and reports that he had his 2024 Iowa ballot be mailed to Kansas, saying his mail goes to his assistant.
Gift link -
nytimes.com/2026/10/25/us/po…
Iowa First Check retweeted
Not the main point of this article, but wow:
"Mr. Lahn cast an Iowa ballot in the 2024 general election. But voting records that have not previously been reported show he requested that his ballot be mailed to him — in Kansas."
I did not think to check that!
NEW: Zach Lahn launched his campaign for IA gov surrounded by 7 kids from his "blended" family.
The event came as a surprise to the father of three of the featured children.
Chase Koch.
Inside Lahn’s complicated history with the Kochs w/ @bethreinhard nytimes.com/2026/10/25/us/po…
1/ Iowa has passed 200,000 early ballots received.
Today’s total: 207,858—up 40,607 from yesterday and 24.4% ahead of the comparable 2022 report. Yesterday, that lead was 22.4%.
iowafirstcheck.com/early-vot…
2/ Growth in ballots received versus the same point in 2022:
No-party voters: +59.0%
Republicans: +26.8%
Democrats: +14.6%
Republicans now account for the largest numerical increase: 14,069 additional ballots.
Party registration does not tell us how someone voted.