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Zach Lahn joins crowded Republican field for governor with ‘Iowa First’ message
Belle Plaine business owner launches campaign rooted in faith, family and defending rural communities
Nov. 6, 2025 4:30 pm, Updated: Nov. 6, 2025 5:10 pm
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BELLE PLAINE — Another Republican has entered Iowa’s increasingly competitive race for governor.
Zach Lahn, a business owner from Belle Plaine, announced his candidacy Thursday at his family farmhouse, pledging an “Iowa First” agenda focused on defending small towns, property rights and family farms from corporate and foreign control.
“I believe the soil beneath our feet is not a commodity for hedge funds or foreign governments,“ Lahn said in his campaign kickoff speech. ”It is inheritance. Iowa land belongs in Iowa hands. We will expose every shell company, ban secret ownership, and tax absentee investors and use the funds to help young Iowa families begin their farming legacy.“
Lahn’s campaign emphasizes themes of local stewardship, family and faith — and a populist challenge to large corporations and “career politicians.” A sixth-generation Iowan, Lahn said his roots in the state date to 1861, when his great-great-great-grandfather served in the Iowa Second Cavalry during the Civil War. His great-great-grandfather later settled in Belle Plaine and founded the family farm that Lahn and his wife, Annie, repurchased and restored more than a century later.
The couple operates Homeplace Ventures, an Iowa-based firm that invests in agriculture, real estate and rural revitalization projects. They also have worked to restore local landmarks such as Belle Plaine’s King Theater and the Chicago Northwestern Depot.
Lahn said his candidacy reflects a belief that Iowa’s future “depends on strong families, small towns, faith and hard work — and that the values Iowa was built on are worth defending.”
Criticizing ‘Big Ag’ and defending farmers
Lahn, who describes himself as a father, farmer and business owner, said his campaign will focus on protecting rural communities and independent farmers from what he called corporate exploitation.
“Our farmers know they’re being taken advantage of,” he told reporters. “If you grow an acre of corn in Brazil and an acre of corn in Iowa using identical inputs from the same companies, they charge Brazilian farmers under $50 less. That’s $2 billion going out of our state.”
He said he would consider antitrust actions against large agricultural corporations “because it’s the right thing for Iowans.”
Lahn also pledged to oppose the use of eminent domain to seize private farmland for private projects such as carbon pipelines.
“A farm that’s been in their family for 100 years can be taken for a private company — that’s wrong,” he said.
Aligning with Trump
Lahn said he admires President Donald Trump’s “courage” and “fight,” arguing Iowa needs that same approach in its next governor.
Lahn’s speech drew an enthusiastic hometown crowd, including supporters wearing red-and-white MAGA-style ballcaps, some emblazoned with “Iowa First LFG” — shorthand for Lahn For Governor, but also a tongue-in-cheek nod to the popular rallying cry, “Let’s F---ing Go!”
“I believe Donald J. Trump fought for America while the establishment fought him, and I believe Iowa deserves that same courage in its governor — someone who won’t bow, won’t bend, and won’t run,” Lahn said in his announcement speech.
He said tariffs can be a legitimate tool in defending U.S. farmers from foreign manipulation, noting, “We’re in a geopolitical battle with China … I trust Donald Trump on this.”
While praising the Iowa GOP’s record on taxes and family policy, Lahn criticized state leaders for ignoring what he called the “underlying issue” of corporate consolidation in agriculture.
“Agriculture is the lifeblood of Iowa,” he said. “When you see 10,000 family farms that have disappeared over the past 20 years … the only way we can fix it is by getting back to a fair playing field.”
A socially conservative platform
In his announcement speech, Lahn outlined a platform blending social conservatism with populist themes. He pledged to “protect the unborn,” bar teachers who “push political doctrine,” and ban gender-transition surgeries or medications for minors, saying “it’s not medicine, it’s harm done for profit.” Lahn also linked border security and the fentanyl crisis to his call for restoring the death penalty for traffickers “who take the lives of Iowans.” He said strengthening marriage, adoption and family tax relief would help “build strong towns and a strong Iowa.”
“I believe Iowa can be a beacon — the safest, freest, most family-centered state in America,” he said. “That future won’t come from consultants or career politicians. It will come from courage rooted in place, history and duty.”
Political and personal background
Before returning to Iowa, Lahn worked for Americans for Prosperity, the Koch family-backed conservative advocacy group, and served as state director for the organization in Montana. He and his wife, Annie, also were founders of a Koch-funded private school on the Wichita State University campus. The nonprofit school was funded by Annie and her ex-husband, Chase Koch, son of Wichita billionaire Charles Koch.
A crowded GOP field
Lahn’s entry adds to a growing list of Republican candidates in Iowa’s first open gubernatorial race since 2006, following Gov. Kim Reynolds’ announcement this spring that she will not to seek re-election.
Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra of Hull, who represents western Iowa’s conservative 4th Congressional District, formally launched his campaign for governor Oct. 28. Feenstra enters the race with a financial and organizational edge, having raised $3.2 million through his exploratory committee. He has already begun airing statewide ads and securing endorsements from prominent Iowa Republicans, giving him an early advantage over GOP rivals.
Other Republicans running for governor are state Rep. Eddie Andrews of Johnston, former state administrative services director Adam Steen and Williamsburg pastor Brad Sherman. State Sen. Mike Bousselot of Ankeny also is exploring a bid.
Steen welcomed Lahn to the contest, saying, “As a business owner, I welcome competition. It’s what makes us better. New voices and new ideas make our party stronger. But I’m not in this for politics, I’m in it to fight for Iowa’s future.”
On the Democratic side, state auditor Rob Sand and political consultant Julie Stauch are running for the office.
Paul Dahl, a Webster City man who previously ran unsuccessfully for governor and Congress, announced his candidacy for governor in November 2024, but does not appear to be actively campaigning.
‘Iowa First’
Lahn said his campaign will be rooted in local engagement and listening sessions across the state.
“Over the next months, Annie and I — with our seven kids — will be on the road, listening in church basements, VFW halls, farms and school gyms — where Iowa’s wisdom lives,” he said. “I’m investing in Iowa and I’m my own biggest donor. I don’t answer to donors or corporations — only to God, my family and the people of this state.”
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
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