New York Times: “Iowa is Ruby Red. A Democrat There is Worrying Republicans Anyway.”

“The [Iowa] governor’s race in November is shaping up to be an unusually competitive one.”

DES MOINES, IA – New York Times reporter Julie Bosman spoke with candidate for governor Rob Sand as the Iowa governor’s race continues to tighten. As Bosman reports, Rob’s focus on “common sense” over “party identity” is helping turn the race into what she describes as an “unusually competitive” contest, with top political analysts recently shifting the race to a “Toss-Up.” Partisan insiders are starting to worry about Rob’s cross-party appeal and losing their power for the first time in nearly two decades this fall.

Read more from the New York Times HERE, or key quotes below:

• Mr. Sand, the state auditor, is campaigning for governor by asking Iowans to take a hard look at their own state and how it has fared in recent years, when Republican legislators and governors have been in charge.
• Mr. Sand portrays himself as someone who eschews party identity in favor of common sense: Since first declaring his candidacy last year, Mr. Sand has advertised himself as a “governor for all” and repeated the slogan “Not redder or bluer, but better and truer.”
• More than 1,500 registered Republicans have donated to his campaign, said Emma O’Brien, a spokeswoman for his campaign, along with more than 4,000 registered voters in Iowa who do not have a party affiliation.
• Mr. Sand strikes as an unusual political figure in Iowa. Born in a small town in the northeast part of the state, he is the son of a doctor and a physical therapist for children with disabilities, and has been an avid hunter and fisherman since he was young. 
• In his office in the State Capitol, he has hung rows of taxidermied deer heads and a dark bison hide, and he drives in a large Ford pickup around the state, where he has held town halls with voters for years.
• Polls suggest a tight race in the Republican primary on June 2, when five candidates, including Mr. Feenstra, will compete for their party’s nomination. Mr. Sand is running unopposed on the Democratic side.
• That has led even some Republicans to see Mr. Sand as a real threat to their hold on the governor’s office. In the Legislature, lawmakers have moved to limit the governor’s emergency powers in a bill that is seen as an acknowledgment that Mr. Sand could be Governor Reynolds’s successor. 
• In March, Mr. Sand was sitting on the steps of the State Capitol for an interview when a woman in a suit, a Republican lobbyist, half-jokingly greeted him as “Governor” as she hurried past.
• In April, the Cook Political Report moved the Iowa governor’s race from “leans conservative” to “tossup.”