POLITICO: “The Democratic Deer Hunter Setting His Sights on Flipping Iowa”

DES MOINES, IA – POLITICO correspondent Adam Wren tagged along with candidate for governor Rob Sand at the 2026 Iowa Deer Classic, the state’s premier three-day hunting convention celebrating Iowa’s storied whitetail tradition, earlier this month. As Wren reports, Rob “got a hero’s welcome” at the convention where he visited booths, purchased new gear, and showed off his Green gross-scoring 209-inch buck he harvested last fall, regularly being stopped by supporters – both of his buck and his campaign for governor – with one attendee saying “I’m super-Republican, but you got my vote.”

As Wren put it, Rob “represents the kind of candidate Democrats have long sought to win on tough red terrain,” pointing to his upbringing as a bowhunter and outdoorsman “in a state where the first day of deer season is an unofficial holiday.” Wren also highlighted a new microsite from the campaign, HuntingWithRob.com, that tells Rob’s story as a bowhunter and outdoorsman, and how he will bring those same values with him to the governor’s office.

Read more from POLITICO here, or key quotes below:

Rob Sand got a hero’s welcome at a state deer hunting expo at the Iowa Events Center on a recent March weekend.
The state’s lone Democratic statewide elected official, and Democrats’ hope for flipping the governor’s mansion for the first time in 16 years, could barely make it through the Sunday morning sea of camo-wearing, venison jerky-chomping, Busch Light tallboy-nursing fellow hunters as more than a dozen people stopped and congratulated him.
“Mr. 200!” said Levi Schmitz, a Trump-voting Republican who nonetheless plans to back Sand.
As Democrats across the map continue to hunt for paths out of the metaphorical wilderness, Sand is betting that his own path to the governor’s mansion runs through his familiarity in the literal wilderness.
The day the expo kicked off, the avid bow hunter and fisherman’s campaign launched a “Hunting With Rob” microsite that extolls the rugged Iowa way of life. “For the first time in Iowa history, hunters, sportsmen, conservationists, and outdoor enthusiasts alike will finally have an ally in the governor’s office,” it reads.
“Number one, it just means I shot a huge buck this year,” he told POLITICO. “But number two, I go back to culture. And we have this stupid, broken, two-choice political system. … And we are told stories about who can be right in either party. And when you find someone that’s in a party, but then also doesn’t fit that story, I think for a lot of people that is a sign of realness or a sign of authenticity about who they are.”
[Rob] entered the show room at the EMC Expo Center after attending a chapel service for expo-goers where he quietly scrolled a Contemporary English Version of the Bible on his phone, listening dutifully to the sermon about Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000. “What sort of kingdom work is He asking you to do?” the pastor asked.
And what does Sand see as his kingdom work? “Talking about the evils of the two-choice system and trying to break down a system that inherently divides us and leads our leaders into the temptation of being lazy, and leads our leaders into the temptation of lying, bearing false witness against their opponents, because they know that they don’t actually have to solve our problems,” he said.
You’d be forgiven if you forgot Sand was running as a Democrat.
Sand didn’t win the Big Buck contest he’d entered. But as he took selfies with the men who had beat him, an onlooker from Exira named Jeremy brought up a possible consolation prize.
“You’re the next governor of Iowa!” he told Sand