Rob Sand Marks Halfway Point of 100 Town Hall Tour

“‘From sea to shining sea’, Sand told the audience, ‘we’re in this together’ and ‘that’s what politics should be like.’”

DES MOINES, IA — This week, Rob Sand took his 100 Town Hall Tour to north-central Iowa, stopping in Grundy, Butler, Floyd, Cerro Gordo, Worth, Mitchell, Howard, and Bremer counties. Rob’s stop in Grundy County marked town hall number 50, bringing him halfway through his annual 100 Town Hall Tour. Along the way, Rob has continued to hear directly from Iowans in their home communities about what’s on their mind and the issues affecting their everyday lives.

Learn more about Rob’s recent 100 Town Hall Tour stops below:

Times Republican: ‘A different kind’ of Democrat

After a decade of Republican control of state government, gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand thinks it’s time for a sea change in Iowa. But rather than overcorrect in the opposite direction, the Democratic state auditor is instead asking voters to remember their roots and chart a more independent course in the open race for Iowa’s next governor.
“I’m not telling you that the answer is to give the other private club 10 years of total control,” Sand, 43, said Wednesday morning to a crowd of about 75 people gathered at the Grundy Community Center for the 50th stop on his annual 100 Town Hall Tour. “We didn’t send Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley to the United States Senate together because we, oops, didn’t notice they were in opposite political parties. We did it because as Iowans we recognized that if they were going to try to do something too far out on the extremes, they’d cancel each other out. … If you give one party all the control, it’s awfully tempting to just ignore the other.”
“Our political system is broken,” he said. “And it’s broken largely because it’s run by two private clubs who are more interested in beating each other up than they are in solving our problems. … Democratic and Republican parties have written into the law special legal privileges for themselves. I think that system is broken. And I’m really sick of Iowans seeing high cancer rates, high costs and increasing corruption. And I think we see that - and that lack of accountability - because we are constantly forced to pick between the lesser of two evils, which enables evil.”
“There are 3.1 million people in the state of Iowa. We have real problems. I do not think we are going to address as many of those problems as possible, or address them as fully, with a part-time Iowan as our governor,” Sand said. “I can tell you that [Lahn] has real obligations in the state of Kansas. … He’s mostly lived outside of Iowa for 20 years. He voted in Kansas in 2018, 2020 and 2022.”
“I like guns,” he continued. “I’ve been a lifelong gun owner. I’m a big believer in the Second Amendment. And if someone’s scaring you, saying, ‘Oh, Sand, he’s a Democrat.’ Well, I guess I’m a different kind.”

KGLO: Sand addresses concerns about how much time opponent spends in Iowa

Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand hosted a town hall meeting last night in Mason City, where questions regarding his opponent’s residency were once again raised.
Sand says Iowans deserve a governor that lives full-time in Iowa. “I think that most Iowans look at that situation and they say ‘you can’t solve my problems from Kansas,’ and I think that’s a fair concern. There’s a lot of issues that are really crucial in Iowa right now, you’ve asked me about many of them, but you can’t fix them if you’re not here full time talking to Iowans. There are issues where I just listen to him talk and it is painfully obvious that he hasn’t been here, and he doesn’t know the truth about what has been going on in Iowa for the last 20 years because he’s mostly lived for 20 years in Montana and Colorado and Kansas.”

Mason City Globe Gazette: Gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand makes Mason City campaign stop

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand told North Iowa voters Wednesday that Iowa should pursue economic development only when it benefits residents, while also defending local control on issues ranging from automated license plate reader cameras to renewable energy projects.
“I think we want development that works for Iowans. So if they want to come here and they’re going to pay their taxes, carry their own weight, make sure that they are contributing to our communities and lowering tax pressures on other Iowans, lowering utility pressures on Iowans, and contributing, then I think that’s good development.”
Sand also reiterated his call for greater oversight of Iowa’s education savings account program, commonly known as school vouchers. He said public funds should be subject to public accountability and criticized the current program for lacking audits and spending restrictions.