{"id":28772,"date":"2025-08-29T11:43:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=28772"},"modified":"2025-08-29T11:43:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:43:54","slug":"could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue","title":{"rendered":"Could This Iowa \u2018Gun-Toting Christian\u2019 Democrat Turn the Solid Red State Blue?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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robsand.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds shocked voters when she announced she would not be running for re-election in 2026. Iowa does not have term limits on governor, making the 2026 election the first election in 20 years that Iowa voters will vote on an open-seat race. It\u2019s a rare opportunity for Democrats, who believe Iowa State Auditor, Rob Sand, could be the key to turning the reliably red Iowa blue.<\/p>\n

Sand is being promoted as a \u201cgun-toting Christian<\/a>\u201d who could draw Trump supporters. In a party hampered by its support for men competing in women\u2019s sports, defunding the police, and open borders, Sand presents himself as a moderate. At a town hall, he said he was not a fan of political parties and criticized the political division that has rocked the nation. \u201cWe should be talking about the fact that it is poison, we should still be talking about the fact that no matter what your party is, partisanship in this state and in this country has gone too far,\u201d he said<\/a>. He has also pushed back on some of his party\u2019s policies, stating boys should not play girls\u2019 sports and supporting some restrictions on SNAP food benefits.<\/p>\n

Democrats have pushed that Iowa is ripe with opportunity, particularly after Democrat Catelin Drey defeated Republican Christopher Prosch in a special election for the a seat on Iowa State Senate\u2019s District 1. Drey beat Prosch 55% to 44% in a district won heavily by Trump in the 2024 election. Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, painted the win as a MAGA rejection. \u201cVoters are rejecting the failing MAGA agenda and leaving Republican candidates in the dust. State legislative Democrats are delivering progress, responding to their communities\u2019 concerns about the chaos in Washington, and providing the steady leadership voters are asking for \u2014 leadership that has propelled candidates like Sen.-elect Catelin Drey to victory this year,\u201d she said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cMore special elections are right on the horizon, and we\u2019re just getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iowa Republicans, however, have painted the Democrats\u2019 hopes as \u201cdesperate.\u201d \u201cNational Democrats were so desperate for a win that they activated 30,000 volunteers and a flood of national money to win a state senate special election by a few hundred votes,\u201d said Republican Party of Iowa Chair, Jeff Kaufmann. \u201cIf @DNC thinks things are suddenly so great again for them in Iowa, they will bring back the caucuses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds shocked voters when she announced she would not be running for re-election in 2026. Iowa does not have term limits on governor, making the 2026 election the first election in 20 years that Iowa voters will vote on an open-seat race. It\u2019s a rare opportunity for Democrats, who believe Iowa State…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":28775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCould This Iowa \u2018Gun-Toting Christian\u2019 Democrat Turn the Solid Red State Blue?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Democrats see rare opportunity in Iowa as Gov. Kim Reynolds bows out of 2026 race, eyeing Rob Sand to flip the longtime red state blue.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Could This Iowa \u2018Gun-Toting Christian\u2019 Democrat Turn the Solid Red State Blue?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Democrats see rare opportunity in Iowa as Gov. 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Kim Reynolds bows out of 2026 race, eyeing Rob Sand to flip the longtime red state blue.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Could This Iowa \u2018Gun-Toting Christian\u2019 Democrat Turn the Solid Red State Blue?","og_description":"Democrats see rare opportunity in Iowa as Gov. Kim Reynolds bows out of 2026 race, eyeing Rob Sand to flip the longtime red state blue.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2025-08-29T15:43:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Rob-Sand_credit-robsand-com.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue","name":"Could This Iowa \u2018Gun-Toting Christian\u2019 Democrat Turn the Solid Red State Blue?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/08\/could-this-iowa-gun-toting-christian-democrat-turn-the-solid-red-state-blue#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/08\/Rob-Sand_credit-robsand-com.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-29T15:43:54+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-29T15:43:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Democrats see rare opportunity in Iowa as Gov. 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