Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer little known statewide before the race, defeated U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra in Iowa’s Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, according to results with 99% of the expected vote tabulated. Lahn won 37.8% to Feenstra’s 37% — a margin of a few thousand votes that Feenstra conceded in a speech late Tuesday. The outcome marks one of the most notable defeats for a Trump-backed candidate in the 2026 midterm primary season.
President Trump endorsed Feenstra on Friday, May 30. Early voting in the five-candidate primary had already been underway for more than two weeks at that point. Feenstra, whose district includes some of Iowa’s most conservative counties, had been widely seen as the frontrunner but avoided debates and public forums during the campaign.
Jimmy Centers, a Republican strategist in Iowa who has consulted with presidential campaigns, said the results reflect structural shifts in the state’s Republican electorate. “When those plates shift, the result is an earthquake — and Iowa felt that last night with Lahn’s win,” Centers said. Centers said Lahn ran “on a MAHA/MAGA-aligned platform, even without securing a Trump endorsement.”
Turning Point Action, the organization founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, endorsed Lahn on the same day Trump made his recommendation. Lahn has called Kirk a “longtime friend” whom he met when Kirk was 17 years old. Kirk was assassinated in 2025.
Lahn campaigned on an “Iowa First” message that emphasized rural economic concerns. Nonpartisan analysts rate the general election for governor as a tossup, reflecting economic pressure on farm communities a year after Trump’s tariffs depressed commodity trade and pushed up prices for fuel and fertilizer.
The primary was the first open-seat race for Iowa governor since 2006, after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds decided not to seek a third term. Iowa backed Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024 and all six of its U.S. House seats are held by Republicans, but nonpartisan analysts also rate two of those four House races as tossups.
State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat who frequently quotes the Bible, owns two handguns and hunts deer each fall, was unopposed for his party’s gubernatorial nomination. He is scheduled to campaign Sunday in Des Moines with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
Centers called Sand “a formidable candidate” who is “exceptionally well-resourced and has traveled extensively across the state,” but noted Sand “has not yet run in a race that will attract this level of attention.”
In other Iowa results from Tuesday, state Rep. Josh Turek, a former Paralympic wheelchair basketball medalist, won the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. He will face Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson in November in a race rated as “lean Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. In Iowa’s two competitive U.S. House districts, Republican U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn will face Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott, and Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks will face Democrat Christina Bohannan, who came within about 800 votes of winning the seat in 2024.