By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-09-30 19:06:43 | Updated at 2026-09-30 22:24:23
6 hours ago
Iowa Democrat gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand described himself as “extremely liberal” while attending Brown University more than two decades ago and has since defended the Green New Deal in response to criticism from a Republican congressional candidate and opposed an Iowa bill defining sex as “either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.”
He has also suggested Iowa would benefit from welcoming more immigrants.
The Brown Daily Herald reported in April 2003 that Sand, then a Brown University student, said he considered himself “extremely liberal” and described Brown as “obviously a liberal school” in an article about the lack of conservative viewpoints on campus.
More than 15 years later, Sand defended the contents of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) proposed Green New Deal after then-congressional candidate Randy Feenstra (R) shared a graphic claiming the proposal would “ban cows,” “ban air travel,” and “pay those who are ‘unwilling to work.’”
“Fact Check: None of this is in there,” Sand wrote in February 2019.
“A few bad ideas were in a FAQ written by one guy. But they are not in the bill. And the GND bill is what is important,” Sand wrote in a follow-up post.
The Heritage Foundation argued in a July 2019 analysis that the Green New Deal’s “government-managed energy plan poses the risk of expansive, disastrous damage to the economy—hitting working Americans the hardest,” estimating that one part of the plan would cost an average family $165,000 and wipe out 5.2 million jobs.
Sand also opposed Iowa House Study Bill (HSB) 242 in February 2025. That legislation sought to define sex as “the state of being either male or female as observed or clinically verified at birth.”
“My faith drives me to believe that legalizing discrimination is wrong, and HSB 242 is wrong,” Sand wrote on February 24, 2025, while posting a video elaborating on his opposition.
In February 2017, Sand shared a Bloomberg News column titled “The Myth of the U.S. Immigration Crisis,” which stated that the country did not have a wave of undocumented workers and that illegal immigration to the United States had ended a decade earlier. Sand added simply, “Wow.”
In September 2023, Sand said Iowa would benefit from attracting more people, stating, “We are one of the slowest-growing states in the entire country and getting more people here would help.”
Sand’s past statements come to the fore as he campaigns against Republican Zach Lahn for the November gubernatorial election to succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. Sand has served as Iowa state auditor since 2019 and is the only Democrat currently holding statewide office in Iowa.
During the campaign, Sand has criticized the two-party system and discussed his past registration as an independent. In an August Fox News interview, he said, “I think the two-choice system, Bill, is actually more about controlling us than it is about hearing us or solving our problems,” and noted that he initially registered as an independent. Asked why he was not running as an independent, Sand replied, “I think most voters understand why.” Sand has nevertheless publicly identified himself as a Democrat and served as co-chair of Joe Biden’s 2020 Iowa campaign.
Sand has also received support from prominent Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who leads the Democratic Governors Association and traveled to Iowa to campaign with him.
Sand’s campaign accepted a $250,000 contribution from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, whose visits to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, Manhattan townhouse, and New Mexico ranch were detailed in emails released by the Department of Justice. Hoffman has said his interactions with Epstein were tied to MIT fundraising efforts and later acknowledged, “It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation… I am sorry for my personal misjudgment.” The Iowa GOP has called on Sand to address the contribution, with spokeswoman Jade Cichy asking, “Will he return the money, or is this who he really answers to? Iowans deserve to know.” Sand also previously accepted a $50,000 contribution from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Lahn has lambasted Sand’s stances on taxes, releasing an August campaign ad alleging Sand would raise the average Iowan’s taxes by $7,500 a year. “But Rob Sand wants to raise your taxes by $7,500 a year. You can look it up. He is a billionaire. He doesn’t get what regular folks go through. He’s opposed tax cuts his whole career,” Lahn said in the ad. Sand’s documented positions on taxes include proposing a higher tax on out-of-state landowners, ending state tax breaks for data centers, and saying he would consider increasing Iowa’s cigarette tax.
