By John McCormick
Rep. Randy Feenstra, whom President Trump endorsed, conceded defeat late Tuesday in Iowa's Republican primary for governor.
Zach Lahn, a businessman and farmer, won the race, the Associated Press said early Wednesday. With 99% of the expected vote tabulated, Lahn had 37.8%, while Feenstra was at 37%. Feenstra conceded in a speech, his spokesman said.
The rejection of Trump's pick is a rare rebuke for the president in a primary season where candidates he has backed have won. The contest for governor in the red-leaning state is rated as a tossup in November's election.
Iowa was one of six states hosting primary balloting Tuesday, along with California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.
Turning Point Action, part of the group founded by Charlie Kirk, endorsed Lahn the same day Trump made his recommendation to Iowa voters. Kirk, a conservative commentator and organizer, was assassinated in 2025.
Lahn, who campaigned with an "Iowa First" message, has called Kirk a "longtime friend" whom he got to know when his fellow conservative was just 17 years old.
The president's backing came more than two weeks after early voting started in a race that included five candidates and one where Feenstra skipped debates and forums.
State Auditor Rob Sand, currently the only Iowa Democrat elected to statewide office, 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 and a possible 2028 presidential candidate.
Iowa, a state that has long played an outsize role in U.S. politics because of its traditional early spot in presidential nominations, wasn't supposed to be a political battleground this year. It backed Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024 and all six members of its congressional delegation are Republicans.
Despite that history, nonpartisan analysts rate the state's race for governor and two of its four U.S. House contests as tossups either party could win in November. The ratings reflect rural America's economic angst amid rising fuel, fertilizer and other prices after a year of depressed commodity trade following Trump's embrace of tariffs.
The scramble in the GOP race for governor arrived after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds decided not to seek a third term. This is the first time since 2006 there will be no incumbent for that job at the top of the state's November ballot.
Feenstra, whose district includes Iowa's reddest counties, had been expected to dominate the GOP gubernatorial primary. But he struggled to gain traction, and some Republicans openly questioned whether he is their strongest candidate to face Sand, who frequently quotes the Bible, owns two handguns, goes deer hunting each fall and asks audiences to sing a few verses of "America the Beautiful" at the start of his campaign events.
Democrats are less optimistic about an open U.S. Senate seat in Iowa after the announced retirement of Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.
Democrat Josh Turek, a state representative and former Paralympic wheelchair basketball medalist, won his party's Senate nomination and faces Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in a general election contest the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates as "lean Republican."
Two of Iowa's four U.S. House races are rated as tossups in November, bringing added attention and campaign spending to the state.
In a central-Iowa congressional district that includes the state capital of Des Moines, Republican Rep. Zach Nunn will in November face Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister and state senator.
In Iowa's other tossup district, which includes central and southern parts of the state, Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks will face Democrat Christina Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor who came within about 800 votes of winning the seat in 2024.
Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 03, 2026 01:17 ET (05:17 GMT)
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