By John McCormick | Photographs by KC McGinnis for WSJ

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Rob Sand could almost pass for a Republican: He frequently quotes the Bible, owns two SIG Sauer handguns, goes deer hunting each fall and asks audiences to sing a few verses of "America the Beautiful" at the start of campaign events.

The only Democrat elected to statewide office in Iowa, Sand is trying to jump to the governor's mansion from his current state auditor post. In the process, he is offering a potential template for others in his party on how to compete in red-state America.

Iowa Christian conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats recently warned Republicans that Sand is a "very real opponent" to be taken seriously. "Churchgoer, gun-toter, state auditor, taxpayers' watchdog. Sounds a little bit like us, right?" Vander Plaats said, adding that Sand will have plenty of money behind him, in part, because of his wealthy wife and in-laws.

Sand's 2026 campaign is a long-shot in a state President Trump won by 13 percentage points in 2024. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has held the office since 2017, isn't seeking re-election and that means for the first time since 2006 there will be no incumbent.

Voters are tired of partisan division, Sand said during an interview at the Iowa State Fair. "In a two-choice system, if you can convince people that the other side is out to destroy your way of life, or evil, then you don't have to do the hard work of listening to people and crafting solutions and solving problems," he said. "You can get re-elected anyway."

On numerous occasions, Sand mentioned his Lutheran faith. "Jesus is for the little guy. Jesus is for the outcast. And the Democratic Party is for the little guy," he said.

His campaign's dominant color for signs and T-shirts is green, not blue. Those items often include phrases such as "governor for all."

Iowa carries extra political heft because it was where the presidential nomination race started for both parties, before the Democratic National Committee in 2023 demoted the state because of a dislike for its caucus process and its tendency to increasingly support Republicans.

That demotion puts added pressure on Sand, 43 years old, a former assistant Iowa attorney general and chief public corruption prosecutor. Iowa Democrats desperately want to get back into the mix for early presidential nominating contests in 2028 but would need to at least win in their own state to do so.

Iowa is one of several Midwest states with hotly contested 2026 governor's races. Republicans are hopeful they can capture governorships held by Democrats in Kansas as well as Michigan and Wisconsin, both presidential battlegrounds.

The decision by Reynolds not to run again has brought a flurry of GOP entrants ahead of a June primary, including U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, state Sen. Mike Bousselot, state Rep. Eddie Andrews and former state Rep. Brad Sherman.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved the contest from "solid Republican" to "lean Republican" when Sand entered the race, a rare two-category move. It called the Democratic front-runner "easily the strongest contender his party could have recruited."

Sand pointed to Democratic governors from Kansas and Kentucky as proof that he has a chance. Laura Kelly has twice been elected in Kansas where Trump won by 16 percentage points last year, while Andy Beshear has twice won in Kentucky where Trump won by 30 points.

Asked if Beshear -- a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate -- is a role model, Sand said: "There's a lot of similarities in my approach."

Sand also highlighted Iowa's presidential-election results to suggest the state, in its recent history, doesn't like career politicians.

"When we went for Barack Obama twice and then Donald Trump three times, it's not because Iowa changed, it is because those two guys were the same: They were people who said 'I'm going to do things differently,'" Sand said.

Reynolds, in an interview, said that her party would keep the governorship and that Iowa has taken a likely permanent turn to the GOP that includes a major voter-registration advantage. She did little to hide her dislike of Sand.

"He's been the most partisan auditor I think we have had in our state's history," Reynolds said. "He's opposed to anything I do."

Former Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad called Sand a "phony" and a "liberal" in an interview. He pointed to Sand working for a progressive candidate in 2006.

Sand responded that he worked for that candidate immediately after college, after applying to three campaigns for governor and going with the first one that offered him a job.

While Sand sells himself as independent-minded, he backs several positions traditionally supported by Democrats, including abortion rights. He said he thinks his party is "better on conservation issues" and opposes Trump's push to take away wind-energy subsidies.

Sand doesn't think people designated male at birth should play women's sports, a position that could help neutralize a favored line of attack that Republicans have successfully used to paint Democrats as extreme. He supports civil rights for transgender people in employment and housing.

Sand does 100 town halls each year for his current job. He has started to ask people at his campaign events to raise their hands to indicate their political affiliation, before asking them to sing a few bars of "America the Beautiful" with him. He picked the song, he said, because "everybody knows the words," and it doesn't have too many high or low notes.

"The point of it is unity," he said.

As Sand crisscrossed the fairgrounds, several people expressed support.

"I want you as our next governor," Kent Berryman told him. The 67-year-old retired farmer from southeast Iowa later said he is a former Democrat who left the party and voted for Trump in 2016 because he felt his previous party "overplayed equity and inclusion."

Barb Meister, a 66-year-old Republican from northwest Iowa, said she would vote for Sand because "he tries to meet people in the middle."

Sand said most voters want more cooperation in politics. "Our founders would be embarrassed by the fact that we don't talk to each other," he said.

Near the end of his fair visit, Sand stopped at a local radio station's temporary studio to talk with a conservative host. "Blessed are the peacemakers," he said when asked why he made that stop.

Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 18, 2025 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.