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Democratic candidate for governor and Iowa state auditor Rob Sand made a stop at a packed Independence VFW on Wednesday afternoon as part of his 99 Counties tour.

Sand, 43, of Decorah, announced his gubernatorial bid in the spring of 2025. The married father of two has been campaigning on his platform of ‘better and truer, not redder or bluer’ since.

Sand spoke about his professional history as both a prosecutor and state auditor and touched on Iowa’s , water quality, mental health issues, rural school funding, and criticisms of Iowa’s two party political system.

Sand’s campaign has prioritized a moderate position, a move Sand told the Bulletin Journal was more realistic for a candidate who’d be working with Iowa’s majority Republican state legislature should he be elected.

“If I’m elected governor, I’m gonna be working with a Republican legislature. And so we’re going to have to work together. I’m not going to get everything I want, and they’re not going to get everything they want,� Sand said.

Sand from progressives across the state, with accusations of fence sitting and concerns about his largest campaign donor, his father in law, Nixon Lauridson, who donated to Sand’s campaign for the governor’s seat. Lauridson in 2021, and almost $40,000 to U.S. House (R-District 4) between 2021 and 2023.

Sand seemed unconcerned when the Bulletin Journal inquired whether he had qualms about isolating the progressive voter block in order to draw in moderates and centrists.

“Whether you are progressive or conservative, we have these town halls. You can ask me questions, you can hear my answer. That’s more than anyone else running for office is willing to do in Iowa these days,� Sand said.

Sand railed against the polarization and inefficiency of Iowa’s political culture during his stump speech, which has long been heavily dominated by the two party system.

“I want to do public service and not politics ... I think most people are ready for that. They’re sick of politics. They’re sick of a system that forces us to pick between the lesser of two evils, and they’re ready for someone who wants to do things differently,� Sand said.

Sand cited changing Iowa’s primary system for a single public primary and replacing Iowa’s classic ‘first past the post’ voting system with approval voting as his largest goal, should he be elected governor. He called these changes the “heart of his campaign�.

Currently, Iowa voters are asked to select just one candidate they’d like to elect on the ballot. Approval voting would mean Iowans could vote for one or more candidates they approve of, with the candidate receiving the highest number of approvals winning the election.

“Instead of two separate party primaries run with tax dollars for private clubs, we have a single public primary. Everyone’s on the ballot. All the Democrats, all the Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, Greens, they have to collect the same number of signatures. We all can go vote in the primary,� Sand said.

Sand called approval voting “revolutionary�, saying under his proposed system politicians would benefit from friendly relationships with opponents, since each candidate’s respective base could approve of more than one candidate.

“This revolutionizes the incentives for elected officials,� Sand said. “No longer can I just demonize my only one opponent, I actually might want to be honest about them ... Because the people who love my opponent, some of them could also vote for me (under approval voting).�

Iowa’s legislature does have the power to restructure how the state’s primaries operate, but would require such a bill to pass both houses before it ever sees the governor’s desk — a tall order for a majority Republican legislature.

Sand’s goal of a transition to approval voting is an even larger hill to climb. Gov. Reynolds in the spring of 2025, which bans ranked choice voting, where voters rank candidates in order of preference. While the bill does not mention approval voting, it does state “for an office to which one person is to be elected, a voter shall not vote for more than one candidate�. The law would need to be overturned to see Sand’s dream to fruition.

Sand took questions from the crowd at the end of his visit.

He fielded questions about supporting public green spaces and the DNR, issues Iowans have accessing mental health care services, his position on private school vouchers, and whether or not he would acquiesce to potential future requests from the Trump administration to send the National Guard to Iowa should he be elected.

Sand took the opportunity to decry the private school vouchers.

“We’re not going to give (public) money to the wealthiest Iowans who can already write checks they can’t even feel to send their kids to private school anyway. This is crazy. It’s crazy,� Sand said. “Rural schools are a priority for me. We should be doing more to support public schools and rural schools.�

An attendee wanted to know if Sand would cooperate with the Trump administration as governor, if Trump wanted to send in the National Guard.

“I’m not here to demean Republicans or anything like that ... But I was just wondering, if you were governor, and he (President Trump) tried to send in the National Guard, like he’s been doing ... What would you do? Would you work with him? Or would you try to deny the national guard?� the young man asked.

“My fidelity, my integrity, is going to be number one to the law, to the Constitution and the laws of this state, to public safety, and public safety for Iowans ... I don’t care if the request is coming from this president, or a different president. I don’t care if it’s a Democrat or a Republican,� Sand said. “Those are the things I’m going to look at to answer the question ... I know that people want to hear a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’, but again, my answer is not to be redder or to be bluer, but to just be better or truer. We should be pledging ourselves to the law and to each other.�