Donald Trump's track record of kingmaking in Republican primaries hit a rare snag in Iowa this week, where his last-minute push for a preferred candidate fell short against a political outsider with grassroots backing.
Zach Lahn, a farmer and businessman, won Iowa's GOP gubernatorial primary Tuesday with 38% of the vote, narrowly edging U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra, who had secured Trump's "Complete and Total Endorsement" just days before the election. Feenstra finished at 37.2%, according to the Associated Press.
The result marks a striking deviation from Trump's recent winning streak. In the weeks leading up to Iowa, his chosen candidates toppled Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie, Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, Texas senator John Cornyn, and five of seven Indiana state senators who had resisted his redistricting demands. In most of those races, months of coordinated effort preceded the primary victories.
Trump's intervention in Iowa came only a week before voting, when polling showed Feenstra struggling and facing the prospect of falling below the 35% threshold required to secure the nomination outright. Without the endorsement push, Iowa might have headed to a contested party convention.
Lahn's campaign centered on agricultural grievances and health concerns. The owner of a family farm dating back 105 years, he attacked what he called predatory practices by large agribusiness operations and highlighted Iowa's second-highest cancer rate in the nation, attributing health problems to corporate agriculture and pharmaceutical companies.
"Nobody thought this could be done. We were outspent, opposed by the establishment, told to wait our turn," Lahn said Tuesday night. "Well, tonight the people of Iowa had something to say about that."
Turning Point Action and Maha Pac, the political arm of the "make America healthy again" movement, backed Lahn's campaign. Despite recent friction between some Maha supporters and the Trump administration, Tony Lyons, co-president of Maha Pac, praised Trump and Kennedy while calling Lahn "the likely future Maha governor of Iowa." Lahn has adopted several Maha priorities, including opposition to COVID vaccines and efforts to reduce nitrate contamination in Iowa's water supply.
Democrats see an opening. Iowa has been reliably Republican for over a decade, with no Democratic governor elected since 2006. But state auditor Rob Sand, the Democratic nominee, is viewed as a strong challenger. His campaign immediately attacked Lahn as extreme, questioning his residency and suggesting he has spent significant time in Kansas, dubbing him a "carpetbagger."
"As voters learn more about Lahnâs extreme record, they will see why heâs wrong for Iowa," Sand's campaign memo stated.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump's endorsement still carries enormous weight in Republican primaries, but Iowa suggests it's not quite magic. Feenstra lost by a hair in a race where Trump showed up late, and that margin matters for how his loyalists think about future challenges."
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