And now we see whether Josh Turek can flip the state.
Zach Wahls remains awesome, and I hope he sticks around elected office after this setback.
“President Trump breathlessly weighed into the race with his Truth Social account on Friday, May 29: “Randy is MAGA all the way! … Randy Feenstra has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Governor of Iowa — RANDY WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
People don’t seem to mind that he has been living in Kansas and recently relocated to Iowa to run for governor.
This primary could be a test case of just how far the president’s blessing and the sway of partisan identity can carry a candidate over the finish line.
“[Sand’s] got the wind at his back right now, because he’s not being attacked relentlessly like he will be after the primary,” said David Kochel, an Iowa Republican strategist. “I think once this race defines and once you kind of can show that he is part of a national Democratic brand, I think it gets a lot tougher for him to win a state like Iowa.
I think that partisan Republican David Kochel is wrong. I think that one of the reasons that I have never heard of him is he transferred his voter registration to Iowa after voting in Kansas elections in 2018, 2020 and 2022.
The Des Moines Register reported that Lahn had flown 37 flights on his personal plane between Iowa and Wichita since Oct. 1, 2025, which Lahn has said were taken to visit family. Republican candidate Zach Lahn’s wife Annie was married for a decade to Chase Koch, son of multi-billionaire Charles Koch and co-founder of the Chase and Annie Koch Foundation.
Lahn worked for Montana and Colorado members of Congress, and served as Montana director of Americans for Prosperity, founded by Charles and David Koch.
Randy Feenstra, Republican primary opposition to Lahn ran this TV ad on Wednesday, May 27:
“Zach Lahn says he represents Iowa values. But Lahn invested a million dollars in a sex toy company called FirmTech. They’re even connected with Pornhub, a website hurting marriages and harming children. Zach Lahn’s phony values end where his profits begin.”
Yes, The Des Moines Register had reported on Monday, May 18, about Lahn’s investment in a “men’s sexual health company.” His campaign did tell the newspaper that FirmTech initially produced ‘medical devices,’ and that he stepped down from the board in 2023, before the company released ‘pleasure’ products.”
So, never mind that a primary investor in a company focused on men’s sexual health also runs a private school for children K-12.
A basic online search for FirmTech surfaces references to the “cock ring” that constrains blood flow to help men maintain harder erections longer. The company says on its homepage, “Put a ring on it.” (I think that they ought to change the name of the product to a ”Koch Ring.”A YouTube video released a year earlier and cited in federal documents portraying FirmTech as a “sextech startup” that delivers pleasure products.
Fact is, Lahn was a major investor in a small company creating products and technology that help erectile dysfunction (ED) and is actively sold as a pleasure product. *He got a 28% ownership share and then later invested $1 million through an LLC yet Lahn was not savvy enough or was too sloppy to make his ownership in the sex product company opaque through the use of Wyoming blind trust or other instruments.) Yet he’s trying to create distance.
I don’t think that farmers are going to buy that Lahn is a simple farmer as his primary ads portrayed him. The jokes will abound. Beyoncé’s **“Put a Ring on It”**may play at Democratic campaign rallies. Perhaps his students will buy a “class ring.” Lahn will fbe touted as the guy that won’t let them down. And all of Lahn’s attempting to hide his business activities will be viewed as the disingenuousness that it actually is.
(I chose the text to italicize.)