Kansas Carpetbagger Zach Lahn Wants to Be Governor of Iowa “For The Next Two Decades”

Kansas Carpetbagger Zach Lahn Wants to Be Governor of Iowa “For The Next Two Decades”

New reporting from Heartland Signal reveals that Kansas carpetbagger and career political operative Zach Lahn floated the possibility of being governor “for the next two decades,” despite backing term limits for other offices. Lahn has spent the campaign trying to deflect from his decades as a political insider and his Kansas residency, while wholeheartedly embracing Gov. Kim Reynolds’ failed status quo, and the newly uncovered audio only underscores how unfit he is to serve as Iowa’s next governor.

“After a long career as a political operative, it’s not surprising that Kansas carpetbagger Zach Lahn wants to cling to power for twenty years so he can continue pushing Kim Reynolds’ failures for decades to come,” said DGA spokesperson Izzi Levy. “Iowans don’t want a governor who can’t be bothered to reside full-time in their state, whether it’s for four years, or — like Lahn would prefer — for decades.”

Heartland Signal: Iowa governor candidate Zach Lahn backs term limits — except for the office he wants

• Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn frequently pitches himself to Iowa voters as a political outsider who opposes establishment norms. However, his public comments about term limits reveal a notable exception.
• While Lahn stated during a May Des Moines Register interview that he favors term limits “for most things,” he explicitly defended Iowa’s lack of gubernatorial term limits.

• “One of the things I like about the governor not having term limits, and I am actually in favor of term limits for most things. I don’t think they solve everything,” Lahn said.

• Days later on the “Barn Talk” podcast, Lahn remarked that he could serve as Iowa governor “for the next two decades.” In the same breath, Lahn contended that he does not want to be a “career politician.”

• “No, I have no interest in running for anything else. If I could be the governor of Iowa for the next two decades to turn the ship around,” Lahn said in May. “And I don’t want to be a career politician, but I think that’s one of the things about Iowa that we can do, like, is have a long-term impact.”

• Lahn’s term limit exception comes as he faces criticism for his loose connections to Iowa. Multiple outlets, including The Des Moines Register and The Daily Beast, reported on Lahn’s frequent private jet travel to Kansas. The Daily Beast reported that Lahn and his wife own a $2 million mansion in Wichita, Kansas. Lahn, who holds a pilot’s license and owns an airplane, told the Des Moines Register in April that his flights to Kansas allow him to visit the children he and his wife have from prior marriages.

• Lahn also voted in Kansas elections in 2018, 2020 and 2022. He claims he moved to Iowa full-time in 2023, which narrowly secured him the two-year residency requirement to run for governor. Lahn says he lives on a homestead in Belle Plaine that has been in his family for six generations, and that he travels to Kansas to see family members.

• Capodilupo did not address questions about Lahn’s inconsistent stance on term limits or why he chose to run for governor in Iowa instead of Kansas, where term limits are imposed on the governorship.

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