New Investigation Reveals Kansas Carpetbagger Zach Lahn’s Lies About His Iowa Residency

New Investigation Reveals Kansas Carpetbagger Zach Lahn’s Lies About His Iowa Residency

New investigative reporting from The Daily Beast reveals that Zach Lahn has been living in a mansion in Kansas for years and has taken great lengths to hide his residency from voters. According to the report, Lahn transferred his Wichita property “to an LLC in what appeared to be a move meant to hide his ownership–and true residency–as he planned to run for governor” in Iowa, hundreds of miles away.

The Daily Beast also found that Lahn has “never claimed any property in Iowa as his primary residence”, noting that when Lahn refinanced his Iowa property in 2021, he “waived the Iowa Homestead Tax Credit, a sign that they do not consider the Iowa property to be their primary home.”

Lahn’s flight records reveal that “he regularly flies in and out of Wichita to attend [campaign events]” in Iowa, including a flight “to Des Moines to submit his paperwork for his nomination at the State Capitol.”

This bombshell reporting comes after new polling in Iowa found that 76 percent of respondents believe that it is important for a gubernatorial candidate to have lived in Iowa for most of their adult life.

The Daily Beast: MAGA Gov Candidate Busted Living in Luxury Out of State

• A MAGA governor hopeful has secretly been living in a multimillion-dollar mansion hundreds of miles away from the state he wants to run, contradicting his humble farmer claims.

• Zach Lahn, the Trump-endorsed candidate in the Iowa gubernatorial race, has actually been living in Kansas for years, in a $2 million mansion, not in Iowa as he claims, a Daily Beast investigation can reveal.

• In 2024, Lahn and his wife Annie, the ex-daughter-in-law of billionaire donor Charles Koch, purchased their Wichita property, which he later transferred to an LLC in what appeared to be a move meant to hide his ownership—and true residency—as he planned to run for governor a few states over.

• Lahn also owns property in Iowa, having bought his great-grandmother’s farm in his hometown of Belle Plaine, but there does not appear to be any indication that he treats this as a primary residence.

• Records reviewed by the Daily Beast indicate that he has never claimed any property in Iowa as his primary residence. When he refinanced the Iowa property in 2021, he and Annie waived the Iowa Homestead Tax Credit, a sign that they do not consider the Iowa property to be their primary home.

• Flight records also reveal that while Lahn, a licensed pilot who owns his own plane, travels to and from campaign events, he regularly flies in and out of Wichita to attend those events.

• These flights include his trip from Wichita to his “hometown” in June for a campaign event. He even flew from Wichita to Des Moines to submit his paperwork for his nomination at the State Capitol.

• Voting records also show that Lahn has voted in Kansas elections in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 cycles.

• Lahn, a graduate of the University of Colorado, worked for years in Republican politics in Colorado and Montana in his early adult life.

• Before getting married, [Lahn and his wife] co-founded and still sit on the board of the Wonder School, an unorthodox, for-profit K-12 school in Wichita that boasts that it “doesn’t hire teachers.” Tuition currently costs $10,000 a year, and after graduation, only about a third of students go on to attend a 4-year college.

• In addition to his luxury mansion in Kansas, Lahn sold his multimillion-dollar mansion in Whitefish, Montana in October. The house, which was valued just under $5 million dollars last year, was described online as a “ski-in, ski-out mansion” that came equipped with an outdoor spa and hot tub. He still owns a plot of land on the same road.

• But with his apparent strong roots in Kansas and Montana, it remains unclear why Lahn chose Iowa to launch his political career.

• As it relates to the carpetbagging accusations, a recent poll from Emerson College found that 76 percent of Iowa voters said it is important that a candidate has lived in the state for most of their adult life.

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