Democrat Rob Sand won the Iowa gubernatorial race on Tuesdaydefeating Republican Zach Lahn. Before the race was decided, he described his approach to governance this way: “Right wing, left wing, same bird.”
Sand, the Iowa state auditor, spoke with CBS News’ Lana Zak in Iowa City ahead of Election Day. He argued that politics works best when people stop treating the other side as an enemy.
“Both parties really want everyone to be angry at the other side, because then it will be easier to control them and it will be easier to gain power,” Sand said. “And I think that’s wrong.”
The idea popped up at his campaign events. Sand said he sings “America the Beautiful” at town halls, a tradition he started on his own without asking anyone. Because the crowd often includes people from multiple parties, he explained, he first asks everyone to applaud participants from other political parties.
“So you’re literally being asked to applaud what most politicians want you to consider your enemy,” Sand said. “But what I’m trying to remind you of is actually just the other half, right, right wing, left wing, the same bird.”
His campaign signs and T-shirts carry a similar message: “Neither red nor blue, better and truer.”
Independents and bipartisanship
Asked if he would rather be an independent than a Democrat, Sand replied, “I would love to do that,” although he said it wasn’t realistic. He said his parents were registered independents and that he himself had registered as such the first time he registered to vote.
When asked if he was a standard-bearer for the Democratic Party, he replied “no.” He said he hoped leaders in both parties would look at his campaign and say, “Oh, it worked.”
He used the toothpaste aisle to make his point. “Everyone knows we can handle more than two options,” Sand said, noting that voters select many choices in a store. Sand wondered why someone would be comfortable with a myriad of choices at the supermarket but settle for two choices when it’s “a really important choice.”
Ending what he calls the “two-choice system” should be done on a state-by-state basis, Sand said, because states set the rules for ballot access and voting.
Working with a Republican Legislature
Sand said he’s ready to work with a Republican legislature, which he said means every budget and bill will need bipartisan support. He said it would upset the far left and the far right and “the vast majority of us” would think the outcome looks good.
He said he would not spend time on culture war legislation. “I’m going to veto these bills,” Sand said, adding that his focus would be on cancer, water quality, the economy and public education.
He also said he wants more regulation of politicians, citing Iowa’s independent redistricting commission and its merit-based system of appointing judges as examples of nonpartisan accountability.
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Sand cited his tenure as an auditor as proof that this approach works. He said that after his 2018 victory, he placed in the office’s top posts an independent and a Republican who had donated to his opponent.
He also said the Democratic National Committee twice requested records from his office on allegations of wrongdoing by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, and his office denied both requests. “We’re not supposed to give you that,” he told them.
Education and “solving the world’s problems”
Sand said Iowa ranked fifth in education in 2018 and has since fallen to the bottom half, behind Nebraska. He also discussed rising cancer rates. He blamed single-party control, which he said gives too much power to “a small number of people” for too long.
He said Iowans already knew a better way, describing his grandfather’s coffee groups in Decorah and his mother’s knitting and sewing groups. “They don’t take party ID cards,” he said of these groups. Iowans have a phrase to describe what’s happening there: “solving the world’s problems.”
“No one has a monopoly on good ideas,” Sand said.
When asked what the best thing about Iowa was, he said the people. “We have not been a right-versus-left state,” Sand said. “We have been a state of good against evil.”
Sand’s hair stood up at the end of the interview. Zak told him that he had gone “floppy”, and he said that was a bad thing, even though he hadn’t done anything about it. His appearance has attracted attention since his victory for another reason. Vogue reported that he walked for Prada and other fashion houses. while a student at Brown University.
Vogue asked his Instagram followers if they knew he had ever modeled for Prada, and a verified account of Sand responded in the comments Thursday: “Yes, I knew.”
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