Iowa Politics: 2026 Races, New Laws, and Abortion Access

Iowa politics in 2026 is defined by two open marquee races, four congressional contests, and a Republican legislative session that reshaped property taxes, health policy, and education. Governor Kim Reynolds is finishing her final term, Senator Joni Ernst is not seeking reelection, and analysts rate the governor’s race a toss-up. Republicans still hold unified control of state government, with a 67-33 majority in the Iowa House and a 33-17 majority in the Iowa Senate.¹ Donald Trump carried the state by nearly 14 points in 2024, taking 55.7% to Kamala Harris’s 42.5%.²

The 2026 Governor’s Race

Reynolds announced in April 2025 that she would not run again, opening the seat for the first time since 2010.³ The November 3 ballot pits Republican Zach Lahn against Democrat Rob Sand, the current state auditor.

Zach Lahn

Lahn, a businessman and farmer from Belle Plaine, won the June 2, 2026 Republican primary by 1,642 votes over U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra, 38% to 37.2% in a five-candidate field.⁴ Feenstra had been endorsed by Donald Trump, former Governor Terry Branstad, Senator Joni Ernst, and Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks.⁵

Lahn campaigned as an anti-establishment candidate aligned with the “Make America Healthy Again” movement led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. His platform includes fighting agricultural monopolies, reducing nitrate pollution, opposing liability protections for pesticide manufacturers, and banning COVID vaccines.⁶ He supports a total abortion ban and has pledged to bar H-1B visa holders from working in state government or public universities.⁵ By late May 2026, Lahn had loaned his own campaign $2.5 million.

Lahn previously lived in Kansas, registered to vote in Iowa in 2024, and keeps a second home there. The Sand campaign has called him a “part-timer” and “carpetbagger.”⁷

Rob Sand

Sand, unopposed in the Democratic primary, has been state auditor since 2019. He launched a 100-stop town hall tour in June 2026 and has pitched himself as a bipartisan problem-solver willing to work with the Republican legislature.⁸⁹¹⁰

Sand has called the state budget a “fiscal time bomb” caused by using one-time money for ongoing expenses.⁸ Republicans have targeted him over a $27.5 million misallocation of court debt funds, though Sand’s campaign and media fact-checkers have said the problem stemmed from coding errors in laws enacted in 2020 and 2021, not an audit failure. Analysts rate the race a toss-up.⁷

The 2026 U.S. Senate Race

Ernst announced in September 2025 that she would not seek a third term, creating Iowa’s first open Senate seat since 2014.¹¹ Republican U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson took her primary with 74%. Democrat Josh Turek, a state representative, defeated former state senator Zach Wahls with 63%.⁴

The Cook Political Report shifted the race from “likely Republican” to “leans Republican” after the primary, citing an environment tilting toward Democrats over tariffs and rising costs. An internal Turek poll from mid-June showed him leading 47% to 45%, despite Republicans’ 10-point voter registration advantage in the state.¹² Senate Majority PAC has reserved $13.4 million for television ads targeting Hinson’s record.⁷

Hinson has pledged to be President Trump’s “strongest ally” and campaigned on border security, Iowa farmers, and strengthening Medicare and Social Security. Turek is running on economic populism: a federal ban on food price gouging, a ban on private equity firms buying single-family homes and farmland, and a higher minimum wage.¹¹ Democrats are attacking Hinson over her vote for the 2025 “One, Big Beautiful Bill” Act, which included Medicaid cuts. Republicans are calling Turek “too liberal,” citing his opposition to school bathroom legislation and the state’s voucher program.⁷

The Four U.S. House Races

All four Iowa congressional seats are on the November 2026 ballot, and Republicans currently hold each one. Two are competitive rematches or open contests:

1st District: Incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks faces a rematch with Democrat Christina Bohannan. Miller-Meeks won by 0.2 percentage points in 2024.¹³
2nd District: With Hinson running for Senate, Republican Joe Mitchell faces Democrat Lindsay James.⁴
3rd District: Incumbent Zach Nunn faces Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott. Nunn won by fewer than 4 points in 2024.¹³
4th District: Republican Chris McGowan ran unopposed in his primary. Democrat Dave Dawson won a tight three-way primary.⁴

Major Laws From the 2026 Legislative Session

The Iowa Legislature’s 2026 session ended in April, and Reynolds signed the final bills on June 2. The 91st General Assembly passed 206 bills. Reynolds vetoed five policy proposals and issued line-item vetoes on four budget bills.¹⁴

Property Tax Overhaul

Reynolds signed Senate File 2472 on May 18, 2026. State projections put the taxpayer savings at $4.2 billion over six years.¹⁵ The law caps annual revenue growth for city and county general levies at 2%, limits local government general fund reserves to 35% of budgeted expenditures, restricts tax increment financing districts to 23 years, and creates a homestead property tax exemption worth at least $5,500 and up to $20,000 depending on home value.¹⁶ The state sales tax was extended for another 20 years, with up to 25% of the revenue directed toward property tax relief by fiscal year 2030-2031.¹⁷

House Minority Leader Brian Meyer called the package a “Band-Aid” that fails to address rising property valuations.¹⁷

The MAHA Law

On May 20, 2026, Reynolds signed House File 2676 — the “Make America Healthy Again” law — at a ceremony with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The bill passed 61-31 in the House and 30-16 in the Senate along party lines.¹⁸ The law bans certain artificial food dyes and additives in K-12 school meals starting July 2027, allows over-the-counter pharmacy sales of ivermectin, limits digital instruction for K-5 students to 60 minutes per day, increases required physical activity for younger students, requires medical students to complete 40 hours of nutrition coursework, and codifies SNAP restrictions on items like soda and candy.¹⁹

Reynolds cited a state adult obesity rate of 37%.²⁰ Democrats called the ivermectin expansion “dangerous.”¹⁸ On June 22, 2026, a federal judge struck down the SNAP food restriction waivers in Iowa and four other states, ruling the USDA had exceeded its authority.²¹

Education and the Voucher Program

The 2025-26 school year was the first in which Iowa’s Students First Education Savings Account program was open to all students regardless of family income. Each participating student receives $7,988, equal to the state’s per-pupil public school allocation.²² Approved applications reached about 43,784, up from roughly 30,000 the previous year and 18,000 in year one.²³

In June 2026, Auditor Sand released a report concluding that taxpayers paid roughly $258.7 million in fiscal year 2026 to fund tuition for students who were already projected to attend private schools without the subsidy. For the roughly 20% of participants who were new to private education, Sand’s office pegged the effective state cost at about $38,000 per student. The Iowa Department of Education countered that the report omitted $37.9 million in public school funding sent to residential districts alongside ESA allocations, and Reynolds and Republican leaders called the report politically motivated.²⁴

The legislature also passed House File 2754, expanding charter school operations and modifying teacher licensing, and a separate bill signed in February 2026 increasing K-12 per-student funding by 2%.²⁵

Immigration

Senate File 2218 requires verification of U.S. citizenship or legal work authorization for state government jobs and occupational licenses through the federal SAVE and E-Verify databases, criminalizes providing a false Social Security number to an employer, and requires voters to swear U.S. citizenship under penalty of perjury.¹⁴

Iowa’s earlier 2024 “illegal reentry” law (Senate File 2340), which created a state crime for undocumented immigrants who re-entered after deportation, is still blocked by a federal court injunction. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction in January 2025 and denied rehearing in February 2026, ruling the law is likely preempted by federal immigration statutes.²⁶ Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has moved to bring the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, with briefing expected in summer 2026.²⁷

Other Notable Laws

A “tough on crime” law requiring increased prison time for third felony convictions, signed June 2, 2026.²⁸
House File 2694 bars the governor from restricting private businesses or closing places of worship during public health emergencies and requires legislative approval for changes to election laws.¹⁴
House File 2711 eliminates the requirement for state and local entities to submit affirmative action plans and repeals mandated annual bias prevention and racial/cultural awareness training for law enforcement, while keeping de-escalation training requirements.¹⁴
Senate File 2480 directs up to $3 million annually from a new tax on vapes and alternative nicotine products to pediatric cancer research.²⁸
A separate law bars local governments from adopting civil rights protections broader than the Iowa Civil Rights Act.²⁵
In May 2026, Reynolds signed additional restrictions on access to abortion pills and the HPV vaccine.²⁹

Abortion Access

Iowa enforces a “heartbeat” law banning abortion when cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks of pregnancy. It took effect in July 2024, replacing a 20-week cutoff. Exceptions cover rape, incest, the life of the pregnant person, and fetal abnormalities.³⁰

State-recorded abortions fell from 4,061 in 2022 to 1,792 in 2025. Out-of-state travel for abortion care by Iowans rose from 1,080 in 2023 to 1,530 in 2024, and Planned Parenthood reported a 182% increase in patients seeking care across state lines after the law took effect.²⁹ Planned Parenthood now operates only two Iowa clinics, in Iowa City and Des Moines, after closing four others. Physicians have reported prolonged inquiries from hospital legal teams over whether specific procedures comply with the law, even in cases that fall under statutory exceptions.³⁰

Election Administration Fights

In May 2026, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate confirmed his office had given the U.S. Department of Justice voter registration data that included driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers. Pate said the state was “legally obligated” to comply, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1960 and the Federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.³¹ The DOJ had already sued 30 states for failing to provide complete voter records.³²

Democratic candidate for secretary of state Ryan Peterman called the disclosure “indefensible.” Nate Willems, a candidate for attorney general, accused Attorney General Bird of “rubber-stamping” the request.³³

A separate ballot-access fight is pending in state court. On June 15, 2026, the Iowa State Objection Panel removed three Libertarian candidates from the November ballot. The gubernatorial ticket of Nicholas Gluba and Jules Cutler was disqualified because Cutler did not file a required affidavit of candidacy, which she says a specialist in the Secretary of State’s office told her was unnecessary. A third candidate, Marco Battaglia, was removed for using a name other than his legal name on his paperwork.³⁴ Gluba and Cutler filed a petition for judicial review in Polk County District Court on June 23, 2026, challenging the panel’s authority and its composition after Auditor Sand recused himself.³⁵

The 2028 Caucus Question

Iowa Republicans expect to keep their first-in-the-nation caucus status for 2028 under state party Chair Jeff Kaufmann.³⁶ Iowa Democrats do not: the DNC stripped the state of early-state status after 2020, and the 2024 event was a mail-in contest with results announced on Super Tuesday. Democrats, led by Chair Rita Hart, are now competing against 11 other states for one of four or five early-window slots on the 2028 calendar, pitching a hybrid mail-in and in-person format with same-night results.³⁷ An Iowa Democratic Party survey of about 750 members found 65% wanted an early-window contest, and members split roughly evenly between working within the DNC process and defying it if Iowa is denied a slot. Hart has asked the DNC to wait until after the November 2026 midterms to finalize its decision.

1
National Conference of State Legislatures. State Partisan Composition
2
Associated Press. Iowa Election Results
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Iowa Public Radio. Governor Kim Reynolds Condition of the State Address
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NPR. Iowa Primary Election Results
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Time. How Zach Lahn Overcame a Trump-Backed Opponent in Iowa
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Iowa Public Radio. Zach Lahn Wins Republican Nomination for Iowa Governor
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. Lines of Attack Solidify Against Iowa Candidates for the General Election
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. Democratic Governor Candidate Rob Sand Warns That Iowa Faces Fiscal Time Bomb
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Rob Sand. Priorities
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Iowa Public Radio. Rob Sand Accountability Plan
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KCCI. Iowa Primary Election Results US Senate
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Politico. Iowa Senate Turek Hinson Poll
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NBC News. Iowa Results
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. Gov Kim Reynolds Signs Final Bills From 2026 Legislative Session
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Governor of Iowa. Gov Reynolds Signs Property Tax Relief Bill
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. Gov Kim Reynolds Signs Property Tax Law
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Iowa Public Radio. Legislature Ends Session With a Last Minute Deal on Property Taxes
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Des Moines Register. RFK Jr Joins Kim Reynolds in Iowa for MAHA Law Signing
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Iowa Public Radio. Reynolds Signs Iowa MAHA Law
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. RFK Jr Delivers Youth Screen Time Advisory While in Iowa for MAHA Bill Signing
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Spectrum News. SNAP Waivers Soda Soft Drinks Candy
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Iowa Department of Education. Education Savings Accounts
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KCCI. Education Savings Account Applications
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. Auditor School Choice Cost Iowans 258 Million
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Iowa Public Radio. What Bills Advanced and Failed in Iowa Legislatures Second Funnel Week Deadline
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. Federal Appeals Court Upholds Injunction Blocking Iowa Immigration Law
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Iowa Appeals. Iowa AG Plans to Seek US Supreme Court Review
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Iowa Public Radio. Iowa Politics
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. One Year Since Abortion Law Took Effect
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Iowa Public Radio. Iowa Heartbeat 6 Week Ban Abortion Law Anniversary
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Iowa Secretary of State. Secretary Pate Releases Statement Department of Justice Request
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KCRG. Secretary of State Confirms He Sent Iowans Voting Records to DOJ
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Iowa Capital Dispatch. Democrats Criticize Iowa Decision to Share Voter Info With US Justice Department
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Iowa Public Radio. State Panel Removes 3 Libertarian Candidates From Ballot
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Des Moines Register. Libertarian Gubernatorial Ticket Lawsuit Ballot Access
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Des Moines Register. Iowa Democrats Release Results of 2028 Caucus Survey
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KCCI. Iowa Democrats Prepare New Pitch to Regain an Early Spot in 2028 Presidential Race