Iowa Governor-elect Rob Sand on winning over voters: "Right wing, left wing — same bird"

[0:00] So Rob Sand. Yes. What's resonating the most with Republicans? I think a couple of things. I mean, [0:07] I was a public corruption prosecutor and then two terms of state auditor, so fiscal responsibility, [0:12] anti-corruption. I also just like resonating makes me think of singing America the Beautiful, [0:19] which we've been doing at every town hall. We did 100 town halls last year, 100 this year. [0:25] We're doing it at some of our GOTV events this week and people love it. They really do. [0:33] When you first decided, hey, I'm going to make, I'm going to start my next campaign event as a sing-along. [0:40] Yeah. Who did you present that idea to? Your staff? I didn't ask anybody. I just did it. [0:45] There were some people who told me they were going to go to the Urbandale. This was before I was doing [0:49] the campaign, but it was in like, I think it was spring of 25. There were some Republicans who were [0:56] like, hey, we're going to go to the Urbandale Democrats because we saw you're coming and we're [1:00] really interested in what you have to say. And I had been thinking about doing something like this, [1:06] but it means a lot more when you do it in mixed company. And the way we do it is we acknowledge [1:10] before we even start singing that we are in mixed company. We ask people to applaud those who are [1:15] attending who are in the other political parties. So you're literally being asked to clap for what [1:20] most politicians want you to think of as your enemy. But what I'm trying to remind you is actually [1:23] just the other half, right? Right wing, left wing, same bird. And so you acknowledge that you disagree [1:29] and then you... You just kind of ran over that. Like, that's such a great analogy. [1:33] Yeah, it's the truth. Right wing, left wing, same bird. I think the vast majority of people [1:40] understand that when you make decisions with people that you disagree with and you have to [1:45] listen together and compromise, that every once in a while, the people you think are mostly wrong [1:49] are right, right? Broken clock is right twice a day. We're totally forgetting this in politics. [1:55] Both parties really want everyone to just be mad at the other side because then it's easier to control [1:59] them and it's easier to win power. And I think that's wrong. I think the vast majority of us know [2:05] that we want to have people around who balance us out. When I was in the auditor's office, when I won [2:10] in 2018, I put an independent and a Republican who had made campaign contributions to my opponent [2:15] into the most senior positions in the auditor's office. And because we worked together, we found [2:20] a record amount of misspent money across the whole state. I just think that's common sense that you [2:24] work with people that you disagree with. But still, you want to change things when you're in office. [2:28] Yeah. What do you want to change? [2:31] Well, I think we need to have regulations on politicians more than anything else. We actually [2:36] have a proud tradition of this, right? First state to create an independent redistricting [2:39] commission. Iowa. We have a merit-based judicial nomination system where if you think you're [2:45] the greatest attorney in the state and you should be on the Supreme Court, you might have to interview [2:50] with a group of random Iowans. You will have to interview with a group of random Iowans before [2:54] you can get on the court. We have lots of instances where we have done a good job of putting [2:59] checks and balances on politicians. And we need to do more of that because I think politics [3:03] has just run amok. It's like we forget that actually government is supposed to be public [3:07] service. It's just, it's all politics now. And if we regulate politicians more, it'll [3:15] be harder for them to serve special interests and insiders. And it'll be easier to have public [3:20] servants run and win who actually just want to do work to solve problems. [3:23] Where do you think Iowa went off track? [3:27] There's a couple of different answers to that. Public education. We were actually fifth [3:31] in 2018. I think if we had been... [3:33] We were first in the nation when I was... [3:35] We were. We were. Yeah, yeah. We were. We were always in the top three. Growing up in [3:39] Decora, you could like shake your fist at Minnesota and Wisconsin. Be like, we'll get you next year. [3:43] But even in 2018, number five, which is respectable. Now we're in the bottom half and we're losing [3:49] to Nebraska, you know, which is particularly painful. So number one, pretty recently on [3:55] education, because we were number five just eight years ago. The cancer rate has been increasing. [4:02] I'll tell you, I say this everywhere I go. One party control doesn't work for ordinary people. [4:08] One party control means that a tiny number of people have too much power for too long. [4:11] And I ask people everywhere I go, you finish the phrase. And I say, power corrupts and absolute [4:16] power corrupts absolutely. So we all know this. And you can look around. I say, if you think that [4:22] the answer is to give the other party 10 years of one party control, you should visit California [4:27] or New York. That's not the answer. A lot of them, they have the same problems. Some different [4:32] problems because the parties are different, but you have the same problem of corruption because [4:37] a tiny number of people and bad ideas getting executed because a tiny number of people have [4:42] too much power for too long. We have been a divided government state our whole lives, right? [4:47] Tom Harkin, Chuck Grassley. We had divided government in Des Moines almost our whole lives. [4:52] It works. I like to say this is what Iowans do. Like my grandpa Bob would be at 6 a.m. coffee [4:58] at Hardee's and then 7 a.m. coffee at McDonald's and every coffee group in the state, you know. [5:02] Would he really? [5:03] Yeah, yeah. Every day. [5:04] You're not just making that story up. [5:05] No, I'm not making that up. [5:06] There was also a coffee shop called Burl's that he would go to in Decorah, usually in [5:11] the afternoon. They're closed now, but, you know, he had his coffee groups and my mom has [5:16] her knitting group and her sewing group and no matter where you go in Iowa, people sit [5:21] down. They have groups they meet up with. It's not all the same party. They don't take [5:26] party ID or check it out the way in the door. They don't tell whoever happens to be in the [5:30] minority in the group to shut up while the majority party does all the talking. It'd be absurd, [5:34] you know. We know that, again, broken clock is right twice a day. Nobody has a monopoly [5:39] on good ideas. And Iowans sit down in groups like this and we have a phrase for it, solving [5:44] the world's problems, right? Everybody in Iowa says that. You know what it means. It means [5:48] people sitting down, hammering out some differences, respecting when somebody that you think is almost [5:54] always wrong actually gets one right. And then coming up with a solution where by the time [5:59] you leave coffee, you're like, why is this so hard in D.C. or Des Moines? Like, we just [6:04] sat down and figured it out. And that's what I want us to get back to. I know I'm going [6:08] to be working with the Republican legislature if I win, but that means that every budget [6:11] that we pass, every bill that we pass is going to have to have bipartisan support. And I think [6:15] that means that the far left and the far right will be upset and the vast majority of us [6:18] will be like, this looks fine. This is a good idea. [6:21] When we were growing up in Iowa, we were proudly purple. I'm looking at all of these national [6:27] headlines and they have your picture and they say, Rob Sand, is he the Democrat who's going [6:33] to make Iowa blue again? I don't know. But then my signs say, and my t-shirts, not redder [6:40] or bluer, better and truer. How does it feel to carry that then? Oh, it feels great. That [6:46] was actually also like not, that was just me and a buddy of mine who were texting back [6:51] and forth and he said, not redder, but better. And I went, yeah, not bluer, truer. I mean, [6:58] this isn't like, this is just what I believe. The singing of the national anthem is just [7:03] my idea. I was like, we're going to do it at every one. It's what I want to do. And I think [7:11] what we're missing out on a lot of the time is that like the vast majority of people aren't [7:15] exactly tickled to be in their political party. They're there because they feel like they sort [7:19] of have to be because the other one is worse. But everybody knows we can handle more than [7:23] two options. You've seen the toothpaste aisle, right? Like if you can walk out of the toothpaste aisle. [7:29] Sometimes there's too many toothpaste options. I know, it's terrifying. But then you get to [7:33] your ballot, which is an actually important choice. And there's only two options that are [7:37] realistic, right? I mean, that's what I want to do is I don't think that either party does a good [7:41] job of solving problems. We should end their special legal privileges that they have given [7:44] themselves. We should give independence an equal right to participate. It shouldn't just be [7:49] picking the lesser of two evils on the ballot. So if you had a choice, would you actually be an [7:56] independent rather than a Democrat? I would love to do that. It's not realistic. [8:01] Right? Because we all know as voters. Right. But if you could. I would love to do that. I would [8:06] love to do that. Don't you think the vast majority of us would? Like I was raised in a house where [8:11] my parents were registered independents. I was registered independent when I first registered [8:15] to vote. To me, the loyalty and my values are about the way you treat people. It's not about a [8:21] political party. It's not about a private club. I don't know what's in the platform. I don't care [8:26] what's in the platform. So are you, because some people are looking around right now and [8:33] trying to figure out what does the Republican Party stand for? What does the Democratic Party [8:36] stand for? And a lot of the ads right now say Democrats stand for, and there's some, there's [8:43] some really mudslinging ads that are going on right now about Democrats and Republicans trying [8:50] to find it. And you've sort of defined yourself as an entirely different candidate. Are you [8:58] a standard bearer for the Democratic Party? No. And I hope more than anything else that [9:03] we win this race and then both Democrats and Republicans around the entire country look at [9:07] what we did and the issues that we ran on and the idea of ending the two-choice system and [9:12] go, oh, that worked. I guess I'll try that too. Do you think that that's something that [9:16] you could actually do in your life? In Iowa? Yeah, absolutely. In our state? Absolutely. But not [9:21] nationwide? That's a different question, right? But it's a state-by-state thing. It's not a federal [9:26] thing. It's the state that sets the rules for how you get on the ballot, for what, for how you vote. [9:32] And so it has to be changed at the state level. So let's talk about agriculture and our farmers. [9:37] They've had a really tough couple of years. What are you going to do differently as governor to help [9:43] them out? Well, number one, again, big picture, we're in this broken political system where so [9:52] many politicians are just saluting their party leader. And that's what it is right now, particularly [9:58] on the Republican side. And so as governor, I'm actually going to stand up for Iowans. [10:04] We've got a bunch of people who have just been saying, okay, we're doing tariffs. Well, [10:09] then they turn around and try to convince their constituents here in Iowa, just you wait, [10:12] a new golden age is right around the corner. And Iowans don't fall for that. [10:16] But these politicians are doing it because they're more focused on serving their party [10:21] than they are in serving the people who elected them. And so I'm going to be outspoken about [10:25] that. And it doesn't matter who the president is. You know, when I was at the auditor's office, [10:30] the DNC sent us a records request for all allegations of wrongdoing by Kim Reynolds. [10:35] And we gave them nothing because we believed that was what we should do under Iowa law. [10:38] They sent us the records request a second time, like we didn't notice the letterhead of who [10:43] it came from. We gave them the same answer. Like this isn't, we're not supposed to give you [10:47] that. We're not going to give you that. I didn't call them and tell them to reword it. [10:53] I didn't try to soften it in some way. We're just like, no, like we don't do that. [11:00] Let's step back for a moment. The state auditor is a public servant for the state of Iowa. The [11:06] governor is a public servant for the state of Iowa. The idea that there's these two private clubs [11:11] that somehow predetermine everything is so toxic for our entire society. And it's so ruinous for the [11:18] way that we look at each other. Because at the end of the day, it pushes people to assume that [11:24] there's only two ways to think. And that if you put a letter behind your name, you must be the [11:28] same as all the other ones. And that's just incredibly destructive for everything we want [11:32] to do. [11:32] So you said you were going to, as governor, you would stay away from all the wedge issues, [11:37] the culture war stuff. [11:38] Well, uh... [11:39] Can you actually stay away from culture wars if the legislature brings it to you? [11:45] Well, I'll have to make a choice if they send me a bill. But what I've said is I'm going to veto [11:49] those bills. And the message is clear. We should spend 100% of our time on the issues that impact [11:54] 100% of Iowans. We have a cancer crisis. We have a water quality crisis. We have an economic crisis. [11:59] We have what in Iowa is a public education crisis, being the bottom half. We have a lot of real [12:04] problems. We have a brain drain, still. Right? We have a lot of real problems. I want the legislature [12:10] to send me those bills. And I've been clear with the state of Iowa, guys, I want to focus on the [12:15] issues that impact all of us. I've said that this entire campaign. And when people ask me if I'm going [12:19] to do stuff on social issues, I'm saying, no, I'm here to run on these issues that are broadly popular. [12:25] Government reform. Right? [12:27] How quickly can you solve those four issues that you just articulated? [12:30] How quickly does the legislature want to get focused on issues that matter to people [12:35] instead of doing culture war stuff? [12:37] Well, it's likely going to still be Republican-controlled, isn't it? [12:40] It will be Republican-controlled. I say that everywhere I go. That's indisputable. But that's [12:44] why I think it helps people to understand, like, hey, if you want balance, if you want some [12:49] accountability, if you want some checks and balances, too, then if I'm governor and I'm working [12:54] with the Republican legislature, every bill, every budget will have to have bipartisan support [12:58] to get passed. If they send me that stuff, I'm going to veto it. I'm not going to put [13:01] time into thinking about it. I'm not going to debate it. I'm just going to be like, is [13:04] this going to fix cancer? Is this going to improve our public education system? Is this [13:08] going to fix our water quality? No? Then what are you passing it for? [13:11] You know, when we're talking about these issues, some people might get the wrong impression about [13:15] Iowa. As our last question, what is the best about our state? [13:19] Oh, the people. No-brainer. I mean, our political culture, again, has been one where people sit [13:26] down, they talk to people they disagree with, and they come to a conclusion. They're willing [13:30] to recognize, okay, I might be annoyed that you're right, but you're right, you know? And [13:36] the fact that we have been a state that's been about good governance. We have not been a right [13:41] versus left state. We've been a right versus wrong state. We've been a national leader in [13:46] putting regulations on politicians, and that's what I want us to get back to.