Who is Zach Lahn? GOP primary winner in Iowa

Republican businessman Zach Lahn was the victor in a bruising five-person Republican primary fight for governor, earning the nomination Tuesday, June 2.

Lahn is a businessman, entrepreneur and farmer who aligned himself with Robert Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement. 

Although he missed out on an endorsement from Republican President Donald Trump — that went to U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra — Lahn was endorsed by MAHA Action PAC.

On the campaign trail, he targeted Iowa’s rising cancer rates and water quality problems, directly linking those issues to big agriculture in the state.

He has also called for banning all mRNA vaccines and pulling COVID-19 vaccinations from the market.

Lahn and his wife, Annie, founded Homeplace Ventures, a company that invests in agriculture, real estate and technology. 

The pair also co-founded Wonder, a nontraditional private school in Wichita that, according to local news reports, was funded by members of the Koch family.

Lahn told reporters at his campaign launch he pursued that venture because "education is foundational to us as a people and to our culture. We have to get back to how do we serve students better."

Lahn has said education savings accounts "are a foundational freedom," but he also says the next governor must be “the number one advocate” for public school children.

He said schools must drive innovation and root out political indoctrination.

“There is a battle being waged in our schools for the hearts and minds of young people,” he said. “We cannot cede this ground.”

Lahn also previously worked as the Montana state director for Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group backed by Charles Koch, from 2014 to 2015. And he has worked in Republican politics as a campaign staffer.

Lahn and his wife have seven children in their blended family. He launched his campaign from their Belle Plaine family farmhouse.

He said he purchased his family farm in 2014, and he said he made the full move back to the state in 2023.

Lahn told the Des Moines Register he also maintains a home in Kansas and flies to the state frequently in a plane he owns. He said the home and the flights are necessary to see some of the children he and his wife have from previous marriages. He said that arrangement would change if he's elected governor.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. She writes about campaigns, elections and the Iowa Caucuses. Reach her at [email protected] or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR.