Three of the five candidates running in the Republican Primary for governor are appearing tonight in a televised debate.
The event will air live on Iowa PBS at 7 p.m. Former Iowa Department of Administrative Services Director Adam Steen, State Representative Eddie Andrews of Johnston and Williamsburg Pastor Brad Sherman will be on stage, answering questions from three political journalists.
Congressman Randy Feenstra, the candidate who’s raised the most money, is not participating. Businessman Zach Lahn, the other candidate in the GOP race for governor, announced earlier this month he would not be at tonight’s debate and he called on Feenstra to agree to a series of one-on-one discussions with him instead.
During a news conference this afternoon at the Iowa Capitol, Lahn said if Feenstra doesn’t agree to four debates by Monday, he will ask Rob Sand, the Democrat who’s running for governor, to debate. “We’re now 35 days out from this election and the four candidates who have agreed to debate have been seen on stage countless times together and not one time has Randy Feenstra been willing to attend,” Lahn said. “Any debate without Randy Feenstra is a farce and we should not participate in it.”
Lahn said the voters of Iowa deserve to see him and Feenstra on stage together. “I am not going to continue to just go up on stage where there are just four of us candidates, people that I like, where we’re allowing the alleged frontrunner who’s supposedly up by 30 points, to just skip out once again,” Lahn said. “This is unacceptable and the voters of Iowa deserve better than this.”
The 2026 primary election is June 2. Voters have been able to submit absentee ballot requests for the past five weeks, but county auditors will not begin mailing those ballots to voters until May 13. Early in-person voting also begins May 13 at county auditors’ offices and other designated sites.
(This story was updated at 2:57 p.m. with additional information)