Rob Sand, the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor, has picked a western Iowa farmer as his running mate.
Nominees for governor and lieutenant governor in Iowa run together as a team, just like the president and vice president. Sand has chosen Dave Muhlbauer (pronounced MULL-bow-er), a Crawford County supervisor who raises cattle and hogs on a farm near Manilla, as his running mate. In a prepared statement, Muhlbauer said their campaign “is about public service, not politics.” Muhlbauer said it’s something he learned from his dad and grandpa, who were both state legislators.
During a Friday appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS before his pick was made public, Sand said he was looking for a running mate he could trust. “It’s not a political thing,” Sand said. “It’s who do you look at and who do you know and who can you talk to and you just get a sense of, like, this person is exactly who they say they are.”
Muhlbauer has previously described himself as “an old-school farming-labor Democrat.” He launched a campaign for the U.S. Senate in May of 2021, but ended that campaign in the fall of 2021 after a close relative died in a farm accident.
Sand will ask delegates to the Iowa Democratic Party’s state convention this Saturday to officially nominate Muhlbauer as the party’s pick for lieutenant governor. Republican nominee for governor Zach Lahn has not yet announced his choice for a running mate.