Zach Lahn, a Republican gubernatorial nominee in Iowa, scored a surprising victory by basing the majority of his campaign on an issue very few political candidates like to talk about and he is hoping that continuing to do so will result in another big win in November’s midterm election. Gaining momentum from Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Action and Turning Point Action, formed by the late Charlie Kirk, Lahn defeated Trump-endorsed Iowa GOP Rep. Randy Feenstra in the June 2 primary race.
He will now face off against Democratic nominee Rob Sand in a race that many pundits and media outlets are calling a “toss up.” Lahn, a farmer, stated that his thin victory over Feenstra demonstrates that the MAHA movement, which was started by current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is here to stay.
“You have to understand that this was a movement before it had a name,” Lahn said in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “And I think that what happened was Bobby Kennedy was able to coalesce a lot of this base around these issues of medical freedom, of health issues, healthy food, all of this. And he [Kennedy] was able to bring that into one group.”
“I think it’s important to understand that in any group like this, unity does not mean uniformity,” the gubernatorial candidate said, according to The Daily Caller report. He then noted that the idea behind the MAHA movement is not to be a “monolith” where “everybody’s agreeing on every issue.” Lahn then told the publication that in his primary race, his team “saw a tremendous amount of support from people who support the MAHA issues and agenda.”
The Republican nominee then said that MAHA is a “bipartisan effort” that “is really bringing people together from both sides.” He told the outlet, “I think our win, what it really showed was this [MAHA] has legs, it has steam, it has momentum and it really connects in with a lot of voters that maybe felt like they didn’t have a voice with either major party.”
“Many people told me that I couldn’t win a Republican primary talking about these issues,” he said. Lahn then explained that the movement launched by Kennedy represents a “reprioritization of initiatives towards commonsense ideas that will help people live healthier lives, live longer lives.” He said its goal is to address “the deep systemic issues” in Iowa, especially its cancer epidemic.
“When I think about it for our campaign, I think it really is kind of a banner that’s flying that says, ‘Hey, we’re not going to let these issues go by the wayside anymore.’ Like, we are going to address these head on,” Lahn said during the interview. Later in the conversation, Lahn talked about scoring the Turning Point Action endorsement, noting that before Kirk was murdered, he was a huge supporter of policies that are now part of the MAHA movement.
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The Iowa Republican recounted meeting Kirk back in 2011. “We were both speaking at an event, and I remember seeing him speak … I think he was 17 years old at the time. And I thought, ‘Wow, who is this guy? He’s got a ton of energy, a ton of ideas,’” Lahn told the DCNF. “He was really a man on a mission.” The two men kept in contact with each other over the next 14 years.
Their last correspondence with one another was in August 2025, just one month before Kirk’s assassination. “I think the reason they endorsed me is because they had people on the ground that saw the energy growing,” the Republican added. “They were tightly connected to the grassroots in Iowa. They were at so many events I did prior to the endorsement. They saw the momentum, the young people saw our message and they really, really believed in it.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video