Hey guys, this is Andrew Eggers with the bulwark. The state of Iowa, like much of the Midwest right now,

in kind of a weird place politically. Iowa used to be a purple state, elected lots of Democrats,

but Iowa is an agricultural state. It's a rural state. It's a largely white state. And the Trump-era

shifts that have pulled the white working class more and more into the GOP have hit Democrats

pretty hard there. I am joined today by what you might call the

last Iowa Democrat standing. It is state auditor Rob Sand, who is the only Democrat currently serving

in statewide office in Iowa. In some ways, he is trying to lead his party out of the wilderness there.

He's running for governor to replace retiring current governor, Kim Reynolds. Rob Sand, thanks for coming on to talk for a little bit. Yeah, happy to be here, Andrew. Thanks for having me. So you're a guy who some of our viewers and readers might be familiar with, you know, the real sickos, the real junkies out there. Since you have made a bit of a splash online with some of your campaign videos, you've had some pickup in national media. for those who are not familiar with you, can you just start by telling us a little bit about your background,

a little bit about your background, a little bit about yourself and why you're in this race? Yeah, you bet. Born and raised in Bikora, Iowa. My dad's family has been up there in Winnihishie County, way northeast part of the state since we got off the boat from Norway.

So I grew up hunting and fishing, going to church.

All three of those things are still important parts of my life.

My first job was catching chickens.

I don't do that anymore.

Happy to keep hunting and fishing and going to church.

And, you know, when I finished my education, went to work at the Attorney General's

office, spent seven years as the chief public corruption prosecutor there. Prosecuted violent crime

to sexually violent predator cases, but a lot of financial stuff. So if you ever read about

the hot lotto scandal, the largest lottery rigging scheme in American history. I led the investigation

that uncovered it and the prosecution for it. And then was elected in 2018 as state auditor and

reelected in 2022. We actually uncovered a record amount of misspent money in the state.

In my first term, we started a government efficiency program so good it's been

copied into other states. The response to us uncovering all that misspent money was literally

...