Why Did Iowa Republicans Snub The Trump-Backed Candidate?
Left, Right & Center
KCRW
3.9 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Iowa Republicans picked Zach Lahn over the Trump-backed Randy Feenstra in the gubernatorial primary. Lahn’s a farmer who spoke about the pain of high fertilizer prices and cancer caused by pesticides, earning him support from the MAHA. Was this some rebuke of Trump, or just voters looking for the right person to make their lives better?
Critics say ICE detainees face horrific conditions. Trump won over a lot of voters arguing that tough immigration policies were needed to keep the country safe. Does what’s unfolding at these detention centers cross a line?
Plus, the President’s short-lived Anti-Weaponization Fund seems to be dead, and one listener asks when AI political ads cross a line.
Producer: Leo Duran
Host: David Greene
Guests:
- Mo Elleithee, executive director at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service - @MoElleithee
- Sarah Isgur, senior editor at The Dispatch - @whignewtons
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to another left, right and center, everybody. I'm David Green. Well, six more states had their primaries this past week. And with every passing vote, we are looking for signs of what voters really want for the direction of our country and also figuring out who is going to control Congress. One big question we are asking today is a Trump endorsement, a sure win for a |
| 0:23.0 | Republican in a primary? It sure seems so for a while, from Indiana to Louisiana to Texas, but then |
| 0:29.2 | Iowa this past week said, hang on everybody. Trump's pick for governor there, Congressman Randy |
| 0:35.7 | Feinstra lost the primary to farmer and businessman Zach Lane. Here is Lane. |
| 0:40.9 | We were outspent, opposed by the establishment, told to wait our turn. |
| 0:46.5 | Well, tonight the people of Iowa had something to say about that, that we're not going to wait anymore. |
| 0:52.7 | Moelethy is here on the left. |
| 0:54.3 | Sarah Isker is here on the right. |
| 0:55.8 | And Sarah, I just want to make sure I heard what Zach Lane said there correctly. |
| 1:00.2 | He is calling his opponent the guy he just beat, the guy who had Trump's backing the establishment. |
| 1:07.0 | Is that where we are in our politics? |
| 1:08.4 | What just happened in Iowa? |
| 1:10.4 | Okay. |
| 1:20.4 | Let's break down how this works. The establishment is a bad word because we live in an era where people are mistrustful of institutions, mistrustful of elites. |
| 1:28.4 | And this is one small piece of what has broken Congress, this idea that if you compromise and legislate, that you are part of the establishment and therefore not legislating is when you're really a man of the people. |
| 1:34.9 | So then you can't legislate. |
| 1:36.8 | So then Congress doesn't do anything. |
| 1:38.8 | That sounds like a dangerous sort of framing to say is in our politics. |
| 1:42.0 | If you are making deals and compromising, it means that you're not a person of the people and we don't want you in office. And this is why we can't have nice things. And this is why we can't have nice things. Well, I want to, I want to say, like, I want to be careful here with Lane's victory because it's easy to say, oh my God, this is a rebuke of President Trump because the guy who Trump endorsed lost. |
| 2:02.9 | But also, it felt. It's easy to say, oh, my God, this is a rebuke of President Trump because the guy who Trump endorsed lost. |
| 2:03.0 | But also, it felt like maybe it was more about Lane meeting the moment for where Iowans might be. |
| 2:09.8 | I mean, he's a farmer. |
... |
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