Rob Sand courts Buena Vista County voters on northwest Iowa tour

Rob Sand returned to Buena Vista County with a pitch aimed less at applause than at the tax statements and school budgets that shape daily life in Storm Lake. He stopped at Smokin’ Hereford in Storm Lake and a machine shed in Cleghorn, part of a northwest Iowa swing that put him in front of voters in one of the county’s most visible business settings and one of its most rural ones.

Sand formally launched his 2026 run for governor on May 12, 2025, and his campaign has framed the race around public education, lower costs and political accountability. In January, when he reacted to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ property-tax plan, Sand said, “I would like to see the math on it.” A month later, his campaign was still pressing the same argument: that Iowa families need clearer numbers before state leaders promise relief that could push costs elsewhere.

That message lands sharply in Buena Vista County. Storm Lake schools have been considering a property-tax levy increase of nearly 8% after cutting $1.5 million from the district budget, and county officials held a public hearing on the proposed fiscal 2026 county tax asking at the Buena Vista County Board of Supervisors room at 215 E. 5th St. in Storm Lake. For homeowners, that means the debate Sand is carrying across northwest Iowa is already showing up in local bills, not just in Des Moines talking points.

School funding is another piece of the same fight. Sand’s campaign has said he wants to strengthen public education, and in June he released a report saying the state spent nearly $260 million last school year on Iowa’s Education Savings Account program, which pays private-school tuition costs for students who would otherwise have attended public schools. That is the policy backdrop in Storm Lake, where district leaders are trying to balance staffing, facilities and tax pressure while state dollars continue to flow into a voucher-style program.

Sand’s political map is harder here than in some Iowa counties. Buena Vista County had 20,823 residents in the 2020 Census, and Storm Lake had 11,269. Storm Lake grew 6.3% from 2010 to 2020, while the county grew 2.8%, and a 2020 report called Buena Vista County the most diverse county in Iowa. But the city also leaned Republican in 2024, when Donald Trump won Storm Lake 51% to 49%, by 97 votes, the first Republican presidential win there in 20 years.

Sand’s campaign has tried to turn that kind of place into proof that Democrats can still compete in rural northwest Iowa. A July 16, 2025, campaign release said his “100 County Town Hall Tour” would take him to Cherokee and Buena Vista counties and to places many Democrats usually skip. In a county where turnout and local familiarity still matter, the test is whether that retail style can translate into votes, not just crowds.