Iowa
What to know about Iowa’s Republican and Democratic conventions
What to know about the 2026 Iowa governor conventions
A detailed look at the coming Republican and Democratic state conventions as candidates Zach Lahn and Rob Sand seek to be Iowa’s next governor.
On June 13, the Iowa Republican and Democratic parties are each holding conventions to affirm their candidates in the race to elect the state’s next governor.
Here’s what Iowans should know as the conventions begin.
What is a political convention?
Iowa holds a convention every two years to nominate candidates for national and statewide offices. At this convention, the candidates officially accept nominations for their candidacy, announce their platform and begin their campaign.
In addition to advancing the race for governor, several chosen members from each party will speak at the event.
Who are Iowa’s governor candidates?
Democrat Rob Sand and Republican Zach Lahn are set to accept their party’s nominations for the gubernatorial race, with each candidate announcing their platform in their acceptance speech.
They earned the nomination with their respective victories in the June primary.
Sand chose Crawford County Supervisor and rural farmer Dave Muhlbauer as his running mate June 8.
On June 11, Lahn chose state Rep. Derek Wulf, a fourth-generation farmer and rancher, as his lieutenant governor pick. Iowans will vote to decide the state’s next governor later this year on Nov. 3.
What is a lieutenant governor?
The lieutenant governor is the second-in-command to the governor and first in the line of succession.
What can Iowans expect from the Republican convention?
The 2026 Iowa Republican Party Convention takes place June 13 at the Horizon Events Center in Clive.Speakers will include U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson, who is running for Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat after Ernst decided not to seek reelection.
Former Iowan Republican Co-Chair David Oman hopes the Iowans who attend the convention will “find something compelling” about Lahn.
“Our nominee is not well-known. I hope (Iowans) take a look at this fresh face, new face, who won the primary,” Oman said. “Have an open mind and spend the next five months learning more.”
Oman hopes Lahn’s victory in the primary will unite the party, starting with the convention.
“The primary we just experienced was grueling in some respects. The question was, ‘Could anybody get a 35%?’ That tells you that the party was looking for, and needed, a candidate that could bring the party together. We need this coming convention.”
What can Iowans expect from the Democratic convention?
The 2026 Iowa Democratic Party Convention will be held at Roosevelt High School this June 11. The doors will open at 9 a.m., with the event expected to begin an hour later. The convention is expected to end around noon.
Speakers include Democratic Party chair Rita Hart, candidate for U.S. Senate Josh Turek and candidate for Secretary of State Ryan Peterman. Hart said she looks forward to “bringing the family together.”
Democratic Party Communications Director Paige Godden said she knows Iowans are excited to meet and hear from Muhlbauer Saturday.
“I know people are really fired up, so that should be definitely one of the highlights,” Godden said.
Hart said she and other candidates have been talking and listening to Iowans’ concerns with the cost of living, one-party control, education and cancer rates. She hopes Iowans can look to Democrats for unity after this convention.
“When people respect one another, no matter what letter is behind their name — that ability to work across the aisle to have good ideas and help those ideas become reality,” Hart said. “That’s how we help everyone in the state of Iowa, and that’s really important to Iowans.”
Veronica Meiss is a news intern for the Des Moines Register. You can contact her at vmeiss@gannett.com.
POLK COUNTY, Iowa (Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Eight months ago, a state licensing board charged an Iowa nurse with multiple regulatory violations, including soliciting or accepting money from a patient. This week, for the first time, the Iowa Board of Nursing publicly disclosed those charges.
The records show the board has charged Abbriel Rae Mitchell, 44, of Roland with five separate regulatory violations: violating patient confidentiality or privacy rights; soliciting, borrowing, or misappropriating money or property from a patient; committing an act that causes physical, emotional or financial injury to a patient; participating in or attempting to initiate a sexual, social or business relationship with a patient; and engaging in behavior that is contradictory to professional decorum.
As is customary with the Board of Nursing, it has publicly disclosed no information as to the alleged conduct that gave rise to the charges or indicated when or where that conduct is alleged to have taken place.
State records indicate the board’s investigation of the matter was initiated in 2024. The charges were formally approved by the board on Oct. 8, 2025, but were made public only this week in the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing’s official Notice of Board Action for the month of June 2026.
It’s not clear why the charges were not publicly disclosed last year. In recent months, DIAL has indicated questions about the numerous licensing board errors and lengthy delays in public disclosure of disciplinary charges are best directed to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. That office has, in turn, referred such questions back to DIAL.
Board records indicate Mitchell was first authorized to work in Iowa as a licensed practical nurse in July 2005.
A hearing on the charges against her is scheduled for Oct. 15, 2026.
Copyright 2026 Iowa Capital Dispatch. All rights reserved.
Iowa State WBB coach Bill Fennelly on future timeline
Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly on end of career timeline, thoughts on possible retirement?
The Iowa State women’s basketball team will face a trio of its old Big 8 opponents at home and on the road next season during conference play.
The Cyclones’ home-and-home league partners for the 2026-27 campaign are Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma State, the Big 12 announced June 11.
Iowa State’s home-only opponents are BYU, Colorado, Houston, TCU, Texas Tech and Utah. The Cyclones get Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, UCF, Cincinnati and West Virginia on the road only.
The unbalanced schedule — with just three home-and-home opponents — has been in place since the league expanded to 16 teams.
It will be a pivotal season for the Cyclone program after losing nine players to the transfer portal, including stars Audi Crooks, Addy Brown and Jada Williams.
Dates, times and broadcast information will be released later this summer.
Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
Hear Rob Sand as he details his ‘Accountability for All’ plan
Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand talks through his ‘Accountability for All’ plan at a press conference on April 2, 2026.
State Auditor Rob Sand said pharmacy benefit managers who work with Iowa’s Medicaid program appear to be overcharging taxpayers by using prohibited pricing techniques.
But Sand said he wasn’t able to get a full picture of the financial impact to the state’s Medicaid program because the three pharmacy benefit managers that work with Iowa Medicaid did not provide certain financial records and other information his office requested.
“We believe that Iowans deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent and that PBMs shouldn’t be allowed to rip off taxpayers by hiding behind what they say is proprietary information,” he said at a news conference Wednesday, June 10.
At issue is the use of what is known as effective rate pricing, which Sand said allows PBMs to claw back payments previously made to pharmacies at the end of the year. That results in “spread pricing,” which the audit says occurs when the PBM receives a larger reimbursement payment from the Medicaid managed care organization it works with than the PBM pays to the pharmacy.
Sand said spread pricing is prohibited under Iowa Medicaid.
“It can inflate costs for taxpayers, reduce the quality of care and create financial hardships for pharmacies,” he said. “That’s especially true for the independent pharmacies in smaller communities.”
Sand’s office released a report Wednesday covering transactions from 2019 to 2021. While incomplete, he said it showed the effective rate reconciliations for one of the three PBMs that works with the state totaled $100 million over that time period.
“That’s $100 million that Iowa taxpayers may have been overcharged,” Sand said. “We believe it to be even more than that because despite the fact that we made repeated requests and negotiated, the PBMs still at the end of the day withheld critical financial information.”
Sand said his office hired a firm called 3Axis Advisors that has performed similar work in other states to assist with the audit, at a cost of about $30,000.
Sand’s report recommends banning year-end reconciliations and requiring PBMs, managed care organizations and other state contractors to provide unrestricted access to information for the auditor’s office.
The report says there should be additional regulations on PBMs to separate Medicaid payments from non-Medicaid payments and to remove pricing variability from PBM contracts.
Sand, a Democrat who is the party’s nominee for governor, earlier this year released a health care platform pledging to crack down on pharmacy benefit managers.
Last year, Iowa lawmakers passed legislation placing several new regulations on PBMs, including requiring them to pay higher reimbursement rates to pharmacies.
A federal judge partially blocked portions of the law last summer while a lawsuit is pending from a coalition of business groups. It is awaiting an appeal.
Sand praised the law as “very good” but said “I think there’s a lot more that could be done.”
“The regulations that were contained in it would prevent some abuses,” he said. “But again, I think it’s very important to emphasize that auditors need to have access to this information to make sure that taxpayers are being protected, and they’re not being ripped off.”
Heather Nahas, a spokesperson for Gov. Kim Reynolds, said Iowa has recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper fees charged to pharmacies.
“For the last several years, Gov. Reynolds and Iowa lawmakers have been leading the fight against abusive PBM practices, advancing reforms, strengthening oversight and defending those efforts against repeated challenges,” she said in a statement.
Nahas called Sand’s report “irrelevant and outdated,” saying the data he looked at does not reflect current practices at Iowa’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services or Medicaid pharmacy oversight.
Nahas said the report includes recommendations that Iowa Medicaid implemented more than three years ago.
“The auditor may be late to the game, but he’s finally arrived at the same conclusion that Iowans, the Republican legislature, and the Reynolds administration have known for years: PBM practices demand scrutiny, transparency and reform,” she said. “The difference is we’re doing something about it.”
Sand said his efforts to gather data were delayed by resistance from the PBMs and by a Republican-passed law, Senate File 478, that blocks the auditor from going to court against other state entities to force them to turn over documents.
“It took absolutely forever to get all of this data, to go back and forth with the PBMs, to evaluate legal claims about trade secrets or about SF 478,” he said. “And so as usual with this industry everything is much murkier and slower moving than any reasonable person would expect.”
Stephen Gruber-Miller is the Capitol bureau chief for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com, by phone at 515-284-8169 or on X at @sgrubermiller.
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