Iowa Is Home
Zach Lahn is a sixth-generation Iowan, husband, father of seven, farmer, businessman, pilot, and Republican candidate for Governor of Iowa.
But before any of those titles, Zach sees himself as a Christian and a steward of what has been handed down to him. For his family, Iowa is not just where they live.
Zach’s Iowa roots reach back to 1862, when his great-great-great-grandfather Hans Schluntz answered Governor Samuel Kirkwood’s call and joined the Second Iowa Cavalry during the Civil War. Another branch of the family arrived in Iowa after Friedrich Lahn crossed the Atlantic from Germany as a teenager and eventually settled near Belle Plaine.
The family established a farm that remained in Lahn hands for more than a century. That farm would eventually shape Zach’s life in ways he did not fully understand when he was young.
The broader idea behind the policy is that Iowa families should have a better opportunity to own homes, build wealth, and put down roots here.
Raised to Take Responsibility
Zach grew up in western Iowa in a family where faith, conservation, service, and the land were closely connected.
His father, Jim, studied agronomy, worked for decades in conservation and agriculture, and now serves in pastoral ministry. Zach has spoken about growing up alongside his dad in Iowa fields, learning about insects, crops, soil, and the responsibility that comes with caring for land.
Those early lessons stayed with him. They helped form a conviction that still shapes Zach’s politics today: ownership creates responsibility.
When people own their homes, their farms, their businesses, and the future they are building, communities become stronger. And when control moves farther away from the people who actually live there, something important is lost.
That belief is at the heart of Zach’s Iowa First approach.
Buying Back the Family Farm
In 2005, Zach’s great-grandmother Evelyn passed away, and the family farm, which had remained in the family for 105 years, was sold.
Zach had just graduated from high school, unable to do anything about it.
Nearly a decade later, Zach bought the family property back. Over the following years, he worked to reassemble the farm parcel by parcel and restore the homestead his family had once lost.
Today, Zach and his family live on that land near Belle Plaine.
A Husband. A Father.
Zach and his wife, Annie, are raising seven children together in a blended family rooted in faith and love. For Zach, fatherhood means showing up, keeping commitments, and making family a priority.
Rooted in Faith
Zach was raised in a Christian home by a father who combined pastoral ministry with work in agriculture and conservation. He continues to speak openly about his Christian faith and has described it as foundational to the culture he wants to preserve and build upon here in Iowa.
That conviction informs Zach’s pro-life position, which is one of the clearest differences between him and his opponents in this election. Zach believes life is a gift from God and should be protected before birth. He has committed to standing against any and every attack on Iowa’s Heartbeat Bill, and vocally opposing the radical policies enacted in other states that permit abortion all the way until birth.
With life as the foundation, Zach also believes our faith propels us to protect life after birth. We must actively pursue, loving our neighbors by creating a culture that prioritizes:
- Healthy children.
- Healthy families.
- Clean water.
- Safe food.
- Strong communities.
- Care for people facing disease.
- Timeless values of Christian faith.
When Cancer Became Personal
Zach grew up in Sioux City, riding through fields with his father, who worked around Iowa agriculture for decades, studying crops, weeds, pests, and insects. Years later, his father developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Zach has repeatedly said that cancer is not a partisan issue. Iowa has one of the nation’s highest cancer burdens and has experienced an unusually high rate of new cancer diagnoses. Zach has made addressing that problem one of the central issues of his campaign.
His proposed approach includes independent state safety testing, directing more Iowa-based research toward the state’s cancer problem, incentivizing proven conservation practices to mitigate agricultural runoff, challenging agricultural monopolies, and demanding greater accountability when products may pose risks to Iowans.
For Zach, “Make Iowa Healthy Again” encompasses what we all want for ourselves, our children, and our neighbors. It means asking harder questions about the water Iowans drink, the food they eat, the chemicals used around them, the incentives shaping agriculture, and the long-term health of Iowa children.
Iowa First
Zach knows firsthand that what is worth keeping does not preserve itself.
His family lost the farm that had been theirs for more than a century. Years later, he bought it back and began rebuilding what had been lost. That experience shaped the way he thinks about Iowa today: protect what is worth protecting, strengthen it, and leave something better for the next generation.
That is what Iowa First means to Zach.
It means putting Iowa families first. Iowa farmers first. Iowa workers, businesses, communities, and children first. It means building on the culture and character generations of Iowans worked to create, while standing against policies that would move our state away from the values that made it strong.
Iowa First means preserving what we love, strengthening what we have, and making sure Iowa still belongs to Iowans for generations to come.
