Zach Lahn stump speech before Iowa primary election

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:07]Hey, >> let's go.

[00:00:17]This is unbelievable. Let me tell you something.

[00:00:21]I was the last candidate in this race.

[00:00:23]You all know that. November of last year on the footsteps of my farmhouse in Bellpoint, Iowa. And I remember the first online poll that came out had us near dead last.

[00:00:36]Well, the first independent poll that just came out has us first. This is what This is I don't know how many people have heard me before, but I want to do something. I can take that if you need me to. I have to talk to every undecided voter there is. Put that person on the phone. Put them up there.

[00:00:58]You know, I just want to take a second and do something that, you know, we're what, 40 hours away from polls opening up, something like that. This is maybe quite possibly one of the most consequential primary elections that we've been a part of. The seat hasn't been open in 20 years. We've watched over that same 20 years and more as a lot of the state that we grew up in has changed.

[00:01:23]Some of it is unrecognizable.

[00:01:25]Let me tell you this. You know, we started this. It was all about ideas.

[00:01:30]That's what it was about. It was all about what we could make the state of Iowa become, how we could bring back our culture and our heritage, how we could support the next generation, make it a great place for people to raise kids and have a family. And as I got in this, it was just about ideas. I didn't have an establishment machine behind me. I didn't have any of those people behind me. Matter of fact, I don't have many of those people behind me right now.

[00:02:02]>> But here's what I do have behind me.

[00:02:05]It's very clear what I've noticed over the past 24 hours, 48 hours, whatever it's been, is there there's a coalescing that's happening right now. We can all feel it there. You know, even if other candidates won't step out and endorse our campaign, we are seeing person after person saying, "We are getting behind Zack Lane because we have to stop the establishment machine ready."

[00:02:29]>> That's what's happening.

[00:02:35]But I have to tell you, you know, in my previous life and still outside of this, it's not getting a lot of attention.

[00:02:43]What I love to do is build teams. You know, I would start companies. I've bought companies. I've started schools.

[00:02:50]And one thing I've known is the people who are with you matter a tremendous amount. An unbelievable amount. Matter of fact, sometimes it's not so much about having the right people on the bus. is sometimes getting the wrong people off the bus. And I'll tell you, >> we have started from the beginning with putting the right people on the bus. And I want to recognize some of those people right now.

[00:03:13]Elijah Bloom over here has been our field director. Elijah, thank you.

[00:03:21]>> I'm just going to call out Parker and these young people who are knocking doors. It's unbelievable to see what you guys are doing. Thank you for being the leaders of the next generation.

[00:03:34]Kelly Ko and Gary Leler and these activist warriors who saw the potential that we have to win and even when things didn't look good, they didn't they didn't run. They said, "We're digging in deeper." And they've been vindicated by all of you who stepped alongside us to say, "No, no, no. We can win this thing." And thank you to all of the activists that we have on our team. We appreciate you so much. We have people like Carter Hayden whose his first campaign he's ever done. He is flexing it right now setting up events and many other people that are not here right now. And by the way, one of my friends who was on this campaign early on had to go home for some family issues. Josh Treat came back because he sees what we can do. Thank you, Josh.

[00:04:26]You know, something that came to my mind the past couple days, you know, I grew up in western Iowa. Uh went to Sous City East High School. I think like a lot of people, you have people that were really important in your life. And one of those people for me was my high school football coach. His name was Walt Feele.

[00:04:42]He was actually a Iowa Hall of Fame coach. He coached my team. I was actually the last quarterback to play under Walt Figel before he passed away after the season. He actually coached my dad in high school, too.

[00:04:54]But I remember we'd be in the locker room before we went into a tough battle and he would always talk about how the team that we had there is the exact team he'd want to go into a street fight with and that's what I feel about the people in this room right now. That's what I want to but he had he had these sayings that he'd say and some of them were a bit colorful but they were very meaningful and they stick with us. I was at an event in Logan, Iowa. Uh gosh, I don't know what day it is, but I think it was yesterday. We're at an event in Logan, Iowa, and it was hosted by a friend of mine from high school who's now, you know, a farmer who's one of the few that started with $20 in his pocket and that is now farming over a,000 acres of ground and making it work. He's a success story. And as he was there, we were talking about some of these numbers we had. And you know, recently, you all heard there's some endorsements that came out for this campaign. Let me just tell you, I couldn't be more proud to have the endorsement of my friend Charlie Kirk's turning or organization.

[00:05:58]Couldn't be more proud.

[00:06:05]>> There isn't a day probably that goes by that I don't wish he was right here because I think he would see what's happening in this room and he would realize just as his leadership realized, just as the people on the ground from Turner Court realized, that there is a movement forming in the state of Iowa right now that you all are a part of right now.

[00:06:21]And that is a movement to put Iowa first. It's a movement to say that we're done with the extraction from our state.

[00:06:29]We're done with the corporate capture of agencies. We're done with special interests and lobbyists having control.

[00:06:36]We're done. But there's another endorsement that came out yesterday or gosh, two days ago now. And you probably all saw that the president endorsed my opponent Randy Fra.

[00:06:47]>> And I said very clearly, I believe the president got bad advice. And I don't know which one of the groups that was lined up against our campaign got him to his ear, but I believe he had bad advice because if he saw what was going on on the ground right here, he would be standing up here right now saying, "We need to elect Zack Lane as the next governor of Iowa." I believe that.

[00:07:12]Let me say this about Walt Eagle. One of the things that Clint reminded me of because this is a this is a battle. We are in a battle right now.

[00:07:21]>> And I believe there's a spiritual aspect to this battle, too. But one of the things he taught us was that tough times don't last, but tough people do.

[00:07:30]>> That's right.

[00:07:31]>> And that's what this campaign has been about. It's been about no matter what we're up against, no matter which group says, "Oh, this isn't going to work or that, you know, this isn't a real movement."

[00:07:44]Well, I would just encourage them to come to any one of the town halls where we are blowing the doors out compared to any of our competitors because you are the leader.

[00:07:57]So my message to anybody here that has a friend or maybe people that are here that have considered supporting somebody else, my message is join our team. Let's win this race on June 2nd. And then I invite President Trump to come alongside us and help win on June 3rd and keep Iowa in conservative hands and fighting for the next generation.

[00:08:24]People also said one thing, and I'll say this because my mom's here. He said, uh, he said at at night, he said, "Go home and give your mom a kiss and tell her you love her. I love you, mom. Thanks for being behind me this entire time."

[00:08:37]Very good.

[00:08:43]But I'm just going to talk a little about the issues that we're that we are running on because, you know, I I'll tell you this. I had a reporter today that was interviewing me and we had two interviews. One was from a local reporter that really cared about the local issues. Another was a national reporter from MSNBC that came in. And I'll tell you the entire time it was antagonistic trying to create division within this party trying to get me to talk negatively about the president of the United States. And I just said this, look, unity does not mean uniformity.

[00:09:14]But we are here because we get to choose who we want to be the person to go up against Rob Sand. And I will tell you, the left knows this very well. They know it better than anyone. And I believe some of the media that are here tonight on the left know this, too. That they do not want to go up against the Iowa First machine because we will beat Rob Sand in November. They do not.

[00:09:39]Woo.

[00:09:42]And here's why. Here's why. Because our campaign is not partisan.

[00:09:48]This isn't about left or right. You know, I hear my opponent Rob Sand talking about this, but we actually mean it. This is not a poll tested campaign.

[00:09:56]I didn't get into this race and say, "Okay, what what do people want to hear that I can really convince them that I'm on their team with?" I got in this race because I wanted to bring up issues that no one was talking about. We are fourth highest in the country for outmigration of our kids. We're losing our kids faster than 46 other states. No one's talking about it. You cannot build a culture, maintain your traditions, your heritage, let alone build an economy if your people are leaving. This is one of the top issues anyone running for office needs to be held to account on. How are we going to make this a place where this young man who's going to be, by the way, someday will that just introduced me is someone you all are going to be voting for someday because he understands what's at stake and he's willing to put his hat in the ring and go door to door knocking and run for office at Iowa State University to try to put in place conservative ideals there too and fight for those places just like Charlie Kirk did. We have these young people on our campaign because they're saying, "Thank you for trying to keep me here. I do not want to leave. Last night was in Okaboji."

[00:11:00]And one of the young men came up to me and he said, "I don't want to leave. It feels like I have to. I'm can I cannot find work the way I need to find work."

[00:11:11]And I've said very clearly, we have spent far too much time trying to court these large multinational companies who when the economy gets bad, cut the jobs of Ians. And at the same time, many of them like Bayer right now is extorting a third generation company, Laam Seeds.

[00:11:27]And Laam Seeds just had to file an antirust suit against this company.

[00:11:32]Look, we've given Bayer $42 million in welfare. You all have, the state of Iowa has, and they're extorting an Iowa company. They do not care about the next generation of IO kids.

[00:11:45]Leam does. Kenzie does. VT does. We have limited resources to dole out as a state to incentivize business to be here. It's very simple. Those companies don't need welfare from us. We need to incentivize Iowa's homegrown businesses and entrepreneurs who are here to go deep into our communities to be here for 40, 50, 60 years. Because here's what they do when the economy gets bad. They're the last people to cut the job of an island because they're going to church together. Their kids are playing soccer together. They see them on Main Street.

[00:12:19]So, I've been very clear. Not only are those companies not getting our hardearned tax dollars, but neither are companies like Google who are coming in and putting data centers all over our state. I'm the only candidate calling for a complete moratorum on data centers in Iowa.

[00:12:38]And there's a reason for that because we have to be good negotiators. Trump would say that when you give five over half a billion dollars in property tax abatements to create 30 jobs, you didn't negotiate well.

[00:12:52]>> That's right.

[00:12:52]>> People have no clue at our capital how little it would take to make a huge difference in our rural communities. And then we see many of these Iowa companies that are having to compete against these large out ofstate businesses that are coming here. Look, I'm not opposed to industry, but if you want to come to Iowa and get incentives from us, move your headquarters here. Have your CEO live in our communities. Go deep with us. Don't just treat us like a cell in a spreadsheet. And when the economy gets bad, you just say we're out.

[00:13:24]Because often times these Iowa homegrown businesses like some I've talked to just last week when the economy gets bad, you know what they do? They dig into their own pockets to keep our people employed.

[00:13:36]That's what it looks like to build a culture. That's what it looks like to care for your neighbor. The one of the two commandments that were given by Jesus, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. The question is to whom are we being neighborly? And I trust Iowa companies, Iowa entrepreneurs to care for their neighbors in their communities far more than I trust a multinational company that, by the way, is extorting in many cases Iowa companies. We're going to go deep with Iowa companies.

[00:14:13]You know, when I was in the front, by the way, everybody here, you're invited tomorrow in Bell Plane. We are going to have our final campaign event, and it's going to be at my farmhouse, at our farmhouse, the same place we kicked off our campaign. We're going to end it because it's a deep part of the story of why I'm running. I think many of you know this, but you know, my great great great grandfather was one of the Hawkeyes on a horseback in the Civil War. John Wayne made a movie called The Pony Soldiers about this. My great greatgrandfather built our family farm in Bell Plain in 1900.

[00:14:50]And that was a part of our story until 2005 when it was sold. And then in 2014, I had the opportunity to buy it back.

[00:14:57]And before I could even take a breath when they offered it to me, I said, "Yes, I have no idea how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do it." And I spent the better part of a decade rebuilding it. And recently my wife Annie and I finished that project about five years ago, four years ago. And during that whole time, I had people saying to me, Zach, why are you doing this? Why don't you just rip this house down, build something bigger and better? And I said, you don't understand. I want my kids to understand what their story is. That there's people that came here before them to build something for them that would never meet them, but did it anyways. It's part of the generational compact of being in Iowa.

[00:15:36]And that's why I did it. And that's why I'm in this race. People often talk about what are your, you know, what are your legislative priorities? And don't get me wrong, there's things I would like to change legislatively. But the first thing I'm thinking about is how do we rebuild our culture as islands? You know, the entire world wants what our ancestors built. They all want it. And I don't blame them. I would want it, too.

[00:15:59]But it's on the shoulders of the next generation. people like that, the young people that are supporting our campaign right now to carry that on.

[00:16:06]>> And that's why we have to be telling the story of where you came from and why it's so important. You know, the left has been very clear about how they want to infiltrate America. And they've been very good at it, too, by the way. And they've said this, if you want to infiltrate and change America, infiltrate the institutions of society.

[00:16:24]And we've watched them do it. Business, churches, government, and one of the areas because it's filled with the most vulnerable people, education.

[00:16:36]We've watched this happen.

[00:16:38]And why I say this is this. If you want to destroy a culture, destroy their stories.

[00:16:45]We cannot allow that to happen. You know, recently I put an ad out that got a lot of people on the left very worked up. And in that ad, I talked about how in our curriculum and in our public schools, and it's not just our public schools. There's many private schools that have this, too. There's a bent towards what I said was Marxism.

[00:17:04]And they didn't like that word at all.

[00:17:06]But as they were telling me how wrong I was about that, they actually made my case for me. What they said was, "You just don't want to teach people how bad America is." I said, "No, no, no. This is the issue. Look, there's been no country that's ever been perfect, but there's also been no country has tried harder to be perfect in the United States of America.

[00:17:32]We do teach the hard parts. We teach the hard parts because that's how we learn from the hard parts.

[00:17:38]But you know, I often tell the story about Iowa in the Civil War. And I won't go deep into that, but I'll just tell you at the end of the Civil War, more Ians served in the Civil War than any other state per capita. And it wasn't even close. Some estimates have at least 50% military-aged men in Iowa at that time signed up to go to the Civil War and it wasn't on our ground. It wasn't dealing with our people, but they had just come from an oppressive place with feudalism where they couldn't own the ground under their feet and they watched that happen and they said it's not going to happen here. But at the end of the Civil War, America did even more. We gave 600,000 lives to end slavery.

[00:18:15]And after that was done, we sent our own navy to the coast of Africa to make sure it was stopped and ended.

[00:18:22]We developed the first atomic weapon.

[00:18:26]And we could have ruled the entire world like Rome. But what do we do instead?

[00:18:32]We spent our own money rebuilding the countries we just went to war with under the Marshall Plan. We've led the largest humanitarian missions ever recorded in human history. We've alleviated more poverty, brought people up to more prosperity, secured more rights, eliminated more oppression than any other country on the face of the planet.

[00:18:53]And it's not even close. And here's the thing, we didn't even ask for anything in return. We just did it because that's the story of America.

[00:19:08]We have to tell our story. And from that emanates how we determine policy.

[00:19:15]But my campaign's been about four key issues. The first one is keeping Iowa's kids in Idaho. The second one is saving our family farms. I know I'm in an area.

[00:19:21]I actually I used to live just right up the road here. When I first moved back, this is where I live. It's a beautiful community, by the way.

[00:19:30]>> But we have lost 10,000 family farms over the past 20 years.

[00:19:35]During that same time, the suicide rate amongst our farmers has climbed by 50%.

[00:19:39]And here's the thing. No one's talking about it. This is a generational crisis and it's a crisis that has to do deeply with our heritage.

[00:19:50]And now by some estimates at least a quarter of our farmland is owned by out of state investors and funds that don't live in our communities.

[00:19:59]We're watching as conservatives as something's being taken out from under us and we can't conserve it for the next generation. People often ask me exact how much land does China own in the United States?

[00:20:12]And I said the political answer to that is zero. It's illegal. But the true answer is we have no idea because we don't require human level disclosure who owns our land. And look, we have a right to privacy. But that's not a right to secrecy. If you're breaking the law, we have to know so we can hold you accountable. I've been very clear.

[00:20:29]Either by regulation or legislation, we will require human level disclosure of who owns our land because we deserve to know who our neighbors are.

[00:20:43]on the same level in agriculture. You know, one of the things that comes up to me very often when I'm in a room like this, and here's my commitment is that at the end of this, I'll be the last person to leave here. If you'd like to talk to me and you're willing to wait for me, I'm willing to wait for you.

[00:20:58]Last night was an hour and a half with maybe 30 to 35 groups in line to talk.

[00:21:04]And some of those questions are the most important questions I hear because I hear from the people directly. I'm not the candidate that just jets out, hops on the campaign RV, which I live on that now. It's not exactly as fun as I thought. The kids like it, but it's uh it's a bit hard to shower when you're driving down the road. I'll just say that. Have to kind of brace yourself.

[00:21:24]I've done it a number of times now.

[00:21:28]But you know, young people talk to me about this about the crisis in affordability that we're having. And by the way, it is real. This is happening and it's not by accident. You know, there's two primary reasons why this is happening. Number one, I have nothing to do with meaning as governor, we have a fiat currency that's been hyperinflated, especially after the especially after the pandemic.

[00:21:52]We're still kind of detoxing from all the government spending that happened.

[00:21:55]But the second is we can look at industry after industry across our nation where we have had consolidation and unchecked monopolies which has reduced choices for consumers and driven up prices. One of my very favorite presidents ever was the Roosevelt.

[00:22:11]>> And there's many reasons for that.

[00:22:13]Number one, he was the true, as the young people say, OG environmentalist.

[00:22:19]He was somebody who loved nature, who loved hunting, who loved fishing, who understand the beauty of American. By the way, one of the very first explorers to come to Iowa was General Albert Lee.

[00:22:30]You probably all have heard his name.

[00:22:32]When he got to Iowa, he led the draons up the De Moine River. He wrote in his diary, he explored the entire eastern part of the country. And in his diary, he said this, "Never in all of my life have I seen a place so beautiful."

[00:22:46]That's what he said about our state. I think we can understand that.

[00:22:51]But one of the things I like most about him is that he broke apart two of the largest companies in existence when he was president. JP Morgan and Sano. And he did this because he knew that a monopoly is a failure of the free market.

[00:23:05]You know, Thomas Jefferson in about 1820 actually wrote to a friend about business and he said about the businesses that were in America. He said, "I hope we kill in its infancy the aristocracy of our money corporations who are already challenging us to a battle of the wills." Who did he just get done fighting? Not just the British, but the East India Company who basically controlled the British government. Adam Smith knew that monopolies are a failure free market. We have been asleep at the wheel as industry after industry, whether it's healthcare, meat packing, grocerers, all of them have consolidated past the point of monopoly and reduced choice for our consumers and made life less affordable for our kids. On the front steps of my farmhouse, I was very clear. By the way, many of the things you'll hear me talk about, you probably could tell this. Political consultants say, "Don't talk about these things because if you do, this group won't donate to you." Well, here's the thing.

[00:23:57]I'm not asking you for money. I don't want your money. I want to do what's right for the people of Idaho. Here's the thing. The establishment pays attention to money. They really do.

[00:24:07]Well, from January to the reporting period in May, we outraised Randy Fer by $250,000.

[00:24:21]>> So, on the front steps of my farmhouse, I was very clear. I've watched as as these industries have consolidated and thank goodness that Donald Trump and Brook Rollins and even the Iowa corn growers are now calling this out. You know, right now two companies control 90% of the nitrogen market in our country. Two companies control 90% of the seed genetics that our farmers have to buy from. Three companies control 85% of the inputs that our farmers have to use. You know, I've talked to farmer after farmer. I was just with about 80 of them yesterday. Not once did they bring up tariffs to me. You know what they bring up? The cost of growing keeps going up. And why is that? Because there's unchecked monopolies that are extorting our farmers on prices. And what I said on the front steps of my farmhouse was Iowa will lead the way with me as governor to bring antirust suits against these companies to bring competition back to our farmers and start to help them have something to pass on to their kids.

[00:25:21]But we can't talk about the future of Iowa without talking about education.

[00:25:24]You know, I've been very clear. Yeah. I spent the better part of a decade starting schools. There's now 300 schools across the country that we've helped start. The first one I did was in Kansas. I spent two years of my life actually visiting the most innovative schools in the country. As I went to start our first school and I believe what the governor and the legislature have done in education is an unbelievable. Here's what I mean by that. We are leading the country when it comes to educational choice. And I'll say this, the left is wanting to make this race a referendum on school choice.

[00:25:55]I say bring it on. Here's why. In the 1990s, when I was going to elementary school in Sous City, Iowa, we were number one in the nation for education.

[00:26:04]And I was very proud of that. And I didn't even like school. But I sure liked bragging to my friends when I go on my one vacation year with my dad up to northern Minnesota about how good Iowa was at education. It's a lot easier to brag about being able to compete with Minneapolis right now though and Illinois.

[00:26:24]Unless you're in the Learing Center business. If you're in the Learing Center business, we are at a disadvantage. But by the way, if you don't think that fraud is happening in the state of Iowa, you're wrong. It is happening. That's why I'm calling to put every single government transaction on the blockchain with the name of the person who approved it underneath.

[00:26:40]Because if I'm governor, there's a thousand Democrat auditors, citizen auditors trying to find me wasting money. And if a Democrat's governor, God help us, there's a thousand Republican citizen auditors that are trying to find where money is being wasted. And guess who wins? We do. Because transparency is the key.

[00:27:00]But we were number one in the nation for education. Since that point, we have increased per pupil funding for education by 50% inflation adjusted and we've dropped 26 points.

[00:27:13]>> This is all before education savings accounts even existed. The whole debate about taking away the ability for a parent to have more choice where their kids go to school and more choice where their tax dollars are spent is an obfuscation. It's an attempt to take our eye off the ball of the decadesl long failing of our public education. That's what it is. And I for one invite the fight. Look, when you find yourself in a bottom ranking like that, the right answer is not to delete your competition. The right answer is to make what you're doing better so you can compete. And as governor, I cannot wait to get into our public schools and start working with these teachers who want to innovate, who want to provide something better for their kids. I can remember when I was training public school teachers on our type of learning. I remember one teacher as I was she was leaving the school. She had a tear in her eye and she said, "This is exactly what kids need and there's no chance that I could put this into my classroom because there's so much bureaucratic red tape. There's so many regulations.

[00:28:16]There's so much teaching to the test."

[00:28:17]By the way, the first standardized test was called the Kansas Silent Reading Exam. And the person who created it about a 100 years ago as a doctoral project said this about the purpose of the test. It is to measure lower order thinking amongst the lower orders. He literally spent the entirety of the rest of his life protesting its use in education because they said it's the worst way to measure proficiency and it's what we base everything on right now. It's wrong. A better way like schools like ours and many other schools, not just like ours, is mastery based learning. And that's a pretty simple idea. It's just like if you're building a home, I'm sure there's home builders here. If you get your foundation of your house 75% of the way done, you don't put on the first floor.

[00:29:04]You wait. If you're in algebra 1 and you get a 75%, you shouldn't be moving out into algebra 2. Mastery based learning says you don't move on till you've mastered it. And the constant in public and traditional school right now is how much time you're going to spend on a subject. The variable is how much you actually know when you're done. If you flip this through innovative learning, here's the difference. The concept is how much you actually know and the variable is how long it takes you. And these innovative schools can do this.

[00:29:31]And they also have very simple principles, things that they've solved. Things like a seven-year-old boy shouldn't be in a desk for seven hours a day. And then when they can't sit still medicated because there's something wrong with them.

[00:29:52]We've overmedicated an entire generation of kids and we have no idea what the long-term ramifications of it will be.

[00:29:59]We have to have innovation in our schools. The governor can create innovation zones within the state to allow teachers and superintendents to opt in. By the way, we're losing our young teachers faster than I think we ever have. The people that are in education for one, two, or three years won out. And why is that? They can't do what they came here for, which is to care for our kids. And I actually don't believe that all these teachers are wanting to indoctrinate our kids. I think many of them want to do the right thing. They find themselves in a system that isn't built to support them and especially isn't built to support kids because a one-sizefits-all education system actually fits no one. And we haven't innovated in our schools in 120 years. We will, when I'm governor, we will be number one in education again because we know how to do it.

[00:30:51]But that's not there's one other part of education I want to talk about and that's on the cultural side. You know 95% of a teacher's time right now is spent with 5% of the kids. These are kids who are literally crying out for help even if they're not saying it.

[00:31:04]They're kids that find themselves in a chaotic mindset. No child wants to be in a chaotic mindset.

[00:31:11]They deserve our attention. But a teacher is not a behavioral therapist.

[00:31:15]We have to be the leader in the country in solving this problem and we can do it by creating offerings that are not punitive that are restorative in nature.

[00:31:23]Look, Alexa was maybe the most famous tourist in the history of America. And when he came to America, one of the things I remember when I was reading his book in college that stuck out to me, still was in my head today is about how American institutions were based on restoration of the individual. By the way, that comes from our faith. That comes from the person of Jesus Christ. is that grace, mercy, and redemption are a key part of who we are.

[00:31:47]>> That's right.

[00:31:48]>> And that if you make a mistake, it doesn't define you. You know, I once heard somebody say to me because I've had bumps in my own my own life and path. They said, "Look, if you hear a voice talking over your shoulder about your biggest failure and it's not calling you beloved, it's not Jesus."

[00:32:04]And I want you all to remember that, too.

[00:32:13]One of the institutions he talked about in there too was the prison systems back then. You know in Europe for the longest time for a thousand years they were strictly punitive. You made a mistake you sit and do your time. You're not here to be restored. Once your time's up you might get out. But in America he said it's very different there. They're focused on restoration of the individual. And I think that applies to many institutions. And I think that we have been doing a disservice to our kids in public school by keeping them in a class that is not meant for them. They need our help. They might have malnutrition. They might be sleeping in a car. They might have problems at home.

[00:32:50]We've all seen it. Government doesn't solve all these problems, but they need something from us that's different. And I would like to be the first state in the country to provide these offerings that are focused on small group help to provide restoration to our kids so we can bring them back into the classroom and help them live successful lives.

[00:33:13]But the last thing I'll mention with education, this is a really important subject for me. I don't mean to belabor this, but on the cultural side, we do have an issue with curriculum and with some educators that are looking to bring political views into the classroom. Look, if you don't believe me, just go Google it.

[00:33:31]There's a UK Guardian article about a teacher from Iowa after the laws were passed saying you couldn't do these things where she was on a podcast on video talking about how she was going to get around these rules so she could bring her personal views into the classroom. I've been very clear the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners is tasked with adjudicating these things with me as governor. they will be directed that if we find that a teacher is trying to do this and is purposely bringing political abuse into the classroom to push them on our children that their teaching license will be revoked in the state of Iowa >> again. And I hear Minneapolis is hiring.

[00:34:19]Speak picking on Minneapolis is actually like one of the great cities in our country. It was one of the gems of the country. But now we can see what decadesl long policies have done to destroy that city. It's a very sad thing. They also have maybe the most beautiful football stadium in the whole country. It's unbelievable. I drove by one day. What is this? Like looks like a ship. Which makes sense.

[00:34:44]Sorry, that was a squirrel that was in my mind. I was like, I don't know why I said that, but it was the kids were with me. I was like, this is so cool. I can't wait to go game here.

[00:34:53]The last point that I want to talk about is one that has been a flash point for my campaign.

[00:34:58]And it was it is a flash point because it was something political I wanted to talk about, something that affected my life. You know, I don't know if my dad's here tonight or not, but you know, a number of years ago, my dad was diagnosed with non-hodkins lymphoma after he spent his life in the fields.

[00:35:14]And I think I can't go anywhere without having people come to talk to me afterwards about how cancer's affected their life. You know, I was in Grimes, Iowa, and I had a town hall, 180 people showed up, and afterwards there was maybe 20 groups to talk to me. All but one was about cancer.

[00:35:30]And you know, I think as conservatives, we've been looking at this wrong. And I've been bringing this up because we cannot stick our head in the ground in the sand about this anymore. You know, for a very long time, I believe the legislature has done a good job protecting life in Iowa. Life is foundational. You know, often you'll hear me talk in in something like this.

[00:35:50]And very rarely is it ever the same, which kind of scares the people who work with me, but it's because I believe these things and I want to talk about things I think that you want to talk about as well that are deeper issues.

[00:36:03]But often I don't talk about the traditional Republican issues. I once had a political consultant I heard say, "When you're in a room like this, pretend all of you are wearing buttons and your only job as a candidate is to find out what you care about so I can talk to you about it." so you'll like me. I said, you don't get what these people are wanting. They're wanting their lives to be better for the long term, to pass something down to their kids and believe that the next generation to be better off than they are. That's what they want.

[00:36:34]But I'm pro-life at conception. I have no apology for that. Nor will I ever have an apology for that.

[00:36:43]But here's here's where I think we've been taking our eye off the ball. The battle for life does not stop at birth.

[00:36:50]Look, >> the fight for clean water is a prolife issue.

[00:36:55]>> The fight to lower our cancer rates is a pro-life issue. And I've got a lot of fight for this, but I'm going to say it again tonight. The fight to take the COVID vaccine off the market is a pro-life issue.

[00:37:11]I think the left tries to make us out to be antivaccine. That's not what we're saying. Look, but the pharmaceutical industry has captured agencies in DC for a very long time. If you want to see human flourishing through one piece of legislation over the long term, repeal the vaccine immunity act of 1986 and make these companies answer for what they've done.

[00:37:37]Civil liability is a key part of the free market. If your product harms somebody, they should have recourse. And by the way, this is how we get better products. If your product is harming a person and you're not held accountable, you have no incentive to make it better.

[00:37:53]This is a part of being a free market person. It's the same thing when we talk about what Bayer is doing right now in 22 state capitals in the farm bill in executive order and in the Supreme Court with the Darnell case. They're pushing to get immunity from liability from when their products harm somebody. I've been very clear.

[00:38:14]If any of those bills come across my desk as governor, they'll be vetoed immediately.

[00:38:24]But I'm going to end on this topic of life here and just say this.

[00:38:32]The battle to protect the unborn, I like to think, is a battle to protect human potential. An unborn baby could be anything, do anything, solve anything, help anyone, love anyone. It's nothing but potential. Complete unbridled potential. And we say as conservatives that we believe in protecting life from conception to natural death. Well, natural death is coming a lot sooner for many islands right now. And what are we protecting on that end? We're protecting human wisdom.

[00:39:04]We are currently losing the wisdom of an entire generation of people. We're going to funerals for people who are dying at 65 whose parents live to be 80.

[00:39:14]We're losing potential and we're losing wisdom. Is it a question when you're burning the candle at both ends of why you're in a cultural crisis?

[00:39:23]Look, we have to be willing to confront the major systemic issues that are going on. And Iowa is an outlier in cancer rates. We have the fastest rate of new cancer ever recorded in the history of human civilization. And that's not hyperbole.

[00:39:37]Of all the jurisdictions, over 200 that track this, Iowa is rising faster than any.

[00:39:43]And look, I've been very clear about this and it's not something popular amongst establishment groups. But I believe very firmly because I've read the studies. Let me tell you this real quick. I've read many of the Monsanto files when they were going to court in their first their first major case. They accidentally, this is true, released their discovery documents, which the judge said they didn't have to, but they made a mistake. They released millions of pages of documents. And in those documents was a master class on corporate capture. One of the One of the emails was about what was happening in Europe at the time as the EU banned the same version of Roundup that we use in the United States because the surfactant, the chemical that helps it pierce the skin, they found was so toxic they wouldn't allow it. So what did they do? They reformulated it and they put a different product in there by some estimates is 20 times less toxic.

[00:40:37]And there was an email from the EU Monsanto representative to the United States and in it he wrote this. Why would we continue to a harmful product when we know how to make a safer one >> and they didn't change a thing.

[00:40:51]There's so many examples of this and what I say is we just deserve to know the truth. That's what we deserve.

[00:40:59]You know, the state of Iowa, I think believe that Governor Ronda Sant is actually leading on this in many ways.

[00:41:04]He's leading on many things. You know, I think on property taxes, many of these things, he's starting to lead in innovative ways. And I want to lead in Iowa in very innovative ways. So, we're not following or leading other states are looking to us as an example.

[00:41:18]The state of Iowa should be doing independent research on the safety of products because I truly believe that for a very long time we have been lied to by large agricultural companies about the safety of their products to protect their bottom line.

[00:41:32]And here's the deal. This is not about banning things. It's about having the truth so people can take the necessary precautions to protect themselves. But it's not just this. We have an issue with water quality in our state and we understand that high nitrate load in water is one of the top causes of colorectal cancer that there is. It's the fastest killing cancer right now. I toured the Boeing Waterworks plant the other day and I watched as they're trying very hard and they're doing a good job of removing these nitrates from the water. But right now we just had a piece of legislation to give them $25 million to expand it because they still can't keep up. And look, that's a band-aid that was needed. We needed to do that. But success for me as governor will be that we never have to expand that system again because we're lowering it at the source and stopping for it from coming to water first.

[00:42:31]>> And how do we do that? I like to give details because oftentimes I hear politicians talk and they don't ever talk about an actual solution. Look, just up the road at Bear Creek, Iowa State did an experiment. were using saturated buffers to tie in the tile lines into these buffers. And what they found was they removed 100% of the nitrate load coming off of the water.

[00:42:50]100%. We know how to solve these problems.

[00:42:55]That program already has a USDA cost share that covers the almost the entire cost of that. The other thing is I was talking to a farmer the other day and he a traditional farmer. He said, "You know what, Zack, you've been bringing this up and It's the talk everywhere I go with other farmers. And what he said to me is in the text, he said this. The farmer was saying this to him. Yeah, it's probably about time we address this issue. We all drink the water. We all care. This is not an urban versus rural issue. There's issues that are happening in urban centers are contributing to this as well, and we have to be serious about that. But we're an outlier in this. And so even if we use tax incentives to incentivize debanding of nitrogen, look, no farmer wants to lose more of their product. None do. They're being extorted already by these companies. And he said, "If we give tax incentive, refundable tax credits for deep annual nine and nitrogen, we could lose 30 to 50% less, which will save them money and allow us to have cleaner water." The key here is this though.

[00:43:54]I've said this on the Barn Talk podcast.

[00:43:56]As Republicans, we have to own the issue and solve it. Let's just solve it.

[00:44:01]That's right.

[00:44:09]>> I'm going to end with this and you know before I do I just want to say June 2nd is a very important day. I don't have to tell any of you about that. But here's what we need. What we need is an overwhelming force of people that are bringing their friends to the polls to vote for an Iowa first platform that's going to tackle the large issues that we've been facing for a very long time and say that we're going to prioritize our great grandkids future and not just look at what press release we can put out about something simple we did right now, but say we're going to take on the hard battles. One of the things I love about Donald Trump's story is that he took the arrows in many ways. The things that he was talking about, we had been talking about on the ground. You know, when the establishment was trying to tell us that our relationship with China was a good thing, and we watched as it hollowed out an entire population.

[00:45:03]We knew it wasn't a good thing, but it wasn't until Donald Trump came up and said, "They're taking advantage of us."

[00:45:09]That we felt like we had a voice. And he was willing to take those arrows. My campaign is about taking those arrows for everyone in the state of Iowa to make the future better for our kids and grandkids.

[00:45:27]We can win this race, but we cannot do it without your help. We have to have your help. We have to have you bring friends and neighbors and when they ask why are you supporting Zack Lane, that you can take what we're talking about here and articulate it into a message that they can affect their life for the long term. Often times I like to tell stories. I mentioned how stories are the key part of our of our of our of our culture.

[00:45:52]You know, one of the stories I like to tell is about Iowa and we were just a frontier. We were a territory. In 1846, we became a state. Before that, we were a territory. And there was a precedent that was set and it was this. If you were a settler, you could come over to our state or the territory. You could pull the rocks, cut the trees, till the soil, plant the crops, build a home, improve the ground, and it was yours.

[00:46:18]You got to keep it. It was part of the promise of taking the risk to travel over which many people died from. But at the same time, this is true. There were speculators from out east, as far east as England, buying up the deeds to our ground, sight unseen, and then challenging our ancestors to that ground. And in some of the history books, if they wouldn't give it up, sometimes they'd be killed.

[00:46:45]But it gave rise to some of Iowa's earliest crusaders.

[00:46:49]People like George Wallace Jones, who by some historic records got his law license to go defend the settlers against these speculators, and James Harland, who many of you probably heard of. He was one of the people who architected the Homestead Act, who single-handedly divided up the land all across the Midwest. And why did he do that? He did it specifically for the purpose of stopping these speculators from taking away the promise of what Iowa could become from the settlers. That's what he did. And why do I mention this?

[00:47:23]I mention it because we have a rich history in our state in the state of Iowa of people running for office going to represent the people to defend the people against the special interests and not the other way around. And that's what my campaign is all about giving the people So, how do we win? I win with your help on June second, but how do we win in November? You know, I was on that interview with this reporter. I kept talking about this. He said, "Look, there was a journalist that wrote an article about our campaign a while ago, maybe a month and a half ago, and he listed out our issues that we're running on, these four key issues, and he said, "How do we run a Republican beat us to the punch on this?" And in the middle of the article, here's what he said. This is how Rob Sand loses. And he's exactly right. That's And here's why. It doesn't matter if you're left or right. You don't want Iowa's kids leaving Iowa. It doesn't matter if you're left or right. You don't want our family farms dying off.

[00:48:40]You don't want our education system in the bottom half. And you sure don't want your friends, family, and neighbor dying from cancer. These are not partisan issues. These are Iowa issues. And my entire goal is to give them a voice for the long term so we can solve them to make this place the promise that our ancestors wanted it to be for your kids, your grandkids, and your great grandkids. And that's why I'm running for office. Thank you very much for being here.

[00:49:09]All right, on the table in front of you, uh, Tuesday, starting at 6:30 p.m., Victory Party, Sher Hotel, De Mo, Zach and the team want you all there. But before that could happen, everybody has to show up on Tuesday. Pulls open at 7:00 a.m., close at 8:00 p.m.

[00:49:36]>> Tell your friends, tell your family.

[00:49:37]Let's get to stand like this.