Rob Sand

Robert Howard Sand (born August 12, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who has served since 2019 as the 33rd State Auditor of Iowa. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the Assistant Attorney General of Iowa from 2010 to 2017. In 2018, he ran for state auditor, defeating Republican incumbent Mary Mosiman. After considering a run for governor of Iowa in 2022, Sand opted to run for reelection and was the only Democrat elected to a statewide office in Iowa in 2022.

In May 2025, he announced his candidacy in the 2026 Iowa gubernatorial election. He is the Democratic Party's nominee after no other Democrats qualified, and faces businessman and farmer Zach Lahn.

Early life Sand was born in Decorah, Iowa. His mother, Leslie, worked as a physical therapist and his father, Kevin, was a doctor. While he attended Decorah High School, he spent two years lobbying community leaders in Decorah to build a skate park. Sand graduated from Decorah High School in 2001.

While in college, Sand spent a semester interning in the Washington, D.C., office of Senator Tom Harkin. He made his first political donation to Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, but missed the Iowa caucus because he was modeling menswear in Milan. He also modeled in Paris. In law school, he worked as a law clerk for the Office of the Attorney General in Des Moines, and was a summer law clerk at Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman PLC in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Corporation Law.

Political career Early career In 2006, Sand worked as an aide for State Representative Ed Fallon's campaign for governor of Iowa. After Fallon lost the primary election, Sand became the campaign manager for Denise O'Brien, the Democratic nominee for Iowa Secretary of Agriculture. While he was on the campaign trail, he met Tom J. Miller, who was Iowa Attorney General at the time.

Attorney General Office

Miller appointed Sand assistant attorney general in September 2010. After completing the Iowa Film Office case, Sand was recruited by Tom H. Miller, the deputy attorney general, to work in the Area Prosecutions Division, which focuses on prosecuting white-collar financial crimes. Sand prosecuted an investment advisor for deceiving people to invest into the International Bank of Meekamui, an international Ponzi scheme emanating from Papua New Guinea.

Sand also prosecuted the $25 million Hot Lotto fraud scandal, in which seven lottery tickets across five states were rigged. Eddie Tipton, the former information security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, confessed to rigging a random number generator in the largest lottery rigging scheme in US history. Tipton was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2017. After completing the prosecution, Sand resigned from the Attorney General's office so that he could run for office. He was not opposed in the Democratic Party primary election. Sand defeated Republican Mary Mosiman, the incumbent, in the general election, 51% to 46%, while Libertarian Fred Perryman received 3% of the vote. He became the fourth Democrat elected Iowa State Auditor, and just the second in the past 100 years.

Sand was sworn into office on January 2, 2019. At his swearing-in ceremony, he announced that he would have a "tri-partisan" leadership team, with his top three assistants being a Democrat, a Republican, and an independent. As state auditor, Sand developed the Public Innovations and Efficiencies (PIE) program, which awards fiscal efficiency in government. The PIE program inspired Shad White, the Republican state auditor of Mississippi, to develop a similar program. Before the 2020 presidential caucuses, multiple candidates sought Sand's endorsement. He did not endorse a candidate, though he did co-host a campaign event in Decorah with Cory Booker that he said did not constitute an endorsement.

After considering a campaign for governor of Iowa against Kim Reynolds, Sand announced in December 2021 that he would run for reelection in 2022. In January 2022, Mary Ann Hanusa, a Republican former state representative, announced that she would run for state auditor. Todd Halbur, a small business owner, defeated Hanusa in the primary election and Sand defeated Halbur in the November 8 general election with 50.1% of the vote.

Senate File 478, a bill that would restrict the powers of the State Auditor, passed the Iowa Legislature in April 2023 and was signed by Governor Reynolds in June. Sand has held multiple press conferences and town halls across Iowa in opposition to the bill, claiming it is targeting him as Iowa's only remaining statewide elected Democrat. The bill, which was opposed by all Democrats in the Iowa House and Senate along with six House Republicans, has been opposed by the National State Auditors Association, the American Institute of CPAs, and former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. He sent money to Lemar Programming Company, International Telemetry Technologies, and Britad Enterprises and deposited it in his own accounts. This was a joint investigation with the Auditor and the FBI. The Johnson County Conservation Board requested the investigation after finding the mismanagement. Sand alleged Reynolds broke Iowa's law against self-promotion by appearing in a taxpayer-funded video to promote wearing a mask. An Iowa ethics board later found Reynolds did not break any laws. In November 2021, Sand said Reynolds improperly used nearly $450,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay salaries for 21 staff members for three months in the last year.

In 2022 and 2023, an audit was conducted of the Iowa Judicial Branch, which found $27.6 million was sent to the wrong place and shorted state and local funds. This was caused by an IT error and was fixed but was investigated by the Auditor. It was also revealed that he possibly diverted money from the university to his own business. The Children and Families of Iowa is funded by the United States Department of Labor and administered by Iowa Workforce Development (IWD). After the Sheriff began investigating, the city additionally asked for an audit from the State Auditor.

2026 Iowa gubernatorial race

On May 12, 2025, Sand announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the 2026 Iowa gubernatorial election. The last $1 million came from 28,000 individual donations.

On June 16, 2025, Sand announced a "100 Town Hall Tour", holding events in all 99 counties in Iowa plus a second one in Lee County, as Lee County has dual county seats of Keokuk and Fort Madison. Sand will face Republican nominee Zach Lahn in the November general election.

Personal life Sand and his wife, Christine Lauridsen, met in Des Moines and married in Madison County, on June 2, 2012, and have two sons.

Sand wrote The Winning Ticket: Uncovering America's Biggest Lottery Scam, a book about the Hot Lotto fraud scandal, with Reid Forgrave, a reporter for The Des Moines Register. The book was published on May 1, 2022.