{"id":2537,"date":"2026-06-03T04:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2537"},"modified":"2026-06-03T04:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T04:36:17","slug":"trumps-pick-for-iowa-governor-concedes-gop-primary-in-upset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2537","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s pick for Iowa governor concedes GOP primary in upset"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rep. Randy Feenstra\u2019s apparent loss to farmer Zach Lahn is a blow to Trump\u2019s dominance in Republican nominating contests.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Supreme Court allows Alabama to use voting map favoring GOP<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Rep. Randy Feenstra (Iowa) campaigns for the Republican nomination for governor. (Zach Boyden-Holmes\/The Register\/USA TODAY Network\/Reuters Connect)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s pick for Iowa governor, Rep. Randy Feenstra, conceded to businessman Zach Lahn in Tuesday\u2019s GOP primary, in a blow to Trump\u2019s dominance in Republican nominating contests.<\/p>\n

Trump backed Feenstra <\/b>on Friday, calling him \u201cMAGA all the way.\u201d The congressman is better known than his rivals. But Lahn, a farmer, had already drawn the support of some conservative activists critical of Feenstra and surged in polling toward the end of the race.<\/p>\n

Feenstra conceded late Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a new chapter, and I\u2019m so looking forward to that new chapter in life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press had not projected a winner as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, but Lahn narrowly led Feenstra by less than a percentage point <\/b>with more than 98 percent of the vote counted. Other candidates trailed far behind. Lahn had close to 38 percent, enough to avoid a statewide convention.<\/p>\n

Iowa leans red and backed Trump by 13 percentage points in 2024, but Democrats think they can make the race unusually competitive this year with a strong candidate and a backlash to Trump\u2019s second term. The Republican nominee for governor will face Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.<\/p>\n

A person close to Trump\u2019s political operation said the late gubernatorial endorsement was a \u201cHail Mary\u201d effort that Trump granted after members of Congress \u201cpressed him\u201d to back Feenstra in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears he was more substantially behind than the polls were showing,\u201d said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. \u201cEveryone close to this was just kind of wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The person noted that Feenstra was \u201cbarely winning his own district in a primary.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Mariners\u2019 Josh Naylor gets a day off to rest after having back spasms<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump has repeatedly flexed his command over the GOP<\/a> in primaries. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who frequently clashed with the White House, lost his primary last month after Trump recruited an opponent. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) fell to a Trump-backed challenger days earlier after voting to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, and several GOP state lawmakers in Indiana recently lost their primaries<\/a> after resisting Trump\u2019s push to redraw the state\u2019s congressional map.<\/p>\n

Trump was not as involved in the Iowa governor\u2019s race as he was in recent efforts to oust his critics. Early voting had been underway for weeks when the president endorsed Feenstra.<\/p>\n

As Lahn showed a late surge in polling, Turning Point Action, the influential conservative grassroots group started by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, endorsed him Friday \u2014 just before Trump put his weight behind Feenstra.<\/p>\n

Feenstra was widely seen by Iowa conservatives as the more establishment pick in the race.<\/p>\n

Republicans view Sand, the Democrat, as an unusually tough competitor, and some have grown nervous about the race.<\/p>\n

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan elections analyst, shifted its rating<\/a> this spring for the Iowa governor\u2019s race to a \u201ctoss-up,\u201d citing a political environment favorable to Democrats and potential challenges turning out the GOP base.<\/p>\n

Other GOP candidates for Iowa governor included state lawmaker Eddie Andrews, former state lawmaker Brad Sherman and former state administrator Adam Steen.<\/p>

Read more Embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner tries to reassure senators<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Randy Feenstra\u2019s apparent loss to farmer Zach Lahn is a blow to Trump\u2019s dominance in Republican nominating contests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s pick for Iowa governor concedes GOP primary in upset - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=2537\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s pick for Iowa governor concedes GOP primary in upset - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rep. 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