"I'm not a party line guy," Rob Sand said as he launched a gubernatorial campaign. "I'm a right or wrong guy."

Rob Sand — the leading Democrat in the race to be Iowa's next governor — has an "uphill climb" if he wants the state's top seat, according to political analysts. Why it matters: The New York Times lauded Sand in 2019 as Iowa Democrats' "model for how to win" — and now the electorate will see if that's true.

Over the course of an hour, the auditor and his team toured the homestead of retired farmer Dennis Allen and spoke with him and his family, alongside others in attendance, about the state of farming in Iowa as well as the impact of tariffs on producers.