By
Ed Kilgore,
political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015
Zach Lahn, Republican candidate for Iowa governor, at a campaign event on May 28.
Donald Trump has been a powerhouse in 2026 midterm primaries, purging alleged RINOs like Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and stubborn rebels like Thomas Massie in Kentucky. But the president’s late intervention in Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial primary in Iowa didn’t work. Trump’s endorsed candidate was the long-time front-runner, U.S. representative Randy Feenstra. He managed to get over the 35 percent needed to avoid a nominating convention in Iowa. But unfortunately for Feenstra and the White House, his hard-core right-wing rival Zach Lahn won slightly more. Lahn had 37.8 percent of the vote to Feenstra’s 37 percent, with 99 percent reporting, per NBC News.
