With the June 2 primary election date just over a week away, Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Steen — a former minor league baseball player who led the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) from 2021 to 2025 — spoke to a group of about 25 people gathered at Legends American Grill in Marshalltown on Sunday afternoon, arguing that he is the GOP’s best hope to take on Democrat Rob Sand in the November general election.
Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour), who has endorsed Steen, introduced him as a firm conservative with valuable experience in state government and touted their work together on repurposing the former Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo, which now serves as the new South Tama County (STC) Middle School. Steen reciprocated the praise, calling Fisher “a true conservative” with values that align with his own.
The candidate went on to speak for approximately 35 minutes before taking questions from the audience, explaining that he chose to run because if he didn’t, it would all but ensure a Sand victory.
“I’m the only Republican candidate that’s gone toe-to-toe with Rob Sand already, and I’ll describe that here in a little bit,” he said of the current State Auditor. “But I saw what he was doing, and I saw that our state was at risk. So I resigned my position Aug. 19 at 10 a.m., and I launched this campaign at 6 p.m. And I did that to preserve and protect the culture of Iowa. I did that to preserve and protect the freedom that Iowa has right now.”
His goal in running, he added, is to keep Iowa from resembling blue states such as Minnesota, Illinois, Virginia and Michigan, and from there, Steen, an Indianola native, shared a bit of his personal story. Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies out of Minnesota State in 2002, he had achieved his lifelong dream and thought he had it made, but after two seasons in the minor leagues, he was released and, at 23 years old, unsure of what his future would hold.
He turned his focus to business with his father’s investment banking company but admitted that he had “a Jesus-sized hole” in his heart and felt miserable despite his financial success. At 30, he committed himself to Christ and began planning and preparing himself for leadership, studying American history and faith, even becoming a credentialed minister in the process.
Relating the story of Wentworth Cheswill, a black man who accompanied Paul Revere on his famous “Midnight Ride” during the Revolutionary War, Steen detailed his research into American history and the importance of passing that knowledge on to today’s children.
Steen and his wife Kasey, who met at a coffee shop not long after he prayed for guidance on who he should marry, have two sons, Ryker and Maverick. At four months old, Ryker was diagnosed with a rare condition called Joubert Syndrome, and despite ominous warnings from doctors, he is now walking, talking and attending public school as he nears his 11th birthday.
He then recounted how he was recruited to oversee DAS under outgoing Gov. Kim Reynolds, employing a problem-solving mentality to situations such as the Iowa Juvenile Home, which had previously cost the state approximately $250,000 a year on basic maintenance for a decade even after the home itself had been shuttered. He also played a key role in the consolidation of 37 state departments into the current 16 departments.
“Operationally, I’m ready to rock and roll. I’ve just gotta get my badge back. I can operate the state on day one. There’s not a learning curve. It’s just get things going. Let’s roll. No 100 day window. Let’s operate on day one here,” Steen said.
Culturally, Steen said Iowans are known for their grit and faith, and he criticized Sand for “voting on Halloween decorations and eating pizza” while avoiding difficult questions.
“We will have a Condition of the State in January of 2027. And at that Condition of the State, you’re either gonna have a candidate who stands up there and says we have faith, hope, grit, determination. We have the ability to be a shining light in this country. We have the ability to continue the conservative values that we’ve worked so hard for,” he said. “Or we could be hearing from somebody who doesn’t know if there’s more than two genders. We could be hearing from somebody that wants to legalize recreational marijuana. We could be hearing from somebody that wants independent private Christian schools to be infiltrated by our government and force them to make decisions vs. you all making the decisions. That’s how risky this election is, and we’re gonna have to elect a Republican candidate that can beat Rob Sand.”
As governor, he promised that he would heavily promote trades education and internship programs that can lead students directly into high-paying jobs as opposed to leaving four-year universities with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and “half-communist” ideas. Steen also pledged to be a strong advocate for the local church and push back against government encroachment.
After vowing to make family togetherness, the trades and having grit “cool again,” Steen detailed his DAS tenure further, noting that he was reconfirmed by the Senate in a unanimous vote once his first four-year term had ended. He took the legislature to task for failing to solve the eminent domain issue during the 2026 session and reiterated his position that eminent domain “cannot and should not” be used for carbon sequestration pipelines — pledging to refrain from signing a budget bill until the matter is resolved once and for all.
On property taxes, he advocated for less spending at all levels of government and zero-based budgeting, arguing that too many taxpayer-funded entities have more administrators than they really need. Taking issue with Sand’s proposal to legalize recreational marijuana, which he feels would “decimate” the state’s culture, Steen instead suggested asking large companies with facilities in Iowa to build small modular nuclear reactors.
“We can do that. We need to go all in on nuclear in this state. Get off the solar. Get off the wind. We need to be manufacturing small modular nuclear reactors. And when we do that, we can put those all across the state. WE can bolster our grid. Our energy prices will go down, and we can sell that energy outside the state and actually develop sustainable revenue,” he said. “And then we can start lowering taxes yet again when we’ve got new lines of revenue coming in.”
While clarifying that he is not anti-public schools — his two sons attend them — Steen said he would protect and expand school choice and, in public schools, seek to replace common core standards with classical education and undo restrictions on allowing teachers to discipline their students.
As he wrapped up his initial remarks, Steen told the crowd he was “unwilling to back down” and had faced many challenges during his run thus far, but he is committed to fighting for Iowa families as hard as he fights for his own if elected in November. Audience questions primarily focused on educational and agricultural policy, and one small business owner told Steen that fear of frivolous lawsuits gave him cause for concern. In conclusion, he asked the audience for prayer, votes and donations as he prepares to air more TV commercials, and one spectator then stepped forward to pray for him.
“We are riding this thing out. We are leaving everything on the field. It’s exhausting. I’m not supposed to say that, but we’re all in. My family’s all in. We’re getting threats now,” he said. “This is a spiritual battle. This is a battle of good vs. evil, and we’re not going to stop.”
Currently, there are five GOP candidates running for governor — Steen, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, businessman and farmer Zach Lahn, former State Rep. Brad Sherman and State Rep. Eddie Andrews. If none of them reaches the 35 percent threshold to win the primary outright on June 2, the nominee will be decided at the state convention on June 13.