Iowa Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand spoke to hundreds of Ames residents about data centers, supporting small towns and the importance of bipartisanship at the Memorial Union on Monday.
Sand visited Iowa State University as part of his 100 Town Hall Tour.
Bipartisanship is central to Sand
Throughout the town hall, Sand emphasized how important bipartisanship is to him and in the campaign he’s running.
“People in both parties want to be angry at your neighbors who look differently than you,” Sand said. “They want you to hate each other because then it’s easier for them to control us. We have to reject that.”
He encouraged people of all opinions to talk to each other.
“The best conversations that I’ve ever had in my life have never been the ones where somebody says a thing and everyone else goes ‘yup.’ It’s pretty boring when everybody agrees,” he said. “The best conversations that I can remember were when I said a thing and someone else goes, ‘You know what? Have you ever thought about it this way?’
Sand ended the evening encouraging unity by telling an anecdote about his kids.
“When I send my boys to school, right here in Iowa, I tell them not something different than what Republicans and independents tell their kids when they send them to school. Be kind to your classmates, respect your teachers, do your best, tell the truth. There are people who want us to think those values belong to one private club or another. They don’t, they belong to Iowans.”
He continued, “It’s tearing us apart. And it’s a way to distract us so that insiders and special interest groups can keep picking our pockets. It’s time that we make this state government work for everybody in the state of Iowa again.”
Data centers a hot topic
When asked about data centers, the Democratic candidate said they should benefit Iowans.
Sand said, “Pretty simple to me, anyone that’s building in the state of Iowa needs to be contributing to the lives of the Iowans who are already here, and if they’re not doing that, then they can go build somewhere else.”
In May, Lightedge, an IT infrastructure company based in Des Moines, proposed building a new data center in Ames by the airport. The proposed project would be a 25-megawatt, 10.86-acre closed-loop cooling facility that would lease municipal land. The proposal was met with swift and strong citizen opposition.
In July, the Ames City Council enacted a nine-month moratorium on new data center developments. Ames city staff told the City Council at July’s council meeting they needed more time to research zoning laws, noise rules and utility policies.
“You know what happens if we do a moratorium on data centers?” Sand said. “Nobody in the Capitol building thinks about it for another 11 and a half months. But then they run around like chickens with their heads cut off for two weeks. ‘Are we gonna extend it or are we gonna do a deal?’”
Sand also said he was against a moratorium on data centers, comparing it to advocacy on a moratorium for carbon capture pipelines.
“Ask the folks who are worried about carbon capture how the moratorium has worked on passing a bill on that?” Sand said. “Across the state of Iowa, they travel down to the Legislature every single year to ask again, ‘please pass this law’ because [the Legislature] won’t do anything.”
Sand advocated for stopping public officials from signing nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and instituting setback requirements.
Across the country, NDAs between companies and localities are common when it comes to negotiations for data centers. In 2025, Eric Bonds and Viktor Newby wrote in the Virginia Mercury that they had surveyed localities across Virginia and found that 25 out of 31 had NDAs. In Iowa, KCRG reported that the city of Cedar Rapids had signed two NDAs, one with Google and another with QTS.
Helping small towns
Luke Spence, a member of the Nevada City Council, asked Sand how he planned to help rural communities, noting that many towns in Iowa are struggling financially and that high school and college graduates often don’t come back to live.
According to a Common Sense Institute report, Iowa loses more bachelor’s degree holders aged 25 to 29 than any other Midwestern state, and when adjusted for population, ranked fourth nationally for net outflow.
Sand said he would love to make an executive order on day-one that state employees whose job could be done “from elsewhere in Iowa, could live elsewhere in Iowa. That’s a great way to let them repopulate some of our small towns.”
He also advocated for moving economic development programs into community betterment programs, like the former Vision Iowa program.
Vision Iowa was created by the Iowa Legislature in 2000, pledging $15 million per year over 20 years to “fund [construction] projects related to recreation, education, entertainment and cultural activities” according to the program’s website in 2001. Funding for the program came from gambling revenue.
Learn more
According to a Marist poll conducted Sept. 17 to 20, Sand leads Republican candidate Zach Lahn among the statewide electorate, 54% to 42%, with a margin of error of ±4.4%. Earlier this month, Cygnal and YouGov polls also found Sand leading — 48% to 44% and 50% to 39%.
The first of four scheduled debates between Sand and Lahn will occur on Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. and is hosted by KWQC in Davenport.
Learn more about Rob Sand’s campaign here, and more about Zach Lahn’s campaign at here.
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