Campaign Objectives:
Lowering health care costs:
End the privatization of Medicaid.
Lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Support family caregivers who often spend thousands of dollars out of their own pockets to provide care.
Expand Iowa’s “Surprise Bill” law to cover all medical appointments and procedures.
Protect Iowans from medical debt: Iowa currently has the highest rate of medical debt in the country, and has the number one growth rate for cancer. Medical debt is cheap, and as governor, Rob would work to clear Iowans’ of this burden and protect them from credit penalties.
Lowering energy costs:
Cap “service” or “meter” fees which are not based on usage but which Iowans are forced to pay simply for enrolling in the service.
Put customers first by making the ratemaking process more transparent, in addition to holding major corporations and data centers accountable.
Expand grid capacity and efficiency
Promote affordable renewables
Lowering education costs:
Provide universal school meals to Iowa public school students.
Invest in universal Pre-K
Require accountability over the school voucher program
Lowering housing costs:
Build more homes and eliminate red tape
Protect Iowans against price gouging
Make downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers interest-free

Campaign Objectives:
Lowering health care costs:
End the privatization of Medicaid.
Lower the cost of prescription drugs.
Support family caregivers who often spend thousands of dollars out of their own pockets to provide care.
Expand Iowa’s “Surprise Bill” law to cover all medical appointments and procedures.
Protect Iowans from medical debt: Iowa currently has the highest rate of medical debt in the country, and has the number one growth rate for cancer. Medical debt is cheap, and as governor, Rob would work to clear Iowans’ of this burden and protect them from credit penalties.
Lowering energy costs:
Cap “service” or “meter” fees which are not based on usage but which Iowans are forced to pay simply for enrolling in the service.
Put customers first by making the ratemaking process more transparent, in addition to holding major corporations and data centers accountable.
Expand grid capacity and efficiency
Promote affordable renewables
Lowering education costs:
Provide universal school meals to Iowa public school students.
Invest in universal Pre-K
Require accountability over the school voucher program
Lowering housing costs:
Build more homes and eliminate red tape
Protect Iowans against price gouging
Make downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers interest-free

"Privatizing Medicaid hurt Iowans. Costs went up, care got harder to access, and more Iowans were denied the coverage they paid for and depended on. As governor, I'll reverse the privatization of Medicaid so Iowans can get the care they need, when they need it, without breaking the bank."

"We need to have accountability for those cuts that happened from the Big Beautiful Bill...Here'e the number one thing that we can do at the state level to improve healthcare, improve accessibility, lower costs, and lower taxes. It's end the privatization of Medicaid in the state of Iowa"

"To me this is a pretty simple question, right? If you are working, if you are following the rules, and have no criminal record, if you're paying your taxes, why would you want people who are doing those things to feel unsafe in the state of Iowa?"

Sands disagreed with legislation (SF 418) that repealed certain rights for transgender people. Sands commented, "Now, I've been clear… the civil rights repeal for transgender people was wrong. It was wrong."

SF 418 modified the law as follows:
*Removed “gender identity” as a protected category from the Iowa Civil Rights Act.
*Added the term "gender ideology" to the list of items banned in K-6 curriculum, and it defined the term as: "the concept that a person may properly be described in terms of an internal sense of gender that is incongruent with the individual's sex as either male or female." (This replaced the undefined term, "gender identity" in the statute.)
*Defined “sex,” “male,” and “female” in biological terms.
*Changed birth-certificate rules, eliminating the ability to designate sex based on gender identity.
*Specified that separate accommodations for men and women (bathrooms, locker rooms, etc.) are not inherently unequal.

Asked about transgender Iowans, Sand said the repeal of Iowa's transgender civil-rights protections was wrong. He explained that he couldn't simply restore those protections as governor because Republicans would still control the Legislature, but said, as governor, he would veto any similar legislation that opposed trans rights: “We can have somebody in the governor’s office and the next time some stupid culture-war bill comes up, they veto it,” Sand said to applause. But he also cautioned that a governor cannot “unilaterally restore” rights that were repealed by the Legislature.

“'I do agree with that (law that bars transgender girls from girls sports). They shouldn’t. It’s not fair,' Sand said, drawing a small smattering of boos from the back of the crowd. 'Everybody is created in the image of God. And I always try to go by the golden rule. That doesn’t mean that you give people an opportunity that isn’t fair for others.'”

Asked about transgender Iowans, Sand said the repeal of Iowa's transgender civil-rights protections was wrong. He explained that he couldn't simply restore those protections as governor because Republicans would still control the Legislature, but said, as governor, he would veto any similar legislation that opposed trans rights: “We can have somebody in the governor’s office and the next time some stupid culture-war bill comes up, they veto it,” Sand said to applause. But he also cautioned that a governor cannot “unilaterally restore” rights that were repealed by the Legislature.

"Asked about what he would do to restore women’s rights and the state’s healthcare system, Sand began his reply, 'I’m a supporter of a woman’s right to choose.' He said he supported the trimester framework for abortion rights created by the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, and considered the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe to be wrong."

(Roe v. Wade's trimester framework allowed states to restrict abortion in the last trimester, but made an exception that allowed abortion through all nine months to protect the "health" of the mother. "Health" was defined extremely broadly by "Doe v. Bolton" (the companion case) to include "all factors--physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age--relevant to the well-being" of the mother. This definition of “health” was so broad that states could not effectively enforce a late-term abortion prohibition.)

Regarding state-level abortion policy, Sand said, “I do not support the six-week abortion ban, I thought that that was a mistake when it was passed.”

"I'm pretty clear that I'm, in general, a supporter of reproductive freedom. I think that the six-week abortion ban goes too far."

(Reports Sand has promised to veto any additional abortion restrictions passed by the Iowa legislature, though he acknowledges the existing six-week ban would require legislative action to repeal.)