An outsider Democrat taking on both parties in Iowa | On the Road

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
People are building things here in America again, and this moment calls for the best of America, our people. Introducing America's Workforce Academy, built by Meta. A program helping to train the next generation of welders, fiber installers, crew leaders, and more. Paid training, a job, and a path to America's future. Because the future is for everyone.
Learn more at meta.com/america'sworkforceacademy.

**Rob Sand** (0:30)
I think that we have a fundamentally broken two-choice political system.
I don't think that either the Democratic or the Republican parties is solving enough problems, deserve special legal privileges in order to force us to pick between the lesser two evils. And I want somebody, my inclination is, I want it to be shaken up.

**Jonathan Martin** (0:50)
You know, there's state fairs and then there's the Iowa State Fair. I don't want to start any trouble here. This is a very competitive issue, but the Iowa State Fair is something special. They got the pigs, the cows, the rides, the midway. They have pork chops. Fantastic Iowa pork produced pork chops. And my favorite, the pork tenderloin sandwich, the signature dish of Iowa. But as famous as the Iowa State Fair is for the presidential jockeying here every four years, this year we have a crucial midterm election. Democrats haven't held Terrace Hill, the governor's mansion, since 2010
Rob Sand, the last Democrat holding state line office here, the auditor, is running. We're going to sit down with Rob Sand and talk to him about all things Iowa. I'm thrilled that you're with us. Buckle up. I hope you like pork. On the road at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, coming at you today.
Rob Sand, the Iowa State Fair, we got a lineman down here who got engaged about five minutes ago.

**Rob Sand** (2:01)
Amazing.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:01)
You are up in the picker.

**Rob Sand** (2:03)
Yeah.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:04)
You're working your way around the midway. Peak Iowa, right? This is it.

**Rob Sand** (2:08)
Oh yeah, State Fair. This is it. Well, and there's a tenderloin in the Fried Snickers bar sitting right here.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:13)
We're not going to bury the land here, folks. You got the deep-fried Twinkie, right?

**Rob Sand** (2:17)
No. Well, what is it? I requested a Snickers, but if that's a deep-fried Twinkie, I'm going to eat it.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:22)
Okay. It's deep-fried sweetness.

**Rob Sand** (2:25)
We'll find out when I take a bite.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:26)
You sure will. Now, I wouldn't come to Iowa, I wouldn't come to Iowa State Fair and not get my favorite, which is the pork tenderloin sandwich.
To me, that's the Iowa Signature.

**Rob Sand** (2:35)
Absolutely.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:36)
I think a pork chop on a stick is cool, a bit of a novelty. To me, what's Iowa is the pork tenderloin sandwich. I know Indiana claims them too.

**Rob Sand** (2:44)
Yeah.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:45)
But come on.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:46)
This is it.

**Jonathan Martin** (2:46)
It's an Iowa thing, right?

**Rob Sand** (2:47)
Actually, I had an amazing one on the trail last week. It was oval shaped. Normally, you see a match the bun or they're like three sizes.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:55)
Hubcap size, yeah.

**Rob Sand** (2:56)
But this one was specifically oval in DeWitt, Iowa and one of the best I've ever had.

**Jonathan Martin** (3:02)
Eastern Iowa, near Clinton, Iowa, because the two towns were-

**Rob Sand** (3:05)
Clooney. Well done.

**Jonathan Martin** (3:07)
So folks think Iowa state fair, they obviously think pork chop on a stick. They think the photo op or you're flipping the pork burgers. But they also think about presidential campaigns, because the summer before the Iowa Caucuses, this was always where folks came through to meet and greet, to get the photo ops, maybe even do the dreaded corndog picture.

**Rob Sand** (3:27)
That's right.

**Jonathan Martin** (3:27)
But the Democrats aren't coming to Iowa anymore, Rob Sand. What happened? Why did Democrats bail on the Iowa Caucuses?

**Rob Sand** (3:35)
So you'd have to ask the folks at the DNC.

**Jonathan Martin** (3:36)
Well, who's to blame?

**Rob Sand** (3:38)
I mean the DNC. That's their decision. I don't talk to them. I know our Iowa folks that are involved, but I'm the state auditor.
Running to be the governor. I've never been to a DNC convention. It's not really the thing that I'm focused on. I think that we're going to follow Iowa law. What's that mean? Well, we know what the law says, and I don't have it memorized, but we go before anybody else does their whatever else, balloting or something like that.

**Jonathan Martin** (4:05)
Did it bother you though as somebody who's trying to win over rural voters, Iowa obviously is a heavy farm state, that the National Party would decide not to begin in the middle of the country in a farm state?