2026-08-29T10:30:30.983Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
爱荷华州独立城——
在爱荷华州可供造访的城市中，罗布·桑德选择来到独立城，并非因为它能完美契合他的州长竞选隐喻。
但他无疑希望选民们相信这一点。
“我认为我们的政治体系已经崩坏，”桑德对围坐在他身边的人群说道，“主要是因为它由两个私人俱乐部掌控，它们更热衷于互相攻击，而非解决我们的实际问题。”
独立城坐落于爱荷华州东部的瓦西皮皮孔河畔，是布坎南县的县府所在地。仅此一点，就足以让它成为他履行夏季承诺的必经一站——他承诺将举办100场市政厅会议，走遍全州每个县。
现年44岁的桑德是民主党人，但他很少提及自己的这一身份背景。
听众们很快就会了解到，他是一名会用弓箭打猎、引经据典、身着格纹衬衫的两个孩子的父亲。他痛斥红蓝阵营的政治分歧“荒诞不经，恰恰反映了我们已然陷入的深渊”。他抨击两党制。
“我们为什么只能在两害之中选其一？”桑德说道，“为什么我们要让独立选民变得更加不平等？”
爱荷华州自2006年以来就没有选出过民主党州长，但桑德的参选以及他亲和的政治风格，为该党燃起了乐观情绪。共和党人私下承认，他们的一党统治正面临多年来最严峻的挑战。
作为州审计长的桑德，是目前该州唯一担任全州公职的民主党人。他的对手是共和党商人兼农场主扎克·莱恩，后者在6月初选中击败了唐纳德·特朗普总统背书的候选人、众议员兰迪·芬斯特拉，令党内高层大为意外。
此次州长竞选，再加上美国参议院席位的开放竞争以及三个竞争激烈的国会选区席位，让爱荷华州再次成为全美最受关注的战场州之一。这也是全美范围内对民主党形象的最大考验之一。
但随着桑德在一座又一座城镇开展竞选活动，他几乎很少提及这些政治层面的考量，仿佛他试图转移人们对此次选举重要性的注意力。他花更多时间解释自己为何是民主党人，而非表达身为党员的自豪感。
“我不明白为什么一定要分成民主党和共和党，”桑德说道，他多次将两大政党一并痛批，“说真的，凭什么？为什么要这样？”
他在每场市政厅会议开始时，都会先请在场的共和党人和独立选民举手示意，并为每个群体送上礼貌的掌声。随后是民主党人获得稍更热烈的欢迎——他们在每场集会的人群中占多数。
当他站在拥挤的“理智酒吧”（独立城市中心的一家酒馆）的木吧台附近时，他邀请爱荷华州民众一起合唱《美丽的美国》的第一段。
一个悬而未决的问题是，这样一个简单的爱国举动能否缓和党派分歧，但桑德在每场竞选活动中都毫无歉意地这么做，他站到一旁，与在场的大多数人一起合唱。
“政治不该永远都是这样吗？”掌声平息后桑德说道，“把一群人聚在一个房间里，先承认你们意见不合，然后说，你知道吗？左翼、右翼——都是一家人！我们依然同舟共济，所以让我们携手合作。”
无论这是后党派时代的务实之举，还是两者兼具，在这个喧嚣的政治季中，他都是一位罕见的候选人，试图降低对抗热度，同时争取民主党人、独立人士和共和党人的支持。
至少从数据上看，他的成功取决于此。该州登记的共和党选民人数比民主党人多出18万余人。
“有很多人热衷于通过政治煽动愤怒，让人们对邻居和朋友充满仇恨，”桑德在接受采访时说道，“我试图反其道而行之。”
出席了阿拉马基县一场市政厅会议的共和党人约翰·菲什表示，他此前听说过桑德“合唱《美丽的美国》”的环节。他说，他惊讶地发现这并不像他想象的那样老套，自己也跟着大家一起唱了“从大海到闪亮的海洋”。
“我原以为会显得很俗气，但当时并没有那种感觉，”菲什说道，他对桑德的印象不错，“政客们大多都在说同样的话：‘我们必须团结起来，我们必须做这件事’，但出于某种原因，他似乎比大多数人更可信。”
不久前，爱荷华州还是全美竞争最激烈的摇摆州之一。
前总统贝拉克·奥巴马曾两度在此获胜。而当特朗普在2016年拿下该州时，爱荷华州拥有全美206个“转型县”中的31个——数量超过其他任何州——这些县曾两度投票给奥巴马，随后又支持了特朗普。
同年，共和党全面掌控了爱荷华州政府——实现了众议院、参议院和州长办公室的“三权统一”。此后，借助特朗普在2020年和2024年的后续胜选，共和党一直把持着该州政权。
过去十年间，该州大幅右倾：用税收资金资助私立学校代金券、将大多数堕胎限制在怀孕约六周以内、下调所得税——这导致了10亿美元的预算赤字。爱荷华州的新增癌症发病率也位居全美第二。
“我们面临着水质危机、癌症危机、教育危机、收入危机、腐败危机，以及高成本危机，”桑德说道。
本周，当桑德途经爱荷华州东部的多个此类县份时，他从未提及特朗普的名字。
他的竞选团队曾发表声明批评特朗普政府——包括近期允许更多进口牛肉入境的政策，这一政策激怒了爱荷华州的肉牛养殖户——但桑德表示，他刻意避免过多谈论总统。
“我参选是为了成为爱荷华州的州长，”桑德说道，“我为什么要谈论总统，不管总统是谁？”
然而，即便在州长选举中，不提特朗普的名字也令人侧目，考虑到这位总统如今无处不在，而批评其政策已成为民主党信息传递和动员选民的核心内容。
当被问及他能否在不提及部分根源问题——从关税到汽油价格再到食品成本——的情况下，有效利用选民的愤怒和不满情绪时，桑德避而不谈。
“我不希望人们必须对政治感到愤怒，”桑德在采访中说道，“但我也不会否定任何人对世界的看法所带来的感受。”
本周前来聆听桑德演讲的一些人表示，全程未提及特朗普，这是一个受欢迎的改变。
“他的做法非常令人耳目一新。我们现在需要的是把人们团结起来，而不是互相仇视，”民主党选民埃洛伊丝·迪拉武说道，“除此之外别无他法。我们必须回归理智与友善。”
保罗·斯克莱德是一名当地教师，他在一场竞选活动结束后带走了一块桑德的竞选广告牌。他表示，对11月的选举抱有希望，但补充道：“我希望他能更进步一些，但老实说，我认为他是我们最好的机会。”
他的话引发了一些民主党活动人士私下提出的疑问：与本党保持距离或许可以理解，但语气如此充满敌意是否有必要？
当桑德在市政厅会议上发表此类言论时，他们尤其感到不安：“我没有读过党纲，至今也没有读过。如果有人把时间花在制定民主党党纲上，不如去找点更有意义的事做。”
尽管全美各地都在讨论为民主党方向而战，但爱荷华州的这场竞选或许为民主党如何走出特朗普时代、尝试在红色州美国参与竞争提供了另一条道路——当然，前提是桑德能够获胜。
爱荷华州共和党多次抨击桑德试图淡化自己深厚的民主党背景，即便官员们承认他在努力打造自己的身份。“一个包装更好的自由派依然是自由派，”该党发言人杰德·西奇说道。
诚然，民主党复兴的前景因登记选民的差距而变得复杂。
爱荷华州州务卿办公室的8月选民登记数据显示，共和党登记选民为712087人，民主党登记选民为528758人，另有559741人未加入任何 major 政党。
这使得独立选民成为胜选拼图的关键一环，桑德在费耶特县市政厅会议期间的“安培啤酒馆”之行中明确指出了这一点。当一名与会者请他列出三大优先事项时，桑德首先谈到了选举改革，包括允许独立选民参与初选。他还将水质问题和癌症预防纳入其中。
他对他所谓的“崩坏”的两党制进行了严厉批评。
“它正引导我们去憎恨曾经深爱的人，我们需要改变这一点，”桑德说道，“这不仅能引起独立人士和共和党人的共鸣，也能打动民主党人。”
美国有线电视新闻网的杰夫·西蒙对本文亦有贡献。
This Iowa Democrat is stirring hopes of a red state comeback by charting his own path
2026-08-29T10:30:30.983Z / CNN
Independence, Iowa—
Of all the cities to visit in Iowa, Rob Sand did not stop here in Independence because it’s a fitting metaphor in his campaign for governor.
Yet, he surely needs voters to believe that it is.
“I think our political system is broken,” Sand told a crowd seated closely around him. “Mostly because it’s run by two private clubs and they’re more interested in beating up on each other than they are in solving our problems.”
The town of Independence, which sits along the Wapsipinicon River in eastern Iowa, is the Buchanan County seat. That fact alone made it an essential stop along the way to fulfill his summer pledge of holding 100 town hall meetings, hitting every county across the state.
Sand, 44, is a Democrat, but he seldom dwells on that piece of his biography.
He’s a bow-hunting, scripture-quoting, plaid-shirt wearing father of two, his audiences quickly learn during his campaign stops. He bemoans the red-blue political divide as “bizarre and so emblematic of the abyss that we have fallen into.” He assails the two-party system.
“Why do we have to only pick from the lesser of two evils?” Sand said. “Why do we make independent voters less equal?”
Iowa has not elected a Democratic governor since 2006, but Sand’s candidacy and his congenial approach to politics has stirred a sense of optimism for the party. Republicans privately acknowledge their one-party rule faces its biggest threat in years.
Sand, the state auditor, is the only Democrat to hold statewide office. He faces GOP businessman and farmer Zach Lahn, who surprised party leaders by defeating President Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate, Rep. Randy Feenstra, in the June primary.
The governor’s race, along with a wide-open contest for the US Senate and three fiercely competitive congressional seats have made the state, once again, among the most closely watched battlegrounds. It’s one of the biggest tests anywhere for the Democratic brand.
But as Sand campaigns in one town after another, he mentions very little of that political freight, almost as though he’s trying to draw attention away from the magnitude of the election. He spends more time explaining why he’s a Democrat than expressing pride to be one.
“I don’t know why it has to be Democrats and Republicans,” Sand said, repeatedly casting a pox on both major parties’ houses. “Seriously, says who? Why?”
He begins every one of his town hall meetings by asking for a show of hands from Republicans and independents in the room, with a polite round of applause for each group. It’s followed by a slightly louder reception for Democrats, who make up the majority of each crowd.
As he stood near the wooden bar in the overcrowded Sanity Room, a watering hole in downtown Independence, he asked the Iowans to join together and sing the first verse of “America the Beautiful.”
It’s an open question whether a simple act of patriotism can soften a partisan divide, but Sand does it without apology at every stop, stepping to the side as he sings along with most everyone else in the room.
“Shouldn’t politics always be like that?” Sand said after the applause subsided. “Bring a bunch of people into a room, acknowledge first that you disagree and then say, you know what? Left-wing, right-wing – one bird! We’re all still in this together, so let’s work together.”
Whether its post-partisan, pragmatic or both, he stands out as a rare candidate in a noisy political season seeking to lower the temperature in his quest to appeal to Democrats, independents and Republicans alike.
Mathematically, at least, his success depends upon it. The number of registered Republicans surpasses Democrats by more than 180,000 voters in the state.
“There’s a lot of people out there who are happy to do politics to gin up anger and to make people full of hatred for their neighbors and their friends,” Sand said in an interview. “I’m trying to do the opposite.”
John Fish, a Republican who attended a town hall meeting in Allamakee County, said he had heard about the “America the Beautiful” routine. He said he was surprised to find it less corny than he imagined and found himself singing “from sea to shining sea” right along with everyone else.
“I thought it would seem cheesy, but at the time it was not,” Fish said, walking away with a favorable impression of Sand. “Politicians all kind of say the same thing, ‘We’ve got to come together, we’ve got to do this thing,’ but for some reason he seems a little bit more believable than most.”
Not so long ago, Iowa was one of the nation’s most competitive swing states.
Former President Barack Obama won here twice. And when Trump carried the state in 2016, Iowa was home to 31 of the nation’s 206 “pivot counties” – more than any other state – that voted for Obama twice and then Trump.
That same year, Republicans won full control of Iowa’s government – a trifecta in the House, Senate and governor’s office. The GOP has held onto power ever since, boosted by Trump’s subsequent victories in 2020 and 2024.
Over the last decade, the state has moved significantly to the right: funding private school vouchers with tax dollars, restricting most abortions to around six weeks and lowering income taxes, which helped contribute to a $1 billion budget shortfall. Iowa also has the second-highest rate of new cancer cases in the country.
“We got a water-quality crisis, a cancer crisis, an education crisis, an income crisis, a corruption crisis, and a crisis of high costs,” Sand said.
As Sand made his way through a swath of those counties this week across eastern Iowa, he did not mention Trump by name.
His campaign has issued statements criticizing the Trump administration – including the recent policy to allow more imported beef into the country, which infuriated Iowa cattle producers – but Sand said he makes a point of not dwelling on the president.
“I am running to be the governor of Iowa,” Sand said. “Why would I talk about the president, no matter who the president is?”
Yet, even in a governor’s race, the absence of Trump’s name is striking, given how ubiquitous the president is and how central criticizing his policies have become to the message and motivation for Democrats.
When asked whether he could effectively tap into the anger and discontent in the electorate without mentioning some of the root causes – from tariffs to the price of gas to the cost of groceries – Sand demurred.
“I don’t want people to have to be angry at politics,” Sand said in an interview. “But I’m also not going to invalidate anyone’s feelings about what their view is on the world.”
Some people who came to see Sand this week said it was a welcome change to not hear a single mention of Trump.
“His approach is quite refreshing. What we need right now is to bring people together, instead of trying to hate,” said Eloise Dillavou, a Democratic voter. “There’s no other way to do this. We have to come back to sanity and kindness.”
As he walked away from a campaign stop, Paul Skrade, a local teacher, carried a Sand yard sign. He said he feels hopeful about November, but added: “I wish he were more progressive, but I think he’s our best opportunity, honestly.”
He touches upon a question raised privately by several Democratic activists: Distancing yourself from the party may be understandable, but is it necessary to sound so hostile?
They particularly blanche when Sand makes comments like this, as he does during his town hall meetings: “I didn’t read the platform. I still haven’t read the platform. If you have put your time into making the Democratic platform, find a better use of your time.”
For all of the talk elsewhere about the fight for the direction of the Democratic Party, the Iowa race may offer another path for how Democrats seek to move beyond the Trump era and try to compete in red-state America – if, of course, Sand is successful.
The Republican Party of Iowa has repeatedly blasted Sand for seeking to downplay his deep Democratic roots, even as officials acknowledged his effort to create his own identity. “A liberal with better brand is still a liberal,” said Jade Cichy, a party spokesperson.
To be sure, a Democratic revival is complicated by the shortfall in registered voters.
August voter registration data from the Iowa Secretary of State shows that 712,087 voters are registered with the Republican Party, with 528,758 voters registered as Democrats and 559,741 voters not affiliated with either major political party.
That makes independents a critical piece of the winning puzzle, which Sand made pointedly clear during a stop at the Ampersand Taproom during his Fayette County town hall meeting. Asked by an attendee to list his top three priorities, Sand began with election reform, including opening primaries to independent voters. He included water quality and cancer prevention.
He delivered a blistering critique of what he called a “broken” two-party system.
“It’s leading us to hate people that we used to love and we need to change it,” Sand said. “And that resonates not just with independents and Republicans, but it resonates with Democrats, too.”
CNN’s Jeff Simon contributed to this report.
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