Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand has selected Crawford County Supervisor Dave Muhlbauer, a cattleman-farmer and deeply rooted rural Iowan from Manilla who ran for the U.S. Senate five years ago, as his lieutenant governor running mate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pick fortifies Decorah native Sand\u2019s efforts to bridge the partisan divide in rural Iowa and brings a geographic balance to the ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA fifth-generation family farmer and cattleman from Crawford County, Dave Muhlbauer represents the best of our state: hard-working, honest, and always willing to help out. I\u2019m proud to have him on Team Sand,\u201d Sand said in a statement. \u201cDave has a track record of working with everyone to deliver for western Iowa and knows it\u2019s time to rotate the crops in state government. He\u2019ll be a great partner on the trail and an even better lieutenant governor for the people of Iowa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/span>\n\n\n\n Muhlbauer, 42, a son and grandson of former state representatives, the late Dan Muhlbauer and Louis Muhlbauer, farms corn, soybean and rye and raises cattle and hogs in Manilla, at the southern edge of Crawford County. All three Muhlbauers have served as Democrats on the Crawford County Board of Supervisors \u2014Dave Muhlbauer for eight years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am in tune with what the people of my community are saying and asking and their concerns,\u201d Muhlbauer said in an interview with\u00a0The Iowa Mercury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Muhlbauer described Sand as \u201cgrounded\u201d and \u201ccompassionate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about one side or the other,\u201d Muhlbauer said. \u201cIt\u2019s about doing what\u2019s right versus wrong. I know he says it a lot, \u2018not redder or bluer, but better or truer.\u2019 That is so true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Muhlbauer\u2019s father, the late State Representative Dan Muhlbauer, represented Carroll, Crawford, and Audubon counties. He died October 1, 2020 at age 62.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is very personal to me. Growing up farming and being in a farm family, taking care of the land, and doing what we do, is deeply embedded in our DNA,\u201d Dave Muhlbauer said. \u201cThat\u2019s the same to me with what grandpa and dad did with serving as a Crawford County supervisor, and later, legislator. I grew up campaigning for my grandpa when I was just a little kid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several members of Dave Muhlbauer\u2019s family \u2014 sister and brother in law Robert and Megan Riesselman and cousin Jared Muhlbauer \u2014 are engaged in the farming-agricultural operation just a stone\u2019s throw from Shelby County and close to the Carroll County city of Manning, where\u00a0Muhlbauer\u2019s wife, Linda, is the library director.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI first and foremost think there should be a place for any size farm,\u201d Muhlbauer said. <\/em>\u201cEvery farmer is a little bit different with how they operate and what they want to do or don\u2019t do. We need to see the state work hand in hand with farmers on policies that are best practices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI myself do cover crops because I feel that greatly helps my soil and water quality and helps with the fertility of the land and the health of the soil. I think we need to have more communication with farmers on how to make practices at hand more available to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Dave Muhlbauer at his farm in 2021, when he was a candidate for the U.S. Senate<\/a> (photo by Douglas Burns)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Muhlbauer said at the core he and Sand have the same goals for the state and are equipped with the electoral track records to end a decade of one-party control in Iowa by Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor us, it\u2019s about making government work for the people and fixing a broken political system,\u201d Muhlbauer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a local elected official, Muhlbauer lives among the people he represents in Tuesday morning supervisors\u2019 meetings at the Crawford County Courthouse in Denison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople are upset, they don\u2019t feel like government represents them,\u201d Muhlbauer said. \u201cThey don\u2019t feel like their voice is being heard. They feel like legislators are more interested in special interests and powerful insiders. To me, it\u2019s about giving that voice back to people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through the years, Muhlbauer has often described himself as an \u201cold-school farming-labor Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Muhlbauer ran for the U.S. Senate<\/a>\u00a0in the 2022 cycle\u00a0but left the race before the primary to spend time with family<\/a> after the death of his 4-year-old nephew Jed Riesselman in an accident.\u00a0The Riesselmans have established a non-profit foundation, Stables 4 Jed, and developed a mental-health\/grief facility, one with a focus on horse therapy, right on their farm, 5 miles southwest of Manning, on the east side of 370th Street just north of Dave Muhlbauer\u2019s home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dave and Linda Muhlbauer have one son and two daughters: Chas, 18; Ava, 17; and Roslyn, 15, all high school students.<\/p>\n The post Sand picks western Iowa cattleman Dave Muhlbauer as running mate<\/a> appeared first on Bleeding Heartland<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n![\"](\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/bleeding-heartland-www\/static\/media\/2026\/06\/DaveMuhlbauer2022.jpg\")
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Agriculture,analysis,Dave Muhlbauer,IA-Gov,IA-Gov 2026,news,Rob Sand,Rural\r\n
Source link www.bleedingheartland.com<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. He is the co-founder of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation and a member of the Iowa Writers\u2019 Collaborative, where this article first appeared on The Iowa Mercury newsletter. His family operated the Carroll Times Herald for 93 years in Carroll, Iowa where Burns resides. Democratic candidate for governor Rob Sand has selected Crawford…","protected":false},"author":574,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[912,931,1135,1136,1137,933,976,1138],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-agriculture","tag-analysis","tag-dave-muhlbauer","tag-ia-gov","tag-ia-gov-2026","tag-news","tag-rob-sand","tag-rural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wokeantifa.org\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}