I’m gonna tell you what this is right now. I’m going to tell you — I’ve been here before. This is what a movement looks like to win in November. That’s what this is.
You’ve heard a common theme here. You heard Calley Means talk about it. You heard Joel Salatin — by the way, as an Iowa kid who grew up in Northwest Iowa, out in the country, coming to this place right now, sharing the same stage with Calley Means, with Joel Salatin, and with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — what an honor.
Let me tell you: you’ve heard a common theme. And that common theme is one of corruption. One of the big versus the little. One of government choosing a side against the [special] interests. And I’ll tell you what you all saw in the primary. That has not changed one bit.
I am here for a very simple reason. I am not for sale. One of the reasons I got into this race, one of the primary reasons, was because I believed in what Bobby Kennedy [Jr.] said. He said: we’re gonna make real progress on these issues when we decide that '“we love our children more than we hate each other.” That’s what he said. And you’ll notice that not everybody up here believes all of the same things. This is not a monolith. This is what it’s supposed to be. It’s not supposed to be where everybody’s thinking the same thing all of time. General Patton said, “If everybody’s thinking the same way, somebody’s not thinking.”
I think, in politics, we’ve seen that. We’ve seen as politicians have been given the piece of paper by a special interest group or a corporate giant that tells them exactly what to think, exactly what to say, and they do it because they’ve been bought off.
You are in the presence right now of people who are not for sale, who are not able to be bought off, who are going to do the bidding of the people. This is much deeper than politics. I think you know that. This is a spiritual battle. This is the battle that we’re in. This is battle of corruption, of people that would put the bottom lines of a company ahead of the health of our children, something that we believe as Republicans, we believe in the free market. I know there’s Republicans, Independents, and Democrats here today. We believe in free market, but we also understand that for a long time, a select few have gotten very rich off the backs of the health of our children. And when I am governor, I am telling you this right now, in the State of Iowa, that is over!
I think there’s a lot of things that we should be absolutely proud of as Iowans. In the Iowa legislature, the Iowa governor stood up to make Iowa a place that protects the lives of the unborn in our state, something we should very proud of. But I brought a message that goes further than that, because I think we have to go further than that. We’ve been ignoring some of the big issues as well. That is a monumental shift, a monumental change for the state of Iowa. It’s something we should be very proud of. It’s a spiritual battle, but here’s the deal. The fight for life doesn’t end at birth. The fight to put healthy food grown in the state of Iowa, in our schools, is a pro-life issue.
You know, I was at a debate, anybody watch the debates by the way? And I said I have a moonshot goal, which by the way, we all have to have moonshot goals. Secretary Kennedy has moonshot goals. We have to big ideas. We’re not gonna fix this system by fiddling around the edges. I have the moonshot of seeing a day when 80% of the food served in our public schools comes right here from the state of Iowa. And in this debate, one of the moderators argued with me on this, said, you know, that it’s going to be really difficult to do. Good. We’re here to solve big problems. We are not here for the small problems. We’re here to make life better for the next generation.
Even on the educational front, innovation in our schools, the idea that young kids shouldn’t be expected to sit in a desk for seven hours a day and when they can’t, told there’s something wrong with them and then put on a medication — when there’s actually something wrong with the system. Our kids requiring less medication is a pro-life issue.
And I’m gonna tell you something that I’ve gotten a lot of flack for. And if you notice anything about me it is I don’t back down. I am a fighter and I will fight for you. That’s my promise — was something I’ve got a lot of flack for, but here’s the deal. I’m not a politician. I don’t just regurgitate the talking points. I read the studies. I try to understand. And, ultimately, I do it for the same reason you do it, because I want my children to be healthy. I want the next generation to be healthy. I want them to live long lives.
Right now in the state of Iowa, we are going to funerals for people who are dying at 65, whose parents live to be 90. It’s unacceptable. But I’ll say it here again, even with the fake news here: I’m going to say this. There’s a couple of good ones. The fight to pull the Covid vaccine off the market is a pro-life issue.
I don’t believe that the ideas in this movement are radical. Look, there’s an idea that I believe is very true that we have just ignored for a very long time when we’re talking about healthcare. There’s a lot of discussions about healthcare. Look, the number one tenet in healthcare is very simple. Food is medicine — that’s the number-one tenet. But we believe other things. Like parents should be in charge of the medical decisions of their children, not bureaucrats. And as one of my heroes, Joel Salatin, said, we deserve to have food freedom in the state of Iowa. That’s something we deserve. You know, I tell my children — if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.
You have to have big goals. One of the big goals I have for the state of Iowa — and by the way, so much of what we want to do in the state, so much of what will help us in the state — is going back to the principles that our grandparents and great-grandparents knew, understanding the wisdom that they had. One of the big goals I have, as your next governor, which, by the, we’re going to win this race, guys. I can feel the movement. Can you feel the movement? I can feel it … One of my goals for the state of Iowa is to make Iowa the real food capital of the country.
We have the best land. We have the best farmers. We should be growing the best food. We should an exporter of food to the rest of the county. But first we should take care of the people in our state.
We should make sure that kids have healthy meals at school. Look, for some of these children this might be the only healthy meal they have all day. And this goes back to the heritage of who we are as a people. We are a state that for a long time has been known to care about the people in our state, to care about the next generation. Let me tell you, this thing that’s called MAHA, has existed long before it had a name. It existed as an idea. And the idea is that we as parents, we as citizens, should have safe medications. We should have good, real science that’s not bought off by corporations that have far too much influence over our government. And in the state of Iowa, we deserve, let me be very clear with you, I’m asked all the time, what is the number one thing you wanna work on as governor after you get elected? I’ll be very clean. My number one priority as your governor is to clean up our water and to stop the cancer crisis in the State of Iowa.
There’s a tremendous amount at stake in this election. I think you can see it. I often talk about the culture of our state and how I don’t believe you guys are here for politics. I believe you’re here because you want to preserve the culture in the state of Iowa. This is why I’m here. And for a very long time, we have to recognize that there has been a battle for the institutions in our society. And this has been battle not just with politicians, but with corporations that have garnered far too much control. The left has known this. And I’m not just talking about the Democrat left, because I believe there are good people in the Democrat party, but I also believe their party at the top end has been taken over by radicals, absolutely taken over.
The institutions of our society built what we love here in Iowa today. We’re talking about business, the government, education, the family, the individual. I was asked by one of the reporters here today: Is this going to be a talk about culture, or is this gonna be a talked about health and MAHA? I said, you don’t get it, they’re the same thing. The fight to have clean water in our state — it’s a pro-life issue. It’s a fight to make sure people can live long, healthy lives.
For a very long time, we’ve had this fight to protect the lives of the unborn, and we’ve largely forgotten about this fight. Let me tell you: the fight to protect the un-born is all about protecting human potential. An unborn child could be anything, do anything, solve anything, love anyone. But on the other end of this, when we’re protecting their lives and make sure that people can live long, healthy lives, we’re protecting human wisdom. That’s what we’re protecting.
You cannot know where you want to go if you forget where you’ve been. And I believe this group, maybe more than any, understands that. There’s no way to put this group in a box. That doesn’t exist. And I think for a long time, what other people want to do is try to make every movement like this something that’s strictly political, but it’s not. It’s way deeper than that. It’s much deeper than politics. It’s about the next generation, the generational contract that we have all signed up for, that our ancestors have signed up for.
I could go through this room and talk to just about any one of you and find we have a shared story about what it means to be an Iowan and about the people who came here before us to pass something down to us but would never meet us. And the question that Secretary Bobby Kennedy has been fighting for is what is the generational contract of this generation going to be? Is it going to one where these big organizations have the outsized control and are doing the bidding, the politicians are doing the bidding of them? Or is it going be one in which our kids can thrive, live long, healthy lives. Understand that they have the ability to solve problems to do things in the world that they never thought they could do — because they are now healthier and more vibrant and I believe that’s what’s going to happen because of [RFK Jr.’s] leadership in HHS. I truly believe that.
This is not a political movement. This is the definition of a grassroots movement, and it’s been going on for decades. You all know people who have been in this for a very long time. I believe wholeheartedly that during Covid the veil was lifted, that we saw firsthand what the medical establishment was willing to do to collude with the government to gain power. And let me just be very clear about this: the medical establishment has completely lost our trust and has done nothing to earn it back.
“The medical establishment has completely lost our trust and has done nothing to earn it back” — Zach Lahn
They have not. And while I believe there’s a lot at stake in this election, I also believe something else and this is what my campaign for governor has been all about. I believe that there’s tremendous amount of opportunity. I believe we have the opportunity to make Iowa the best place to raise a family — to start a farm, to build a business, to pass something down to the next generation. The opportunity to stop our kids from leaving the state faster than 46 other states. Stop family farms from dying off at the rate of 10,000 over 20 years. Stop our public education system from being number one and then dropping to number 27 — and to stop the cancer crisis in our state.
I think there’s opportunity that we can only imagine in this state because we have the best people in the country, bar none. They live here in the state of Iowa.
I’m gonna end with this: I think this goes back to the ability to think critically, the ability to make decisions for yourself, to understand that there are groups that have been bought off for a long time and politicians that have been doing the buying. And I believe you all understand that. But I also believe that we have an opportunity here. And I think you all see that. I think that’s why I’m standing here. You all know I’m not supposed to be standing here today. I was outspent by 30%, opposed by the establishment. I will tell you: there was one group in the entire country that early on saw the promise of this race and saw the promises of what Iowa could be, and that is the MAHA organization, when they endorsed me as their first candidate ever in the history of their organization.
But if we want to change the trajectory of our state, I’m going to say something a bit different now. It has to start with education. Look, we have to start teaching kids the true story of America, the underdog story of our country. If you want to destroy a culture, destroy their stories. Make them believe that the people who came here before them were bad people, that they wanted bad things. If you wanna teach the true story of America, you have the opportunity to inspire the next generation. That’s what you have. You have the opportunities to let the next generation know that America has done more to alleviate poverty, to alleviate oppression, to secure rights. They’ve led more humanitarian missions, taking care of more people than any other country ever in the history of the world. And by the way, it’s not even close.
As our children are unburdened from that idea, and they understand the true story of America, they can understand that they are the protagonist in the story, they are hero in the the story. And they have the ability to literally change the world. I believe our education system has to prioritize that. And, if we do, we’re gonna see more people think freely, like all of you think freely. We’re gonna see more people that understand that the entirety of Western civilization rests on their shoulders. And it’s up to them to carry it on, and that is a burden they should be proud to bear.
In just a moment, I’m gonna introduce somebody to you. Before I do, I wanna say this. There is a lot at stake. In six days, we are gonna decide the trajectory of our state. We’re gonna decide who’s in charge in our state. If it’s just the money that matters, we’re going to decide, is Iowa for sale? And I believe Iowa is not for sale.
But I’m going to tell you this - sometimes we can forget. I was at a funeral for somebody a while ago and she was an amazing agrarian, a daughter of the prairie. And I remember her son was eulogizing her and he said: one of the greatest sins is a sin of forgetting. Forgetting where you came from, forgetting the responsibility that you have. And I believe we can do the same thing here and I think the media likes to help us have amnesia about what’s at stake and where we’ve been. But I had two groups in the primary that endorsed me. One was this group I’m standing with right now. And one was the group that was started by my longtime friend named Charlie Kirk. Thirteen months ago, my friend’s life was taken from us. It was just 13 months ago.
People ask me all the time — “how can we help?” And I’m gonna tell you right now how you can help. We have six days until an election. We have six days to make sure the people that might be thinking of sitting out this primary, sitting out this midterm, decide to get into the race. And let me just tell you this. We need to remind them what’s at stake in our culture. If we’d understand that it was 13 months ago that that man’s life was taken and that people are thinking of sitting out the midterms, we’d say, are we crazy? Are we crazy?
Everybody wants prices to come down. The president wants prices come down'; we all do. We wanna end wars, we wanna do that. But there’s some things that are so much deeper. And let me tell you, the left has known this for a very long time. They have known that they’re in a battle for the institutions of our culture. We are waking up to that battle. And I believe on November 3rd of this year, in the state of Iowa, we are going to send a message that Iowa is not for sale, that we are here for the next generation, and we are gonna prioritize them over these groups that seek to exploit and extract from the state of Iowan.
I’m asking you for your vote and your support. Thank you very much.
And now... I have the pleasure of doing something that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do. Let me just tell you that. When I got into this race, my wife and I were talking about why I should do this. She had a million reasons. I had a millions reasons why I shouldn’t. And I remember taking a walk with her at the farm the day after we went in the primary, and she said, what’s on your mind? I can tell a lot’s on you mind. I said: I think my life would be a lot better if I wasn’t running for this seat. And you could all understand that with the amount of attacks that have been lodged against my family and my children. But the next thing I said was that I actually believe that my grandkids’ lives will be better if I do run.
About 13 months ago when I was thinking about doing this I told [my wife] I had one requirement and that requirement was that I wanted to meet Robert F. Kennedy jr. And I had no connection to him whatsoever. Let me tell you that right now none of us did. But if you believe in divine providence you’ll understand that three weeks later I was sitting on his couch in Georgetown and we were talking about the future of the state of Iowa. We are talking about what’s at stake — and that, combined with what happened to my friend, there was no way that I couldn’t get in this race.
This man [RFK Jr.] has been an inspiration to our country. And I will tell you, the entire country owes his family a debt of gratitude. And when he could have not got in the battle, when he had every reason to not get in the battles, he chose instead to leave a life that was likely largely more comfortable and get into this battle because he believes that our children are worth it. I wanna introduce my friend, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Zach, best wishes and if you win I’m going to try my best to move to Iowa!
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Gotta love a maga railing against corruption while his party/ funders ignore the ....