Iowa Gov.-elect Rob Sand on Thursday urged Democrats to stop being afraid of facing hostile questions and engaging with Republican voters as the party seeks to hold onto the gains it made in the 2026 midterm elections.
That, he said at a major gathering of Democrats in Denver, was a critical part of how he won the governor’s office of a state that was deep-red for the last decade.
“There is nothing that felt better to me, as a human being, as a Christian, than to hand the microphone to someone that the whole world is telling me is my enemy, and just let them ask me whatever they want,” Sand said.
“A reporter asked me one time, ‘Does this ever backfire?’ The answer to that question is simple: you’re missing the point. It can’t,” he said. “There’s literally no question that I can be asked, no answer that I could give, no matter how bad, that would speak more loudly than me handing the microphone to someone at my event who says they’re a Republican.”
Sand recalled opening all of his campaign events by having groups — Democrats, Republicans and independents — applaud each other, one at a time, and then leading the crowd in singing the first verse of “America the Beautiful.”
He also admonished Democrats that voters can tell when they are dodging tough questions.
“Every human being alive has spent their entire life asking and answering questions. If you think you’re being clever when you don’t answer a question, they know, because they’ve been doing this since they were a child. You can’t fool them,” he said. “If you didn’t answer the question, they might hear your words, and your words might be pretty, but they also know you didn’t answer the question.”
Sand added: “The question is: Do you want to be a human being that answers questions, or do you want to be a politician? You give them their answer every single time you don’t answer a question. Answer the question.”
Source: www.cnn.com
