KDSN RADIO News
Four GOP candidates call for response to Iowa’s cancer rate
Four of the five Republicans running for governor say it’s time for action to reduce the alarming rate of new cancer cases among Iowans.
The candidates appeared at a forum last night in Sioux Center that was sponsored by the Iowa Standard blog. Zach Lahn of Belle Plaine said Iowans know there’s something “terribly wrong” with the status quo.
“I have read the Monsanto papers. I understand this issue deeply. When my father go cancer, I did that,” Lahn said. “…We know what’s going on here, but this is not on the backs of our farmers. I’m with you. I’m one of you. We are being lied to and it’s time that we stand up for our people and stand up for our health and I’m here to do just that.”
Lahn was endorsed this week by MAHA Action, a group aligned with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who’s been a long time critic of farm pesticides.
Pastor Brad Sherman of Williamsburg, a former state legislator, said it’s time for independent studies to confirm the reasons why Iowa’s cancer rate is so high. “We have to find out exactly what’s causing these problems,” Sherman said. “And when we can’t find them out, it’s because we don’t want to find them out.”
Former Iowa Department of Administrative Services Director Adam Steen of Runnells told crowd there had been no history of cancer in his family, but his father died of kidney cancer three years ago and his mother just survived breast cancer. “Is it chemicals on our crops? Is it chemicals on our golf courses? Is it chemicals in our yard? Is it radon? Is it drinking? Is it smoking? What is it that is causing these cancer rates to be so high? We have to determine what that is,” Steen said.
Eddie Andrews of Johnston, a member of the Iowa House, said it was “misguided” for the Iowa Senate to pass a bill that would have provided liability protection to Monsanto, the maker of roundup. “The exactly wrong direction,” Andrews said. “We need to be finding solutions to cancer, stopping things.”
Congressman Randy Feenstra, the other Republican candidate in the 2026 race for governor, did not appear at last night’s event in Sioux Center with his GOP rivals. Feenstra spoke last night at campaign event in a brewery in Sioux Center.
(Reporting by Carson Schubert, KSOU, Sioux Center; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)
