Editor’s Notes: In this thought-provoking interview, Tucker Carlson sits down with Zach Lahn, a candidate for governor of Iowa who is driven by a deep desire to restore his state’s cultural heritage and traditions. Lahn dives into the systemic issues hurting Iowans, from the alarming rise in local cancer rates to the massive land grab being orchestrated by out-of-state investors and corporate monopolies. The conversation explores the devastating effects of corporate capture on American agriculture and the spiritual importance of reconnecting with the land through manual labor and stewardship. Ultimately, Lahn makes a passionate case for prioritizing the health and prosperity of local communities over the interests of a detached globalist agenda. (Feb 23, 2026)
TRANSCRIPT:
Zach Lahn on Running for Governor of Iowa
TUCKER CARLSON: So you’re running for governor of Iowa, and we can get into the whole politics of that maybe later. But I’m interested in why.
ZACH LAHN: I think the primary catalyst for me doing this was I believe we are losing our culture and our heritage as a people. That’s my honest belief. And I believe it’s not just in Iowa, across the country. But when I’d look around and see people that were running for office, it was all about policy. It was all about, “Here’s this tax rate,” or “This regulation needs to be changed.” And I just thought, no one is standing up to say we have to get the culture right first. We have to step in and say, what does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be an Iowan? And are the traditions and the heritage and the values of our ancestors important to us? That’s what motivates me, in the deepest part of my heart, in something like this.
I actually don’t want to be a politician. I’ve never had interest in it. I spent a lot of my life in the private sector, building schools, and I have a pretty good life. I have a great family and a wife who loves me and supports me.
Restoring the Family Farmhouse
But in 1850, my family came over from Germany, and my great-great-grandfather built our farmhouse. We had that same house on that piece of land in Iowa until 2005, when my great-grandmother passed away. I can still remember my grandma called me and said, “Zach, you wouldn’t want anything to do with this old farmhouse, would you?” I had graduated from high school in Iowa, I was off in college, and I said, “No, there’s something better out here. I’m off to find something better.”
Then a number of years later, I was driving by to see my other great-grandmother, who lived to be 103. I drove by the old farm and just pulled up and said, “Hey, could I take a look around?” They said yes. I said, “You know, my great-great-grandfather built this. He was a third-class passenger on the SS Weiland, coming from Hamburg, Germany, as a 14-year-old. He was in the stowage — that’s where he traveled over to America.” He became a carpenter, then earned enough money to buy the farm and build it with his uncle. I said, “Hey, if you’re ever thinking about selling it, will you please let me know?” I didn’t think anything would come of it at that time.
But a couple of years later, they called me and said, “Hey, we’re going to sell this farm. Would you want it?” I said, “Yes. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.” But I ended up scraping together enough money to get an FHA loan, a down payment, and I bought the farm. Since 2014, I’ve been working to rebuild and restore it.
TUCKER CARLSON: Is the house still there?
ZACH LAHN: The house is still there. When I bought it, it was covered in vinyl. It had been completely changed on the outside.
TUCKER CARLSON: 150 years is a long time.
ZACH LAHN: Yes. Completely changed on the outside. But I went to my dad’s cousin Peter, who had the repository of my great-grandmother’s photos. I got this palette of boxes of photos, and I spent — I’m not kidding — hundreds of hours going through them, looking for every photo I could find of that old farmhouse.
And I’ll tell you, to anybody who wants to be radicalized on what we’ve lost as a culture, spend that much time going through your great-grandmother’s photos, and you’ll realize the community, the traditions, the pride —
TUCKER CARLSON: I’ve done it.
ZACH LAHN: A lot of it’s gone.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s unrecognizable.
ZACH LAHN: Unrecognizable. And so I found every single picture I could find, and I put the house back together board by board, counted every single piece of siding to make sure it matched. Now we live in the home that was built by my great-great-grandfather.
I tell people I didn’t do that so I could run for governor. I started doing this over 10 years ago. I did it because I wanted my children to understand their story — their heritage and their culture, what built them. The man who built this house, who I bet hoped someday my kids would live in it —
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.
ZACH LAHN: — but knew he would never meet them. That story matters deeply. So that’s what really got me into this. I was not looking to run for this seat.
Why Now — and Why This Race
As I was talking to my wife about this, the current governor of Iowa — who, by the way, has done a very good job; we’re likely, other than Florida, one of the most conservative states, and she’s done a great job at that —
TUCKER CARLSON: You’re a nice person.
ZACH LAHN: When we were looking at this, my wife said the seat hasn’t been open in 20 years, and there are issues in our state that have nothing to do with taxes or regulations — systemic, deep issues that are really causing our people to be hurt.
The Systemic Issues Facing Iowa
TUCKER CARLSON: So you said there are systemic issues that are not included in the normal palette of politician concerns — which would be taxes and regulation. Just in order of importance, can you go through a few of them?
ZACH LAHN: I’ve spent my life largely as an entrepreneur, in businesses and organizations I’ve run or started. I have key metrics that I track to know the health of my companies or the health of an organization. And I think on that list for a state, the fiscal climate is no doubt part of it. Can people afford to live here? Yes, that’s a big part, of course.
But there are other, deeper issues that are more long-term in focus. Because of this constant news cycle — what’s happening right now that we all have to respond to, which, thank God I’m not running for federal office because it’s never-ending and always changing — because of that, we’re often distracted, or our eyes are taken off the ball purposefully, from the big issues.
A couple of them are this: Iowa is number four in the nation for net out-migration of our kids aged 25 to 29. How can you build a state if your people are leaving?
TUCKER CARLSON: Important — new people.
ZACH LAHN: Yes, we can talk about that. Another one would be that 25% of our farmland is now owned by out-of-state investors and funds that don’t live in our state. So our farmers, who have had this ancestral connection to the land, are now becoming tenants again — something we left Germany in large part to escape.
The German Immigrant Legacy and the Fight for Land
Take a side quest here for a second. When I was doing all that research into my family, I wanted to understand what drove them to leave their homeland. Iowa is made up of 35 to 40% German immigrants — very industrious people, very family-oriented people, people who had pride in the work they do.
TUCKER CARLSON: Objectively, some of the best people ever.
ZACH LAHN: I would say that. Big on tradition, big on family, and a lot of pride in where they came from. So what would motivate people to leave? The common answer we always heard was religious persecution. But I started to get interested in understanding the real conditions. And I actually found out that a lot of Germans came over around 1850 because in 1848, there was an attempted revolution across Europe — called the “48ers.” And what did they want? They wanted to be able to own the ground under their feet. They wanted free speech. They didn’t like slavery. They had a lot of what we now call Western ideals.
TUCKER CARLSON: It was the end of feudalism.
ZACH LAHN: Yes. And what happened to them? They were defeated. Many of them got exiled, and many others just left. Well, what state came online in 1846? Iowa. And it was also very agrarian, just like where they came from. So many of these people came over.
Iowa’s Civil War Legacy
I like to talk about one of the key points in Iowa’s history that I’m most proud of — how Iowans responded during the Civil War. We had the Missouri Compromise, we had the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and with that decision of letting states decide whether they’d be free or slave, there were a lot of wealthy, landowning elites rushing to the Midwest to lobby for the creation of slave states.
TUCKER CARLSON: Iowa — plantations on the prairie.
ZACH LAHN: Right. And Iowa wanted no part of it. One of my favorite stories: in 1861, the governor of Iowa, Governor Samuel Kirkwood, was on his plow in his field when a messenger from the Department of War arrived on horseback. The message from the president said he needed to put together a company of 750 troops, ready in two weeks. Mind you, this is 15 years after Iowa became a state — we were in our infancy. He said, “750 troops in two weeks? How can that be done?” Two weeks later, 10,000 Iowans had signed up.
By the end of the Civil War, more Iowans had fought per capita than any other state. Why was that? I believe — and there’s some evidence for this — that they had just left a country where they had seen oppression, had fled it, had left everything behind. And they were saying, “This isn’t going to happen here.”
The Crisis of Foreign Land Ownership
So when you talk about land, and you talk about 25% of our land now being owned by people who don’t live in our state — people who aren’t contributing to our communities, who don’t go to the football games, who aren’t shopping on Main Street — it’s a real generational issue. And I go to these auctions. I’ve bid against many of these people.
TUCKER CARLSON: Land auctions.
ZACH LAHN: Oh yes. And very often it’s a farm management company. The actual owner — we don’t know who they are. We actually don’t know who owns our land in Iowa. There’s no human-level disclosure required. You can own land in an LLC, and that LLC could be wholly owned by a trust, and all the state knows is that the LLC owns the land. That’s it. We’ve gotten to this place where just the common tradition of knowing who your neighbors are is gone.
TUCKER CARLSON: Well, it’s impossible if you can’t find their names. It’s kind of hard to have a community.
ZACH LAHN: It’s buried.
TUCKER CARLSON: America’s ranchers helped build this country for over 250 years…
ZACH LAHN: One of the things I want to do as governor is require human-level disclosure of land ownership, because I would bet that it’s actually more than 25% of our land owned by people who don’t live in our state. Then there are two other issues —
TUCKER CARLSON: By the way, if you don’t have to bear the consequences of your actions, you’re much more likely to exploit and degrade the community you’re taking money from. Why would you care about long-term best practices? You don’t. You’re just extracting wealth.
The Spiritual Connection to Land
ZACH LAHN: This is the spiritual part of the discussion, I believe. My father was a 30-year conservationist and a pastor, and I grew up learning to love and appreciate the place. I’ve said this before, but he legitimately made me believe that every sunset was made for me by God. We’d be driving and he’d say, “Look at what God made for you.” And I still think about those things to this day — just those little pieces that made me appreciate creation.
And one of my favorite clips from your show, ever, is when you were on with Bobby Kennedy and he was having that discussion about how nature is how we connect deeply with God.
TUCKER CARLSON: It makes me emotional thinking about it. I couldn’t agree more.
ZACH LAHN: I sent that to so many people, and especially my father, because it’s true and it’s language we don’t use anymore. It brings you to a higher place and it helps you understand this is much deeper than just who owns a piece of land or what’s happening. It’s actually like we are connected to God through the land, through His creation.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s on every page of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. There’s a lot of nature. What’s the Garden of Eden filled with? Trees, rivers, animals.
ZACH LAHN: Right. And all the parables that have to do with that.
The Crisis of Farmland Prices
So that, of course, is a systemic issue. And let me say that it’s been going on for a long time and nobody’s really talked about it. You go to a cafe, every farmer’s talking about these things — like, “Oh, did you see that? We had a piece of land in northwest Iowa recently go for $32,000 an acre.” Not development land.
TUCKER CARLSON: Okay, I’m interested — I’m a land buyer. I’m interested in land. How do you get to $32,000 an acre even for famously productive farmland? What is that? What’s the potential return on that? How did that happen?
ZACH LAHN: Well, let’s just say commonly we’ll go to $20,000 an acre — that’s fairly common in northwest Iowa. So it’s some of the best land in the world. It’s bonkers. And outside investors look at Iowa as a great investment because it’s a solid asset.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s a hedge against the dollar, of course.
ZACH LAHN: And you get a dividend — you rent out the land. And so one of the things I opine about a lot is that our land isn’t just an asset class. It actually was meant as the inheritance for the sons and daughters of our state, to build their lives, their communities, and their families.
When they’re tenants on that land and they’re paying high dollar rent — because the only way you can justify a high price like that is very high rent — you’re stripping away a lot of… going back to the spiritual aspect of this. That land is best when it’s owned and farmed by the same person. We know this. There’s a connection of stewardship that comes with that — to know that I’m passing this piece of ground on to my grandkids, and their kids, and their kids. And that’s what it should be. But that is being actively taken away in our state.
The Monopoly Problem in Agriculture
So two other things that I think are big systemic issues on my scorecard. One is that our farmers are actively being exploited by big ag companies. When I was growing up — born in Iowa — we had over 300 seed and input companies, fertilizer and agrochemical companies that were selling to our farmers. Today, that number is three, controlling 85% of the market. Over 90% of seed technology is owned by two companies — Bayer and Corteva. Bayer, which owns Monsanto now, and Corteva own 90% of seed technology.
TUCKER CARLSON: Of course, but I forgot — Monsanto doesn’t actually exist anymore, does it?
ZACH LAHN: I don’t think so.
TUCKER CARLSON: It changed the name. Yeah, it was bought by Bayer in Germany.
ZACH LAHN: They’re sure mentioned a lot in court still, but they’re not a company. So if you look at the long-term trend, anytime there’s a rise in commodity prices, these input costs go up, even though there’s not a direct correlating factor.
There’s a study out of the University of Illinois that compared the cost of farming in Brazil to the cost of farming in Illinois — Iowa, basically. And you have to understand that the three big companies in America that provide these inputs are also the same three big companies in Brazil: Bayer, Corteva, and Syngenta. That study said that for growing corn, using the same application rate, they’re charging Brazilian farmers about $150 less per acre than they are Iowa farmers.
TUCKER CARLSON: How?
ZACH LAHN: Well, the real answer is because they’re an unchecked monopoly and competition doesn’t exist. There’s tacit collusion. But here’s how it actually works. They have what they call “regional base pricing.” But what it really is, is this — when they look at their pricing, they base it on the yield that you’re going to create. So let’s say you have more productive land. Even though you’re using the same amount of product, they’re going to take more. You have less productive land — even though you use the same amount of product, they’re going to take more. It’s wrong.
And I will give credit to Brooke Rollins and Donald Trump and the administration — they’re talking about bringing antitrust action and investing in this with the Department of Justice. And one of the things I pledge to do, if I’m governor of Iowa, is lead the charge to bring antitrust suits against these companies that are exploiting our farmers, because they’re taking every dollar they possibly can, and we’re already on life support. Most farms are operating at a loss right now.
Tariffs Are Not the Real Issue
And when you talk to farmers about this, I cannot emphasize this enough — you do not hear them talk about tariffs. Matter of fact, the price of soybeans this year with the tariffs was higher than it was last year before the tariffs. The change came in the cost of growing — the cost of the input products that they’re using went up. So I tell people all the time, the tariffs are not the issue. We have to get this unchecked monopoly in check and under control.
TUCKER CARLSON: Obviously, inputs are essential to agriculture — or to creating anything. One of them is diesel fuel. Not a lot of movement there. But then you have the products you just mentioned — seeds and fertilizer. Taking out seeds, let’s just focus on fertilizer. What are the products like?
ZACH LAHN: Well, it just depends. The most common product for fertilizers is anhydrous ammonia — it’s used in the fall, it’s where a lot of the nitrogen comes from. But then you have other products that come from the earth: potassium, potash, those things.
But you look at the trend of the pricing. The past five years, nitrogen fertilizers went up 150%, and the price of corn is down 2%. So farmers are really being, I would say, extorted in this process.
Roundup, Chemicals, and Farmer Safety
TUCKER CARLSON: Tell you something I was really surprised by — I don’t know much about it, but I was hunting on a farm in November, right before Thanksgiving.
ZACH LAHN: A big, big working farm.
TUCKER CARLSON: And I was with the ranch manager in a truck, and he said, “This is the truck we used to spray Roundup.” And I said, “People are using Roundup?” I’m not in the ag business — I just thought Roundup was bad. I didn’t realize that people were still spraying Roundup. He said, “Oh, everyone sprays Roundup — like everybody does. And we kind of don’t talk about it.”
ZACH LAHN: Hmm.
TUCKER CARLSON: I mean, I’m not attacking Roundup specifically, but are we sure that these chemicals are all safe?
ZACH LAHN: Well, Roundup is the most highly used herbicide in the history of the country — in the history of the world.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s so effective. I mean, I’ve seen it.
ZACH LAHN: It’s losing its effectiveness greatly now. You’ll have different mixtures that go in because we’re getting Roundup-resistant, glyphosate-resistant weeds. A high percentage of weeds now have glyphosate resistance. I think in some ways the life cycle of Roundup is kind of coming to an end on its own.
TUCKER CARLSON: Limited by nature.
ZACH LAHN: Limited by nature, and new products are coming out. But I will tell you this — when you talk about the safety of products, let me back up and talk a little about the companies I mentioned, the three big companies controlling the ag input market. Bayer is a German company.
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.
ZACH LAHN: Corteva is an American company — top shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street. But Syngenta is a wholly owned state enterprise of the Chinese government — actually 100%. So somewhere in the range of 5 million acres in our state has chemicals and seed technology from a company that is a wholly owned company of the state of China.
The Danger of Paraquat
I mention that to say this — if you talk to farmers about some of these products, like glyphosate or Roundup, which is very ubiquitously used, and then get to products that even many of them won’t use anymore, you’ll get to products like Paraquat. Paraquat was originally formulated by Syngenta.
TUCKER CARLSON: Paraquat was used in anti-drug spraying in Latin America. It was very controversial for that.
ZACH LAHN: And it’ll burn down plants in a matter of hours. But if you’re exposed to Paraquat, your chance of Parkinson’s doubles. There are people —
TUCKER CARLSON: That’s something you don’t want to get.
ZACH LAHN: If you go on X and you type in Paraquat, you’ll find stories of farmers who just will not use it anymore. They’ll tell stories of spraying it and immediately — or that same day — getting uncontrollable bloody noses. It’s a very, very harsh product. And it’s still being sprayed. The best estimate is about 300,000 acres of land in Iowa use this product. This product is actually used in research settings in mice and rodents to induce Parkinson’s.
TUCKER CARLSON: Are you being serious?
ZACH LAHN: I’m 100% serious. And our EPA still allows it. So if we’re talking about whether these products are harmful — yes.
TUCKER CARLSON: Well, if it doubles your chance of Parkinson’s, you’re going to have to explain the upside to continue selling that product. My instinct is, you’d ban that today.
ZACH LAHN: And I think that’s what people — Parkinson’s —
TUCKER CARLSON: That’s true suffering.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, it’s a sentence you don’t want.
TUCKER CARLSON: No.
The Monsanto Papers and Corporate Capture of Agricultural Regulators
ZACH LAHN: But when you can research this, your listeners can research this, it is used to induce Parkinson’s in research settings. So when I talk about these products, I think what farmers want is to understand the truth, to know that their government is telling them the truth about these products. But as with many other things, the corporate capture is so heavy.
And so when you talk about glyphosate or glyphosate-based herbicides, Roundup is one of them. There are many glyphosate-based herbicides. The EPA studied this for years. We know way more than we’ve ever known about this. And we also know that there are significant risks associated with its use.
For example, one of the most well-known cases is the case of the groundskeeper in California, the first major lawsuit against Monsanto. This was a man whose job was to work for the school districts and spray glyphosate. The hose broke on his pack or in his little cart and it ended up showering him with this product. In a matter of months, he had lesions all over his body.
He sent emails to Monsanto asking, “What should I do here?” Very much like, “I need help.” Not, “I’m trying to blame you.” He was saying, “What do I do to solve this problem?”
Well, if you fast forward to that trial, when they were in the discovery process, the judge agreed to make a large portion of the discovery confidential, meaning that it wasn’t to be released. But the plaintiffs could challenge something or request the disclosure of it. They could request a meet and confer to talk about it. And they requested it at one point. And the Monsanto attorneys literally said the words, “Go away. We’re not going to disclose anything else.”
The Monsanto Papers: Millions of Pages of Evidence
But there was a stipulation that said if Monsanto didn’t put in another request to continue the confidentiality within 30 days, the confidentiality was waived. They forgot to respond. And so now we have millions of pages of documents called the Monsanto Papers. Millions.
And in those documents, it is an absolute masterclass in corporate capture. That email that he sent to the company — they opened it, they read it, they forwarded it around. “What should we do here?” And they just didn’t respond to him. A man who’s hurting.
TUCKER CARLSON: Oh, the initial email. “I’m covered in lesions from your product. What should I do?”
ZACH LAHN: “What should I do?” Yeah, basically just asking for help. They read it, forwarded it around. “What do we do with this?” Nobody responded to him. And he sent two of those emails, I believe.
But in there are also things like this — there was a time and place where another governmental body was going to be doing a study on the safety of glyphosate, or Roundup in this case. And the EPA official that Monsanto was working with at the time got wind of this. In an email with the Monsanto official, he’s recounting his conversation with this EPA official, and in it he said the official said to him on the phone — he quotes it in the email — “If I can kill this, I should get a medal.”
And he did. He prevented this other governmental body from doing their own independent research on the safety and effectiveness of glyphosate, of Roundup. Come on now. This is real. This is out there. This is 2000.
TUCKER CARLSON: This is the regulator.
Regulatory Capture and the Lies Told to Farmers
ZACH LAHN: This is the regulator. Yes. And so this is out there, along with other egregious examples.
I say this very often when I’m talking to farmers who I love, who are my friends and my neighbors and my family. And I am one of them. We actively farm our own land. I work with young farmers to help them have an opportunity to be on land — we share crop. I’m in there, I’m doing this.
The most common comment I get from people is, “If it wasn’t safe, they wouldn’t let me use it.” And I’m just here to say that’s a lie. Just like they were captured during COVID and the medical establishment captured agencies. Just like Bobby Kennedy is fighting right now and Donald Trump is fighting right now — these agencies have been captured for a long time, and they’ve been lying to consumers about the safety and efficacy of their products.
My whole goal here — I’m not here to say we should ban X, Y, or Z. That’s not what I’m talking about. I mean, I think there are certain things like paraquat that probably should not be used.
TUCKER CARLSON: I mean, double the risk of Parkinson’s? Hard no.
ZACH LAHN: Hard no, it shouldn’t be used. But what I want is good science so farmers can say, “Do I want to use this product?” And we can say, “Should this product be allowed?” And also know, “If I’m going to use this product, this is how it should be used.”
We know how glyphosate enters the bloodstream. We know that if it’s on your skin, about 30% enters your bloodstream. About 10% of that is through cardiac output. About 10% goes into your bone marrow. In bone marrow, glyphosate disrupts the replication of hematopoietic stem cells as they’re differentiating from red to white. It’s genotoxic. There are 50 studies that show this. We know how it happens.
And yet there are commercials showing people using this product in flip flops and shorts, just being cavalier about it. We have many products we use — you go into my shop at the farm, there are many products on the shelf that, if used improperly, are bad for your health. And they warn about that on the label. These do not. Not in that same way.
The Williams Study: A Retracted Lie That Stood for Years
But in these papers were also examples like this. In 2000, there was a study called the Williams Study. It’s the most cited study on the safety of glyphosate. The most cited. 99.9% of all papers that cite the safety of glyphosate cite this study.
Last month, that study was retracted because it was found that Monsanto executives wrote it — wrote the study. But here’s maybe even the worst part. We found that out in 2017, and it was retracted in 2025. The Monsanto executive actually said, when sending it back, “He better not have any revisions.” That’s what he said.
And so look, I think very often when you talk about this subject, especially in my home state, there’s this desire to paint you as some liberal hippie that doesn’t like farming. I’m the exact opposite of that.
TUCKER CARLSON: I can tell.
ZACH LAHN: I actually think that wokeism is a mental disorder that’s trying to destroy our country, and that we have got to fight to protect our culture, our people, and our heritage. But I also believe that our government has been captured in large part, and this is one of the most egregious examples.
Farmers Are the Real Environmentalists
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s really simple. Why do you love the country? One of the reasons you love it is because of its physical beauty, the landscape. America is great because it’s got great people and because it’s inherently great — just beautiful. And anyone who’s despoiling nature is an enemy of the country. Super simple. Anyone building ugly buildings, spraying poisonous chemicals — those are our enemies. Those are not our friends.
I don’t think it’s complicated at all. And that’s not the liberal position. The liberals are the ones bulldozing trees to build solar farms. Let’s just be clear about what this is. It’s an aggressive, coordinated effort to defile God’s creation by people who hate God. Not hard. Abortion is directly related to building strip malls. Sorry. They’re both destructions of beauty and of God’s creation. That’s what I think. And I’m not a liberal.
ZACH LAHN: Exactly. And here’s the thing — I think farmers agree with a lot of this. Many of these guys would like to try different things. But when you’re operating on razor-thin margins, the idea of trying a new method of farming is not that appealing, because what if it doesn’t work and you actually can’t keep the farm next year?
These are our people that enjoy hunting, enjoy fishing, enjoy nature, want to be outdoors. This is our culture. That’s what we like. And you’re right — we are the environmentalists, obviously. We are the people that want to keep that and keep God’s creation.
TUCKER CARLSON: Bernie Sanders spends a lot of time outside. You think AOC can identify a tree species? These are people who are rejecting nature, rejecting beauty, rejecting anything that is natural and pure and trying to defile it. That’s their program.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, and they’ve been completely captured by this religion of carbon.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s insane. Carbon is not the problem. Carbon is the basis of life. The problem is man-made poisons. So how’s the health? Okay, so Iowa is still primarily an Ag state, obviously.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, we are. Absolutely.
TUCKER CARLSON: You have Ag in all 99 counties, correct?
Iowa’s Cancer Crisis: The Fastest Rate of New Cancer in Human History
ZACH LAHN: Yes. Ag is the largest industry. And this brings me to the last point of that scorecard I mentioned to you. We have the fastest rate of new cancer of anywhere in the history of human civilization.
TUCKER CARLSON: What?
ZACH LAHN: Yes.
TUCKER CARLSON: Can you repeat that?
ZACH LAHN: We have the fastest rate of new cancer of anywhere in the history of human civilization.
TUCKER CARLSON: Iowa.
ZACH LAHN: Iowa. Iowa. As a matter of fact, if you live in one of the top counties for cancer in our state — they’re all rural counties — your lifetime chance of getting cancer is one in two. And if you take Iowa as a whole and compare it to, say, a state like Nevada, Nevada actually has fairly low cancer rates in any given year.
TUCKER CARLSON: Nevada has the highest smoking rate out of 50 states, but one of the lowest cancer rates. Iowa has very low smoking rates — certainly relative to Nevada — and has a really high cancer rate. I’m just not a scientist. I’m just noticing.
ZACH LAHN: I picked Nevada because I needed to pick a state that I was looking at —
TUCKER CARLSON: Nevada is the highest smoking rate in America. Look it up.
ZACH LAHN: So if you choose to live in Nevada over Iowa, in any given year your chance of getting cancer is 40% less.
TUCKER CARLSON: Why have I never heard this before?
ZACH LAHN: 40%. If you take the top county for cancer in our state and compare it — 70% less.
TUCKER CARLSON: Actually.
ZACH LAHN: Actually.
TUCKER CARLSON: And is the top county an Ag county?
ZACH LAHN: Oh yeah, absolutely.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s not Des Moines.
ZACH LAHN: No, no, no, no. Actually, there are lower rates of cancer per capita in those places.
TUCKER CARLSON: For real — in your population centers, they have lower cancer rates?
ZACH LAHN: The top 10 counties are all rural counties.
TUCKER CARLSON: So you can say that people who are spending the day outside, getting physical exercise 12 months a year — when those people have higher cancer rates than someone working in a cubicle in Des Moines, then you start to think maybe there are external factors we should be looking at.
Fighting for Farmers’ Health and Livelihoods
ZACH LAHN: As I’ve brought this up, I find myself — this is so interesting — I find myself with a genuine care. Like I said, I’m not trying to tell farmers how they have to farm. I’m not trying to tell everybody they have to farm like me. We run a regenerative farm. A lot of it’s organic. My goal is to help Iowans live longer, healthier lives, help farmers make more money, and help kids stay on farms for longer.
TUCKER CARLSON: Sounds like it’s the farmers who are being abused here. They’re the victims here.
ZACH LAHN: 100%.
The Cancer Crisis in Iowa’s Agricultural Communities
TUCKER CARLSON: They’re the ones getting cancer.
ZACH LAHN: It’s 100%. And I’ll talk to farmers about this, or I’ll talk to people that maybe are big in the ag community and they hear these talking points. They’ll say applicators of these products have lower cancer rates. And they’re not wrong. That’s actually an accurate statement. Meaning farmers in general as a whole can have lower cancer rates.
But when you hone in specifically on non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia, they have much higher cancer rates. The lifestyle of the job is going to give you more exercise, it’s going to put you out. And so there are these things that lower it. But you hear these industry talking points about, “Actually, they’re lower in total.” It’s like, yeah, but your chance of getting these specific cancers linked to these products is much higher.
And so even with the rate of cancer in our state — I’m in a governor’s race right now — there’s not one person talking about these things that I’m talking about right now, with the likely causes of the cancer in our state.
Personal Loss and the Human Cost
TUCKER CARLSON: Do you fear you’ll be attacked as a liberal for bringing this up?
ZACH LAHN: I think the ag associations, especially the ones that are not member-driven, that are constituted by actual farmers that take large checks from the companies that I’m mentioning right now — I think the most likely scenario that everybody’s warned me about is they’re just going to come and try to destroy me.
I’m literally here because — I could get into tears thinking about the people that I know that have gotten cancer. My own father got it. He was a crop consultant. So his job was to go into fields and check for pests and weeds. I used to do this with him as a child. I had a lot of fun doing it. He’d write a report and bring it back to the farmers. And this is part of his job. He did it very well. And this is just the norm — it’s what you did. He’d recommend what should be applied. He did that for over two decades, and he was diagnosed with one of these exact types of cancer. And that’s what really, I think —
TUCKER CARLSON: How old was he?
ZACH LAHN: He was 60.
TUCKER CARLSON: Ouch.
ZACH LAHN: Well, Tucker, this is maybe where —
TUCKER CARLSON: I’m sorry.
ZACH LAHN: Thank you. He’s in remission now, thank the Lord. But this is where I think this hits home spiritually, too. About three and a half months ago, I went back to my hometown in Iowa for the funeral of my best friend from high school’s father. He died of cancer, again in his 60s. And I just tell people, I don’t know how many more of these funerals of men and women in their 60s I can go to, when their parents lived to be 80. We’re losing the wisdom of an entire generation of people, that’s for sure.
TUCKER CARLSON: When life expectancy goes down, it’s not progress.
Culture Over Policy: A Different Kind of Campaign
ZACH LAHN: No. I often tell people, “I’m not running for office because of policy. I’m going to because of culture.” And they say, “Well, what does that mean?” And I’ll say, look, ask a Republican in Dearborn, Michigan, how much he cares about his tax rate. Or does he care that the Muslim call to prayer on the loudspeaker five times a day means he doesn’t know where he’s waking up anymore, and his culture’s gone.
We have to protect our culture. Our founders intended that to be the case. We have a huge amount of talk about the founders, primarily when it comes to fiscal issues, but we forget that — I think it was John Adams who said something along the lines of, “Public virtue is dependent on private virtue, and public virtue is the only foundation of a republic.”
I’ve had to have a bit of a realization on this, to better understand what’s going on, because I grew up in an era where libertarian thinking was very pervasive. It was all over the place. I agreed with much of it, and there are still things I do agree with.
TUCKER CARLSON: I was a fellow at the Cato Institute, so you don’t need to apologize in my presence.
Market Fundamentalism vs. The Founders’ Vision
ZACH LAHN: So many people have subscribed to what I call this religion of economic thinking — this idea of market fundamentalism, that the market matters above all. And I say that’s not what our ancestors believed. It’s not what our founders believed.
TUCKER CARLSON: Has it worked?
ZACH LAHN: Exactly. Our ancestors didn’t come here to become capitalists. They came here to own the ground under their feet, to build their churches and communities, and to pass something on to the next generation, to their children. But they didn’t come here to do it at the detriment of their neighbors. They actually came here to do it while helping their neighbors.
TUCKER CARLSON: Well, you obviously are a communist.
ZACH LAHN: The amount of arguments that I hear from this generation that has subscribed to this religion of economic thinking — which, by the way, our founders did not support. They were in favor of tariffs. The states all had laws, primarily all of them, to protect moral virtue. This is a part of what they did. They knew it. And they knew because the state has a role in that.
We are a Christian nation with a Christian form of government. Our Constitution could not have been created by any other religion. You’re not endowed by a creator, you don’t have inalienable rights — but in Christianity, you do. The divinity of the individual is real. We’re made in the image of God.
And so I have these arguments with people where I’m saying, look, 25% of our land is owned by asset investors. I’d like to raise their property taxes. I’d like to disincentivize this thing that’s been happening in our state and create a new category of tax for investment land, for people who are coming in and prospecting. And I’m just told, “This is socialism. This is communism.”
TUCKER CARLSON: What gets me is that self-defense is immoral now.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, right.
TUCKER CARLSON: That’s basically what they’re saying. You’re not allowed to defend yourself.
ZACH LAHN: I would just say Iowa is not an economic zone for the world or for the country. It’s not.
TUCKER CARLSON: You’re upsetting me. Yes, I agree.
The Legacy of the Chicago School and Free Trade
ZACH LAHN: When I say this, it’s oftentimes people who were really affected by the economic thinking that came out of the Chicago School of Economics. When I trace much of this back, I look at what happened in the 1980s. I think Ronald Reagan did a lot of great things, but there’s also this market fundamentalism that really took over. And then you look at the repercussions of that — this idea that unrestrained capitalism is what —
TUCKER CARLSON: — we worship, or that it even is —
ZACH LAHN: — that it even is capitalism. Because oftentimes it’s corporatism.
TUCKER CARLSON: Always oligarchical. Always.
ZACH LAHN: Exactly. Or that free trade is the ideal. Even the fathers of modern economics — Adam Smith, even David Ricardo, who basically developed the idea of comparative advantage — free trade is good if you protect your national interests first.
For instance, the silicon microchip was invented by a man from Iowa, Robert Noyce, who was with Intel. And then you look at what’s happened now in our country. From a product that was invented here, we now produce 10% of them. And basically all of the high-tech versions we can’t produce — we don’t have the technology. So the ones with military applications are coming from somewhere else.
The most egregious example of this is what happened through free trade in the Rust Belt and throughout the Midwest, where people were told their jobs were being shipped overseas but would be replaced by high-tech jobs they’d be trained for. Which, by the way, is a lie. It didn’t happen.
The biggest benefits that came from that were for the leaders of large companies that chose to do what Adam Smith said not to do. Free trade was about one country doing something really well, another country doing another thing really well, and exchanging based on comparative advantage. Exploitative labor conditions under a communist government — that’s not included in the comparative advantage.
TUCKER CARLSON: Adam Smith didn’t foresee that.
ZACH LAHN: No. When capital is mobile and you can move all of these factories to one place to get cheap labor, everything goes there. So who got rich off that? Large companies got rich. And then pharmaceutical companies got rich by preying on purposeless white males who lost their work — in large part, the Sacklers.
TUCKER CARLSON: And it created billionaires who never went to jail.
ZACH LAHN: As I say this, I get goosebumps, because it’s just wrong.
TUCKER CARLSON: Oh yeah.
ZACH LAHN: The hundreds of thousands of deaths that have come from this. When you take work and purpose away from people and sell them a lie that it’s going to be replaced by high-tech jobs or high-tech training, and it doesn’t happen — and then you have these practices where people become a new customer to get addicted.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s almost like it was on purpose.
“You’ll Own Nothing and You’ll Be Happy”
ZACH LAHN: In 2016, the World Economic Forum published that article — still online today, I don’t know why — that talked about this idea that “In the future, you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.” I tell people that wasn’t a joke, it wasn’t a threat. It was a plan. And it’s happening.
TUCKER CARLSON: Oh, I know.
ZACH LAHN: Many people in our country feel as if there’s a large plan or effort being executed that we’re not privy to. We have these psyops that come up and are fed to us through the news to get us on board with it. I think what we just talked about is probably a large part of that — this idea that we’re going to take away meaningful manual labor with your hands, which, by the way, is maybe second only to farming in how gratifying it is, because you’re creating a product.
The Reward of Working With Your Hands
TUCKER CARLSON: I do it in my spare time. I can’t wait to get off work and do it. Not because I’m great at it, but because it’s so rewarding. It feeds something — a real hunger, I think, in all men. It’s my primary form of relaxation. I just love it.
ZACH LAHN: And I think —
TUCKER CARLSON: I think every man feels that way.
The Joy of Creation and the Cost of Losing It
ZACH LAHN: I agree, man. You look at some of these channels on social media that have taken off. It’s so much of this because it’s like, they’re addicting. I love watching — gosh, even the Bushcraft videos of people making these houses.
TUCKER CARLSON: They’re amazing. Or how about Pakistani metalworking videos? Watch those. That’s a whole genre. Those guys are amazing. I’ve never really liked Pakistan — spent time in Pakistan — but you watch those videos, you’re like, “I’m pretty pro-Pakistan.” Just the ingenuity, the craftsmanship. It’s not high-end craftsmanship, by the way, but it’s just like these are men making things out of raw materials. And it’s a thrill to watch that.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah. And they’re proud of what they create, 100%.
TUCKER CARLSON: And they ought to be.
ZACH LAHN: They should.
TUCKER CARLSON: And they have my respect.
“You’ll Own Nothing” — And You Won’t Create Anything Either
ZACH LAHN: Yeah. And me as well. And I would just say that I look at this from the standpoint of “you’ll own nothing.” I look at this large narrative that’s happening in our country. Even in Iowa, Blackstone is buying single-family homes. There’s another company in Council Bluffs doing the same — a multi-billion dollar real estate investment trust buying up single-family homes in Council Bluffs.
TUCKER CARLSON: That’s a tough town.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah.
TUCKER CARLSON: Right across the river from Omaha.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah. It wouldn’t be your first choice. That’s how ubiquitous this is.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s like — it’s Council Bluffs.
ZACH LAHN: Council Bluffs, yep. And then you look at our farmlands being bought by people that don’t live here. Even when you get back into agriculture — Iowa is a top pork-producing state in the country.
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.
ZACH LAHN: What most people don’t know is that somewhere above 75% of the pork raised in Iowa — the farmers don’t own the pigs.
TUCKER CARLSON: Of course not.
ZACH LAHN: They’re on contract from one of the big four agriculture conglomerates — Cargill, Tyson, JBS, and National. So we’re having these major issues come up around pride in our work, pride in our land, and the health of our people.
TUCKER CARLSON: So can I just ask you — “You will own nothing and be happy” is a very famous phrase. And thank you for reminding us that it was 10 years ago that it first emerged, and that it was real. It was not a meme at that point; it was a statement of intent.
But I think that has obscured the even darker reality, which is not only will you not own anything — you won’t create anything. I personally, just speaking for myself as a middle-aged man, I would rather at this stage create than own. I like both. But the joy — the thing that proves that you are made in God’s image — is your ability to create, because God is the creator.
And when you create something, it’s the whole purpose of being here. Whether it’s children, or harmony, or a pair of reading glasses — creation, making something out of nothing, is the main joy in life. And when you take that away, no wonder people are on fentanyl.
ZACH LAHN: Well, I also think maybe we’re missing the biggest one of those — speech. Well, exactly, like what you’re creating right here.
TUCKER CARLSON: I like to believe that’s a form of creation.
ZACH LAHN: It is. That’s it.
TUCKER CARLSON: I spent my life talking — speech is that.
The Grander Story of Who We Are
ZACH LAHN: And this is where I believe we get bogged down in the policy and the politics of this whole thing, and we forget about the grander story of who we are as a people — that we were endowed by our Creator, that we’re here for a big purpose.
I spent a number of years building schools, and one of the things we’d say is that we believe every young person is a hero on their journey to find a calling and change the world. That was the inspirational line we would say basically every day — that’s who we are, that’s why we’re here.
And a lot of this creation is being taken away, as you mentioned. AI is not the least of which. I tell my kids all the time: use AI for research, but never let it write for you. Writing is how you organize your thoughts. It’s how you think something through, how you separate the wheat from the chaff, how you learn to think critically, test your ideas, and engage in debate. You can’t have a machine do that. That’s a uniquely human thing — for us to come up with ideas based on our unique life experience.
TUCKER CARLSON: It’s stealing joy. It’s like saying, “Eat a steak for me. Have sex for me. Wake up at dawn and watch the sunrise for me.” No — I’ll reserve those for myself, because those are the greatest pleasures in life. And creating something is number one on that list. Why would you ever outsource that to a machine? I don’t understand that.
ZACH LAHN: Did you see the commercial for the product that basically records your grandmother? You record them while they’re alive, and then after they pass away, it creates an avatar of them.
TUCKER CARLSON: So you can steal my memories? Replace them with the creation of a machine? Yeah, I don’t think so.
Technology, Humanity, and the Divinity We’re Giving Away
ZACH LAHN: This is real, though. For the longest time, we accepted technology — and look, farming is a big part of this too. It reduced the burden of labor, and there’s a certain point to that that’s probably good. Hand-plowing a field is a really difficult task; using a tractor — okay, that’s probably fine.
But when you start to see what technology is being used for now — to replace human beings — meaning you can continue to have conversations with your grandmother long after she’s passed away, and she’ll give you her unique thoughts — that’s completely stripping away the divinity of humanity. This idea that we’re created in God’s image, that we each have something unique to share, that humanity is something to be protected and is very special in the history of the universe.
So let me just say this. A lot of my campaign comes down to a question I came across while reading an essay by Wendell Berry.
TUCKER CARLSON: You know, it’s funny — as you were talking, I was just thinking of Wendell Berry. I was going to say, apropos of nothing, I love Wendell Berry. I thought maybe you’d never heard of him. I love that you read Wendell Berry.
ZACH LAHN: I love Wendell Berry. As a matter of fact, his essay —
TUCKER CARLSON: — on 9/11 was so radical, I think it got taken off the Internet. But it was so good.
ZACH LAHN: I maybe shouldn’t say this on here, but I drive a Tesla and it has an autopilot feature. There was a period of time when I’d be driving with my kids somewhere and I might pull out the Wendell Berry poem book —
TUCKER CARLSON: I was talking to my sister-in-law yesterday about Wendell Berry poems. Literally yesterday.
ZACH LAHN: I would actually have the kids take turns in the car reading a poem to each other. No way. Because understanding these ideas — I don’t know if there’s anything other than faith that’s more important. And they’re tied together, inextricably woven together — the ideas that Wendell Berry puts forward and the ideas of our faith. You can’t separate them, because it’s about creation. It’s about protecting that and understanding it.
We were told to tend the garden. We’re told to subdue but not destroy. And so I would have the kids read this because I want them to know: if I’m gone tomorrow and you knew two things about me — that I loved my Savior and I loved the creation — I’d be very happy. If those are the only two things you remember about me, and you just kept reflecting on those two things, great.
TUCKER CARLSON: You’re making me emotional again. Sorry.
Wendell Berry, the Amish Question, and What We’ve Forgotten
ZACH LAHN: But in this essay — it was actually in The Atlantic.
TUCKER CARLSON: Okay, if you’re listening to Wendell Berry poems in the car with your kids, tell me where the fundraiser is, because I’m going. We need more of this in America.
ZACH LAHN: So he had this essay he wrote in The Atlantic — I think it was 1991. A quote I came across turned me on to it, and I went and read the whole thing. In it, he talked about this idea, and I think it summarizes so much of what I’m talking about.
Our farmlands are being owned by people who don’t live here. Our jobs and factories are being shipped to other countries. We have unchecked monopolies exploiting our farmers. We have the highest cancer rates, but we’re not talking about it.
Wendell Berry said that a foundational question the Amish ask before they make any big decision is: “What will this change do to our community?”
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.
ZACH LAHN: And I don’t know anyone who would deny that our politicians and our leaders have not been asking that question for a very long time.
TUCKER CARLSON: That is absolutely right. We don’t ask ourselves enough: how will this change us, our relationships, and our understanding of God and the world?
I think about that with labor-saving devices. I’m the product of America at its peak, and I find myself trying to eliminate labor-saving devices from my life merely so I will have the experience of labor. We hand-grind our coffee. Don’t have to do that. Why do we do that? I always say to my befuddled and grumpy children, “Because we’re not depending on electricity for everything. You can grind your own coffee. It’s okay.”
Obviously I’m insane, so that informs a lot of my decisions — it’s my lunacy. But it also speaks to a need in all people to be involved in the production of something.
ZACH LAHN: Oh, absolutely.
TUCKER CARLSON: DoorDash — I’m not against DoorDash, not that I’ve used it — but you gain something, and you also lose something. That’s all I’m saying.
The Sin of Forgetting
ZACH LAHN: Yeah. When you feel the feeling of accomplishment, it’s a liberating feeling.
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.
ZACH LAHN: It’s a feeling that brings pride. And I would say this — it’s a feeling that brings pride that also, if you understand your own family history and your story, you can connect it to what’s happened generation after generation before you.
I think so much of where we’ve gone wrong — I was at a funeral for a woman I loved dearly. Her name was Becky Elder. She was an agrarian from Kansas, lived there for a while, and she was somebody who started schools. She was an amazing woman.
I was at her funeral about a week ago. She was what I would call a Daughter of the Prairie — loved creation, tended it, had their own farms, all these things. And her son was reading something about her, and he said: “One of the most common sins is forgetting.” Forgetting where we come from. Forgetting our heritage. Forgetting that these places really matter.
And so when I’m in my community, surrounded by the people I’m with — in large part, many of these places feel forgotten, especially by our politicians who never asked what these changes would do to their communities. There’s a defensive mechanism that comes up in me that says, “I’m going to hear you. I’m going to fight for you.”
I don’t know where that came from, but I would just say that God put something on me to say: maybe I win this governor’s race, maybe I don’t — but my whole life is going to be focused on these issues, because they are issues of caring for your neighbor. And that’s one of the two commands I’ve been given by Jesus. That’s why we work the way we do. We could farm differently and I could make more money. But I have a family that I love, and I want to work with them specifically because it’s additive to the whole equation.
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.
The Heart of Iowa: Agrarian Roots and Community
ZACH LAHN: You know, when my great grandparents were living on the farm, I found all these documents, and I hear stories about them from the community. You know what’s so interesting is, we talk about not knowing who owned our land before, when I was growing up. And I talk about these pieces of land. We’ve bought some of these pieces because the people have passed on, and oftentimes they want to sell to us because they know where my heart is, and they don’t want it to go into an auction, and they don’t want it going to somebody from out of state or out of the country. We call the pieces of land by the last name of the people that
TUCKER CARLSON: lived there forever, of course. We always do the same.
ZACH LAHN: That’s what we do.
TUCKER CARLSON: That’s exactly right.
ZACH LAHN: And it’s honoring. I’ve told my wife, I plan to put up plaques or signs saying, this is this farm. This is the history of this farm.
TUCKER CARLSON: That’s exactly what we do. That’s exactly right. And that’s exactly the way to do it.
ZACH LAHN: And so when I was talking early on about this idea of something lost, I remember hearing so many stories. One of the stories I really loved was about my great grandmother and my great grandpa, when they were on this farm. These Iowa communities used to be dotted with these small farmsteads all over. Many of them have just been bulldozed and farmed over because people are growing and growing and growing. Farm consolidation is happening everywhere, of course. And with the consolidation, every time a farm is consolidated, I say to people, life goes out of our community. We have to get our young people back on these farms. One of my biggest efforts I’m going to be undertaking is to do exactly that.
They were so tight-knit in these communities that people would tell me, “We used to come over to your house. Coffee was on till 10pm at night. And your great grandma and your great grandpa were actually the counselors of our neighborhood.” So they had these groups, and if a husband and wife were having an issue, they’d come over and sit and talk it through. If they were having issues with kids, they’d sit and talk those things through. They cared for each other and were involved in each other’s lives.
And we’re experiencing likely the exact opposite of that trend today. It’s having a profound effect on our culture, where we’re becoming insular and othering. Just because someone has a bumper sticker that somebody doesn’t like, they’re not to be talked to, not at all. That’s not what defined us back then.
TUCKER CARLSON: And we’re not allowed to behave like that anyway.
ZACH LAHN: My dream for the state of Iowa is to see a long-term rich agrarian society, a long-term rich agricultural heritage, be restored. That’s my dream, and that’s what I’m fighting for.
TUCKER CARLSON: Boy, that’s got to be one of the toughest battles you could fight.
ZACH LAHN: But it’s worth it. It’s foundational, not just to the state, but to us as a people. I think it’s something in our soul — working with our hands in the dirt, with animals, with family, multiple generations. There’s a book by a guy named Alan Carlson, I think it was called “The Natural Family and Where it Belongs.” Reading it was basically another radicalizing moment for me, realizing this man said so many things that I didn’t know how to say. Just that setup of farmstead and neighboring farmstead, caring for each other and doing a lot of life together — that was the most in-tuned and connected, spiritually speaking, that we have ever been as a society or a community. And I would like to see that return.
Running for Governor: A Different Kind of Politician
TUCKER CARLSON: We met at an event a couple of months ago, a very crowded event, and had like a three-minute conversation. I’d never heard of you. I was like, “Wow, I want to talk to that guy.” So I should just confirm to anyone who’s still watching this an hour in — you talk this way in private too, which I love. But what do people in official, organized Iowa politics think when you say stuff like this?
ZACH LAHN: In longer-form discussions, I find that it’s very, very well received. But I think politics has been so overtaken with this bumper sticker ideology.
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.
ZACH LAHN: Somebody once said a bumper sticker is a substitute for thought. And I just think I’m not the typical person that would run for office.
TUCKER CARLSON: That’s putting it mildly.
ZACH LAHN: I’ve really worked hard to be on our farm, to farm it, to have my kids understand that, to work in education and these types of things. This was not something I had been waiting for. It was more that I thought — there are no term limits on the governor of Iowa. The longest-serving governor in the history of America is Iowa’s former governor, Terry Branstad. So in my head and in my heart, as I was talking to my wife about this, the next person who gets elected governor could be governor till I die.
TUCKER CARLSON: Oh, yeah. Well, look at your senior senator. Emphasis on the senior. I like him, I’m not attacking him, but he served for a couple hundred years.
ZACH LAHN: I think it’s like that quote when Ronald Reagan said, “I knew Abraham Lincoln.” Politics is not the place for long-form, deep, and spiritual discussion. And I wish it was, because I think if it were, you’d require people running for office to connect with you at a deeper level, to actually understand what you’re going through and to know that they care about those issues. Because I don’t care how low our taxes are — if our kids are leaving and our people are dying from cancer, we are not in what I’d call successful territory.
The Failure of the Current System
TUCKER CARLSON: That’s exactly right. The beauty of economics is it’s supposedly a species of science, which means it can be tested. So if you have an economic system in progress, longitudinal, over a period of time, you can assess with the highest degree of accuracy whether it worked or not, because you look at the outcomes. By that measure, socialism and communism are the worst possible failures. Our current system is not anything like that, but it’s not a win either. It’s a failure — because look around. So what we’re doing isn’t working. I don’t care what they tell you at some think tank or what should happen. I’ve lived long enough to see what actually happened, and no, it doesn’t work.
ZACH LAHN: And look at some of these new ideas that are coming out — the fact that these even have to be stated is kind of crazy, and then the fact that we get pushback on them. I firmly believe that the priorities of my government and my economy should be solely focused on making life better for the people that live in my state and my country. Not for big business, not for foreign countries. I think so many people just assumed that was already the case, if they weren’t really paying attention.
But it’s like the politicians are all telling me, “We’re going to work on low taxes, we’re going to work on this thing.” And then just a day ago, 81 Republicans voted to keep $315 million of spending for the National Endowment for Democracy. What?
TUCKER CARLSON: Not on your side.
ZACH LAHN: Right. And after everything that Elon Musk went through, after all of what these people did, all of what they took in the news, all of the conflicts and relationships that broke down — that one thing that we know is largely a front organization is now getting hundreds of millions of dollars from our government. And Republicans are voting yes on it.
TUCKER CARLSON: Of course they are.
ZACH LAHN: It’s like we’re not learning anything.
TUCKER CARLSON: Why am I laughing? Because I don’t know what else to do.
ZACH LAHN: How could you ever deny the existence of the uniparty at this point?
TUCKER CARLSON: Well, you have a very prominent Republican senator and presidential candidate working with the ADL to suppress the speech of Americans. Maybe the current system isn’t what they claim. But people know that it’s fake. And I guess the good news is we still have enough elbow room, enough freedom in the United States, that reform is possible — if enough people say, “No, come on now. You have to serve our interests.” Or at least acknowledge them.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, you would hope so. I think this vote specifically is quite the conundrum to that point. This all just happened.
TUCKER CARLSON: Well, I could name eight other things that have happened in the last month where you’re like, “This is so unbelievable, so outrageous, it can’t continue. The internal contradictions have reached the point of breaking.” And then it’s just onto the next.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, you’re right. It’ll be gone in a week.
TUCKER CARLSON: In a week. It’s gone now.
Iowa First: The Case for Running for Governor
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, exactly. But to that point, I think this is why the idea of running for governor is so appealing. Maybe I’m wrong for saying this, but I’ve largely written off Washington, D.C. And it’s like, if the people that we’ve put in power now — granted, there are some huge, shining stars. I think what Robert F. Kennedy is doing is unbelievable. The repercussions of this for the positive health of Americans will reverberate for generations if it can stay in place. Because he’s going to help an entire generation of people become far more healthy, live better lives, and potentially meet their great grandkids. That’s amazing.
TUCKER CARLSON: And have clearer heads and purer spirits. Just start with this — the government should not officially endorse eating a thousand pounds of sugar a year. Just that right there. Flipping over the nutrition tables into something that more closely resembles reality — that’s a huge step. Reducing the vaccine schedule from a massive number for newborns down to a smaller number — you’ve got to call that a win. That’s a win.
ZACH LAHN: And it’s also something that makes you think, why are we even having to have this fight? But somebody asked me the other day, “What do you think the most pressing issue facing America is?” And taking out the spiritual — because spirituality is intertwined, but taking that out — I said, “I think it’s that our government is run by unelected people and we don’t know who they are.”
TUCKER CARLSON: Yeah.
ZACH LAHN: And I was talking about whether they have our best
TUCKER CARLSON: interest at heart at all.
ZACH LAHN: And so this idea of America first, of Iowa first — to many of us, this is just common sense. This is what the country was set up for.
TUCKER CARLSON: What’s the other form of government that’s legitimate? I can’t think of one. If this is a democratic republic and the government is acting in an interest that’s not our interest, how is that legitimate? There’s no other legitimate form of government but America first, or Iowa first. That’s the only option.
The Assassination of JFK and the Spiritual Shift in America
ZACH LAHN: And how we got away from that is unbelievable. I was talking to my dad about some of these things the other day. Some things you can think and know, but not exactly know how to describe or put into words. And I get that feeling when I think about the shift that our country clearly went through after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
TUCKER CARLSON: Well, that’s it right there.
ZACH LAHN: It seemed as if something spiritual happened at that point within our country. It has to do with the complete disregard for truth and honesty — the idea that the American public deserves to know what’s happening. And I read a tweet one day, I don’t know who said it, maybe it was Russell Brand or somebody, that said something along the lines of, “The future success of our country and the Kennedys is intertwined in some way.” And so it is true.
The Lies That Enslave Us
TUCKER CARLSON: I never used to believe that. And I would hear these Baby Boomers say that was the day everything changed. And they were silly — not serious people. But they could feel something that was true, and that was clearly true, that a lot did change. Everything changed when he was assassinated in a way that I did not appreciate till I was much older. But they were right. They were right in saying that.
And the fact that 63 years later, the CIA still will not — and this is a fact — will not divulge all the information that it has on his murder, despite a bunch of laws from Congress, despite an executive order from the President of the United States. A year ago, they’re still hiding it. Clearly there were probably a lot of people involved, probably a foreign country clearly involved, our own government clearly involved. And they’re still lying about it. It’s wild.
ZACH LAHN: But —
TUCKER CARLSON: If the truth sets you free, then lies enslave you. The obverse is true. So I think we are enslaved in some sense by these lies.
The Hunger for Truth Among the Younger Generation
ZACH LAHN: I think where I see this most is in the newest generation of people that are coming up, coming of age, so to speak. And there are some very loud voices out there that they’re all flocking to — one in particular that you’ve interviewed. And people ask me all the time why I think that is. And I just say, “Guys, look at the lies.”
TUCKER CARLSON: Exactly.
ZACH LAHN: Look at what’s happened. Look at the lack of justice, the lack of accountability. Where’s Fauci? What about the Hunter Biden laptop? When are these people going to be arrested?
TUCKER CARLSON: I said this about Trump ten years ago when I lived in Washington. I’m a product of Washington, obviously. And I wrote a piece, basically, “Trump is popular because you failed.” And it wasn’t an endorsement of everything Trump said, though I like Trump and voted for him. But it’s not about Trump. Trump wouldn’t have existed if the system was working.
And the same is true of the person you’re referring to, whose name shall not be named. We argue about whether he’s good or bad, whatever. But the argument’s not really about him. It’s about the system that allowed someone like that to become popular. It’s like, why do you think people are watching that? Because you failed. You betrayed your own voters.
ZACH LAHN: Yes. Yes. That is right.
Replacement Migration and the Silencing of Dissent
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes.
ZACH LAHN: And look, one of the biggest issues that’s come up is immigration. It’s all over. And I think for a long time, we have been criticized and ostracized for noticing what’s happening and calling it out. There’s this idea of replacement migration, this “replacement theory.” I don’t ever talk about this, but people bring it up and they’re immediately hammered down.
Well, in 2000, the UN put out a document called Replacement Migration — 144 pages, multiple languages. I read it, and it lines out exactly what’s happening. It says, “Look, European nations are going to be losing population. America’s going to be losing population. What’s the answer?” Well, traditionally, throughout history, the answer is to promote having more children.
TUCKER CARLSON: Make it easier for people to have kids.
ZACH LAHN: Yes. Make life more affordable. Bring home the money that’s being spent overseas. I mean, imagine — you just talked about Iraq and Afghanistan. Imagine what our country would look like if we didn’t spend $10 trillion on that. Imagine what we could have done for our children and our communities.
So when you look at this, people are called conspiracy theorists for bringing up this idea of replacement migration. They literally wrote a white paper on it, and they described what it was going to do. And then you look at these people — especially young white males — who feel like they’re being taken out of society, being told they don’t matter. In fact, they’re told they have this original sin of being who they are. It’s unbelievable.
TUCKER CARLSON: Sounds like a dangerous conspiracy theory. You ever look at the census numbers?
ZACH LAHN: Oh, yeah.
TUCKER CARLSON: Right. So again, we can just bring science to bear on this. Is the native population being replaced? I don’t know — let’s check the census. Answer: yes. How about we do it by zip code? I’m 56, so let’s go back to 1970. The census of 1970. Just spend an afternoon reading that. So anyone who tells you you’re a bigot or you’re engaging in conspiracy theorizing is lying — and probably —
ZACH LAHN: Lying in order to hurt you. And Tucker, why? It’s like, why are we not allowed to have, appreciate, and love our culture? And why are we also not allowed to let people in who want to be a part of that culture? That’s the whole idea.
Heritage, Identity, and What It Means to Be American
People ask me how to pronounce my last name. It’s L-A-H-N, but it’s pronounced “Lane.” Well, why is that? My great-great-grandfather, when he came over, he wanted to keep the German spelling, but he wanted to be a pronounced American. They took on the American customs and they became American. That’s what it was.
TUCKER CARLSON: How did the family pronounce it in Germany?
ZACH LAHN: I was told it was pronounced “Lahn.” Someday — as you could probably imagine — I’m going to go over there and dig as deep as I can into all of this. Some people get the bug for learning about their family. I am that person. I love learning about my history and heritage. And 150 years in America is something to be very proud of.
TUCKER CARLSON: Yes, I agree.
ZACH LAHN: But also, they likely did not want to leave where they were. They didn’t want to spend three weeks on a boat in steerage from northern Germany. And on my mom’s side, actually, the family’s been here since the Revolution. My direct great ancestor died in the Revolutionary War.
TUCKER CARLSON: Mine, too.
ZACH LAHN: And so these voices of people who understand the culture that our ancestors created — it’s something to be so proud of. It’s so inclusive. It reduces suffering. It is welcoming to people. But the idea that you can come in and try to put something else over the top of that —
Charlie Kirk said this beautifully. I’m going to butcher his words, and I’m sorry for that. I first met him in 2011. I think we were supposed to speak at the same event. He said something along the lines of: “The reason we’re in a constitutional crisis is because we have a Christian form of government, but we have elected people who are not following that custom and who hate Christianity. And so you’re going to have a constitutional crisis. You’re going to have fraud all over the place. Your institutions will break down.”
TUCKER CARLSON: Because the system was a bespoke system. It was created for the people who lived under it. And you’ve got different people now. So you’re going to get a different system.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, it was created —
TUCKER CARLSON: Not a value judgment. It’s just an observation.
ZACH LAHN: Yeah, it was created —
The Road Ahead: Primary, Purpose, and Principle
TUCKER CARLSON: Zach Lahn. Amazing conversation. I’m intentionally not going to ask you about the politics of it — you’re going to have plenty of time to talk about that. But I think this gives anyone who has watched to this point a clear sense of where you stand. They’re either thinking, “Oh my gosh, I’m sending this man money,” or “Stop him.” But I am interested — real quick, last question: what is the process from here on out?
ZACH LAHN: Our primary election is June 2. And then if we win the primary, the general election is in November.
TUCKER CARLSON: How many people in the primary?
ZACH LAHN: There are five people in the primary right now. And I believe we have a really, really good shot at this. I believe our message — the time for this message is now. There’s been a void, and people are wanting politicians — and people running for office, because I’ve never run for office, I’m not a politician — they’re wanting people who will speak truth to them and talk about the big issues, even if the donors and the special interests say otherwise.
I’ve told them: “I don’t want your money. I’m not looking for your money. I’m actually here to stop a lot of the practices you’re putting in place.” I’ve said I’m my own biggest donor to this campaign. I will not be bought. It won’t happen.
TUCKER CARLSON: They’re going to try and stop you. It’s not radicalism that scares them — it’s quiet, sincere determination. I would say, Godspeed. Thank you.
Related Posts
- Bialik’s Breakdown: w/ Channeler Lee Harris -Part 2 (Transcript)
- Scott Ritter: Russia Threatens Strike on Finland & Baltic States (Transcript)
- PBD Podcast #778: Who Is Sadhguru? (Transcript)
- Larry Johnson: Trump’s Naval Blockade & Ceasefire Collapse (Transcript)
- Prof. Mohammad Marandi: What Really Happened in Islamabad (Transcript)