Who is forecasted today to win the Iowa governor's race?
Updated Monday, October 26, 2026 · 8 days to Election Day · VotePredictor
Rob Sand is favored. The VotePredictor forecast gives Sand a 86% chance of beating Zach Lahn, with a predicted margin of Sand +4.7. That is a Likely D race: Sand wins about six times in seven, and Lahn in the other 14%.
What the forecast is built on
The forecast starts from the 15 public polls in the forecast window, whose plain average is Sand +7.3. Each poll is corrected for its voter screen and its pollster's measured house effect first (the “Adjusted” column below).
- The polls, weighted and corrected, read Sand +5.6.
- The fundamentals (the state's presidential lean, incumbency, the last result and the national environment) read Lahn +4.4.
- The published forecast blends the two, mostly on the polls, at Sand +4.7.
Misses of a few points are common, so a 4.7-point lead is a 86% chance and not a lock.
How the forecast has moved
| Date | Sand's chance | Predicted margin |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2 | 67% | Sand +7.1 |
| May 7 | 73% | Sand +9.4 |
| Jun 4 | 73% | Sand +9.4 |
| Jul 2 | 64% | Sand +4.2 |
| Aug 6 | 62% | Sand +3.4 |
| Sep 1 | 64% | Sand +3.3 |
| Oct 1 | 77% | Sand +3.8 |
| Oct 19 | 86% | Sand +4.9 |
| Oct 26 (today) | 86% | Sand +4.7 |
The polls
15 polls are in today's forecast; 8 older ones have aged out and are shown dimmed. Margins are Democrat minus Republican.
The polls behind it
23 polls · 15 in today's forecast · newest firstDimmed polls are more than 61 days old. They stay on the record, but today's forecast no longer counts them. Each pollster name links to the poll's source.The VotePredictor margin is the poll after correcting for its pollster's record in past elections and for registered-voter or all-adult samples.
What everyone else says
Prediction markets
| Market | Sand's chance |
|---|---|
| Polymarket | 86% |
| Kalshi | 84% |
| VotePredictor | 86% |
Rating shops
| Forecaster | Rating | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Silver Bulletin | Likely D | Oct. 23, 2026 |
| Cook Political Report | Lean D | Oct. 23, 2026 |
| Decision Desk HQ | Lean D | Oct. 23, 2026 |
| Fox News | Lean D | Oct. 20, 2026 |
| NBC News | Lean D | Oct 23, 2026 |
| RealClearPolitics | Lean D | Oct. 12, 2026 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball | Lean D | Oct. 22, 2026 |
| Inside Elections | Tilt D | Oct. 15, 2026 |
All 8 rating shops favor Sand. The markets average 85% for Sand; VotePredictor is in line with them.
Can you trust this forecast?
Every VotePredictor forecast is scored after the election against the same outcomes as everyone else's. Across 615 past races (Senate, governor, House and president), our final forecasts rank #2 of every forecaster that covered them all (Brier score 0.075, lower is better); FiveThirtyEight is first at 0.074. The full record is on the forecaster rankings and methodology pages.
This article is regenerated every day from the VotePredictor forecast, the poll database, the prediction markets and the rating shops' latest published ratings. Live numbers are on the race page.