The Andy Beshear Lane

DES MOINES, Iowa—Rob Sand could almost pass for a Republican: He frequently quotes the Bible, owns two SIG Sauer handguns, goes deer hunting each fall and asks audiences to sing a few verses of “America the Beautiful” at the start of campaign events.

The only Democrat elected to statewide office in Iowa, Sand is trying to jump to the governor’s mansion from his current state auditor post. In the process, he is offering a potential template for others in his party on how to compete in red-state America.

Voters are tired of partisan division, Sand said during an interview at the Iowa State Fair. “In a two-choice system, if you can convince people that the other side is out to destroy your way of life, or evil, then you don’t have to do the hard work of listening to people and crafting solutions and solving problems,” he said. “You can get re-elected anyway.”

On numerous occasions, Sand mentioned his Lutheran faith. “Jesus is for the little guy. Jesus is for the outcast. And the Democratic Party is for the little guy,” he said.

His campaign’s dominant color for signs and T-shirts is green, not blue. Those items often include phrases such as “governor for all.”

“When we went for Barack Obama twice and then Donald Trump three times, it’s not because Iowa changed, it is because those two guys were the same: They were people who said ‘I’m going to do things differently,’” Sand said.