Iowa Dem gubernatorial candidate says he would not want Biden or Harris to campaign for him

Rob Sand didn't tiptoe around it. Asked whether he'd want Biden or Harris stumping for him in Iowa, he basically said no thanks, and he didn't dress it up with some vague line about "focusing on local issues." That's the tell. When a Democrat running statewide in a place like Iowa won't even pretend he wants the last Democratic president or vice president anywhere near his campaign, that tells you everything about how toxic those two names have become inside his own party.

This isn't really about Sand. It's about what his answer says out loud that most Democrats have been saying quietly for months. Biden left office deeply unpopular, and Harris ran one of the worst-received campaigns in recent memory, losing a race plenty of Democrats thought was theirs to lose. Now candidates in swing and red-leaning states are treating both of them like a liability rather than an asset, which is a remarkable turn for a party that spent four years insisting Biden was doing a great job and that Harris was the future.

What's notable is how little pushback Sand is likely to get for this from Democratic voters. Nobody's rushing to defend Biden's legacy or Harris's candidacy the way they would have two years ago. The energy just isn't there. If your own bench won't invite you to the ballpark, that's not a messaging problem, that's a verdict.

Iowa Republicans should take this as encouragement, but not as an excuse to relax. Sand is clearly betting he can win by distancing himself from Washington Democrats entirely, and in a state Trump carried twice, that's a shrewd read of the electorate. The lesson here isn't that Democrats are struggling to find a message. It's that they've concluded their two most recent national leaders are better left off the stage entirely.