An Iowa Republican running for governor on a message of family values is facing attacks from Democrats over his marriage history and investment in a sexual health company.
Zach Lahn’s divorce and remarriage timeline has been circulating on social media as Democrats look to challenge his campaign’s family-focused image, Sources Say’s Juliegrace Brufke reported Friday.
“It seems like everything about this guy is just — he’s a total phony,” a national Democrat who has worked in Iowa told Brufke. “He’s someone who lives in Kansas. He’s a sex toy salesman. … And he’s trying to sell himself as someone who’s a family person in Iowa.”
Lahn has spoken on the trail about a “concentrated effort by the left to undermine the institutions in our society, starting with the family.”
But his own family history is drawing scrutiny. His first divorce was finalized June 8, 2020, according to The Wall Street Journal. Less than two weeks later, Lahn sought a Montana marriage license with Annie Koch, the ex-wife of Charles Koch’s son Chase.
“I didn’t do it right the first time,” Lahn said on the Barn Talk podcast in May. He said he and his former wife “have a great relationship now, but it took time.”
Democrats are also targeting his reported $1 million investment in FirmTech, calling him a “sex toy salesman.”
“What I’ve invested in is not a sex toy. It’s a grade two medical device,” Lahn has said.
Lahn’s campaign has said he stepped down from FirmTech’s board in September 2023 after disagreements over marketing and the company’s direction, before it rolled out “pleasure” products, and that his money is locked in.
But the company’s first product, the Performance Ring, hit the market in March 2022, while Lahn was still on the board, Brufke noted. It is now listed under the website’s “pleasure” section, and a FirmTech blog post that year described erection rings as “sex toys.” A Lahn-owned LLC held a quarter of the company, The Bulwark reported, citing federal filings.
Lahn’s campaign did not respond to Brufke’s two requests for comment.
The scrutiny comes as Lahn, who upset Trump’s original pick in the primary before winning his endorsement, runs a populist campaign that has unsettled some fellow Republicans. Brufke wrote that “Zach Lahn’s messy personal life is starting to look increasingly like a liability for the Republican gubernatorial candidate.”
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