Zach Lahn Aims to Target Turbulence and Revive Iowa’s Agricultural Heritage

BELLE PLAINE, Iowa—Flying on a brisk morning 17,500 feet above western Iowa on the way home from a campaign stop in Sioux City, Zach Lahn faced an unexpected crisis. The cabin pressure in his single engine Piper Meridian dropped, the air thinned, and a campaign staffer in the passenger seat began to feel dizzy. Lahn, an entrepreneur and regenerative farmer who is one of five candidates running in a crowded Republican gubernatorial primary, took action and guided the airplane down for an emergency landing. “He got a chance to see me truly fly that plane,” Lahn said, looking at his campaign staffer, Carter, at the kitchen table of Lahn’s family farm outside of Belle Plaine hours after the flight....