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Could A Democrat Win Iowa Governor's Race For First Time In 20 Years?; Iowa Dem Holding 100 Town Halls; Meta Agrees To Pay $18B, Change Platforms For Teens In Settlement; Utah Joins Meta Settlement Over Teen Mental Health Hard Allegations; UNH Poll: Pappas Loses Significant Ground To Progressive Manzur; Democrats Chart Possible Paths To A Senate Majority. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 27, 2026 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[12:30:00]

ROB SAND (D), IOWA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: -- my party sometimes I disagree. They might not like Democrats in general and many Iowa Democrats don't like Republicans in general, but at the end of the day, again, they're willing to hear you out.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just how willing is the question, but as Sand nears his goal of hosting 100 town halls across Iowa, one thing is clear. He has plenty to say about both parties, little of which is good.

SAND: I'm not really a big fan of either political party. I don't know why we have to be Democrats or Republicans. Has anyone ever given you a good answer to that? Says who?

ZELENY (voice-over): Sand, the state auditor, is the only Democrat to hold statewide office in Iowa. He's pushing for an end to one-party rule. He faces Republican businessman Zach Lahn in November.

SAND: A water quality crisis, a cancer crisis, an education crisis, an income crisis, a corruption crisis, and a crisis of high costs.

ZELENY (voice-over): In a hyper-partisan loud summer, Sand's attempt to turn down the temperature is drawing notice from some Republicans seeking change.

JOHN FISH, IOWA REPUBLICAN: Politicians all kind of say the same thing, we got to come together, we got to do this thing, but for some reason he seems a little bit more believable than most.

ZELENY (voice-over): And several Democrats said it was a welcome break not to hear a single mention of President Trump.

ELOISE DILLAVOU, IOWA DEMOCRAT: His approach is quite refreshing. It's what we need right now is to bring people together instead of trying to hate. ZELENY (voice-over): Sand said he doesn't dwell on the President because he's not running against him.

ZELENY: Are you hoping to rely on some of that anger out there among the American people, among Iowans, for the call for change?

SAND: You know, I don't want people to have to be angry at politics, but I'm also not going to invalidate anyone's feelings about why their -- what their view is on the world.

ZELENY (voice-over): Yet he also knows the most plausible path to victory is by winning over some disillusioned Trump voters.

SAND: This system is broken and it's leading us to hate people that we used to love, and then we need to change it. And that resonates not just with Independents and Republicans, but it resonates with Democrats, too.

ZELENY (voice-over): Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Independence, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Jeff, for that terrific piece here. What a fascinating time that in Iowa, which had moved so far to the right since Donald Trump became a thing in 2016, that the governor, and that obviously it's an open seat, is so up for grabs and even potentially leaning towards the Dem.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That this is really competitive --

BASH: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- right? I mean, he also outpaced his opponents last year when it came to raising money, too, so he's got a big support system behind him. It is interesting also, just as we talk about just how different and distinct this race is, that he's doing it without really honing in on Trump, too, right, and talking about President Trump.

BASH: No.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Interesting segue from our last segment, as well.

BASH: Yes, yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: But, you know, he's going, and so often we hear Democrats trying to make this election a referendum on President Trump. And you can see the logic there when you look at his poll numbers, but he's not doing that here, and I don't think that he would be able to.

Like, this is what's unique about Iowa, right? If he's going to win here, he needs to actually persuade a large number of Independents --

BASH: Yes. KANNO-YOUNGS: -- and Republicans here.

BASH: It's much more populist.

KANNO-YOUNGS: That's right.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: But it's also because, as you point out, it's been 20 years since there's been a Democrat who's been governor. Republicans have been in control. They've been in control of the state legislature. These -- things have not been going great in Iowa in the minds of a lot of people when it comes to the schools, when it comes to the local economy, and so they blame that, in part, on the Republicans who've been in control.

Sand is running against that. We'll see if it works in a similar way to what happened years ago in Kansas when Sam Brownback and the Republicans have been in control and things weren't great there, and that led to a Democrat winning in Kansas. But Sand is also well- positioned here, it seems, because he's the state auditor. His job is to talk about corruption in the state government.

Corruption and anti-corruption is very much in the minds of a lot of people, too, this year.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, I think it's interesting because it is a populist message, and it still is very focused on the affordability, the everyday issues that, you know, uniquely in Iowa, I guess, well, not unique, but Iowa's focus on farmers and agriculture. But he's still focused on, like, this, I know what the top priorities are. And speaking to that, we see Democrats doing it in different ways depending on the specific demographics of their state.

So a different state tying that affordability message to Trump might resonate more, whereas in a state like Iowa, you focus on the populist message but not on Trump.

BASH: The biggest cliche -- well, one of the biggest cliches of politics, candidates matter, and I think we're definitely seeing that in this race.

DOVERE: I might think that's a turnout, too. Yes.

BASH: Whoever wins will get the most votes.

Up next, Meta agrees to pay billions in a landmark social media settlement, but can money fix what one governor calls a cancer? Utah Governor Spencer Cox will be here next.

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[12:39:31]

BASH: Meta agreed to pay states $18 billion to settle claims that Instagram and Facebook harm teens' mental health. Meta also agreed to make pretty big changes to its platform for teen accounts, including improving age verification, implementing a two-hour daily time limit, blocking use overnight, a ban on extreme makeup filters, hiding likes and reactions on posts, and reducing notifications during school hours.

My next guest, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, led the charge against social media companies. Thank you so much for being here, Governor. Your state was part of this lawsuit. Do you think it goes far enough?

[12:40:12]

GOV. SPENCER COX (R), UTAH: Well, it doesn't go as far as I would have liked it to go, but it's a huge step forward. I mean, this is -- these are things that we were the first state in the nation to lead out on this. Many of the items that they agreed to were things we passed in law three years ago.

Unfortunately, they sued us to prevent these from being implemented. And it's been an incredibly frustrating ride. I was disappointed in the actual settlement number. The harms are just outrageous and -- but, again, this is a huge step forward, and we're hoping that other social media companies will follow.

BASH: So on that, you said beforehand that Meta was actually losing in court before the settlement. If so, why not push for more concessions and, as you said, more money to help children who --

COX: Yes.

BASH: -- say they've been hurt by social media?

COX: Yes, look, if it was my decision alone, we would have kept pushing for more, but it was not. We have lots of other states that were -- that felt like this was a great deal. And so this is where we ended up. What I will say is, well, I feel confident we could have gotten more money out of them in -- through the courts.

It may have been a little more difficult to get some of the changes to the platform through courts. And so their willingness to make some of these changes, I think, certainly helped bring people along.

BASH: Yes, I mean, you and I have talked about this, about the fact that you say that algorithms create the kind of dopamine hit that hardcore drugs create.

COX: Yes, that's right. And this is a frustrating thing. I want to be very clear to all the parents, people out there listening. While this is much better on these platforms, your kids are still better off not being on social media at all. The addictive features here, while, again, while minimized through this deal, are still there.

They're still prevalent. The algorithm's still there. You're going to have to opt into a non-personalized algorithm. That's one of the things that I was hoping we could get more on, but we got as much as we possibly could there.

So it's a step in the right direction, but I still have major concerns. And I hope that this is a message, not just to other social media companies, but to artificial intelligence companies as well, that we're not going to make the same mistake. We're going to -- not going to let you ruin our kids for a decade plus and then hold you accountable.

We're going to hold you accountable right at the beginning. And so make the right decision. Think about our kids instead of just the corporate bottom line.

BASH: I talked to the Education secretary over the weekend who says, with parameters and guardrails, she's comfortable with classrooms using AI. So how are you so confident that the horse isn't already out of the barn on AI?

COX: Well, the horse is definitely out of the barn. We're working here in Utah. We've passed several bills around chatbots, for example. So we started right now with AI, where it took us 10 years to get the first bill passed around social media. We were able to do it basically the year that chatbots for kids came out. And we're going to keep doing that.

I will say that we're putting parameters around schools. We're actually getting devices out of schools. I think that's one of the big mistakes that we made. We're going to push to, with additional legislation, this upcoming session to get more of these devices out of school.

We do need training around AI. That's important. We need people to understand, kids to understand how these platforms work and how to use -- utilize them for good. But that shouldn't be constant in their lives. It's something where, you know, you should go to a computer lab, learn about AI for an hour, and then go back to the classroom and learn other things.

BASH: Real quick, and I want to come back to AI, but just going to social media, you talked about the legislation that you have passed successfully in your state of Utah. Where are you as we sit here right now on a federal, maybe not a ban, but at least regulations that would specify and maybe even take away phones from younger kids like they did in Australia?

COX: Yes. So look, I've been very supportive of a ban. I would love to see a ban of up to age 16. The data is so clear about the damage that we're doing to our kids. I would definitely support that. In the meantime, it would be nice if Congress could do anything around this.

But what we basically did was we took -- we -- I mean, this deal with Meta basically replaces what Congress should have done three or four years ago, but we're completely unable to act. Now, again, there are lots of other platforms. In fact, there's a kicker in the Meta settlement where there's additional funds that come to the states if we're able to get Google and TikTok and Snap to the table.

[12:45:00]

And so we have an incentive to do that. Of course, we've sued them as well. The court cases were not going well for Meta. They will not go well for Snap and TikTok and Google either. And so I anticipate that we will get kind of an industry-wide standard that comes out of this, at least that's what I'm hopeful for. Again, doing the work that Congress should have been doing to protect our kids.

BASH: Back on AI and data centers. Your state was one of the first to see a big backlash to the planned Box Elder hyperscale data center. In May, you signed an executive order directing your state to prioritize protecting water resources and air quality amid this data center boom.

People across the nation certainly want more of a say in their communities and whether or not the data centers are there or not. Do you think that they should get that say? And if so, how?

COX: Yes. Well, and I think you're seeing that. Again, we took early steps through executive action to make sure that we were giving them more of a say. The backlash has been incredible. I -- you know, I would be lying if I said I saw this coming or that it would be that big, but I understand it.

I mean, I also think that, again, there's some misinformation out there about new data centers and the water they use. And we're trying to protect the water resources. Of course, here in Utah, that's really important, some other things that haven't been right. But some of these concerns are legitimate.

I also think it's bigger than that. I think that these data centers are kind of the physical embodiment of fears people have about artificial intelligence and some fears that I share. That's why we've been so aggressive in holding these tech companies accountable and making sure that they get it right on the front end. And we'll continue to do that.

BASH: Governor Spencer Cox, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.

COX: Thanks, Dana.

BASH: And up next, New Hampshire's open Senate seat is a must keep for Democrats. But is voter confidence slipping for the Democratic Party front runner? Stay with us.

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[12:51:24]

BASH: Democrats must hold New Hampshire's Senate seat if they want a shot at control in November. New polling shows confidence may be wavering a bit. Congressman Chris Pappas entered the primary against Karishma Manzur, favored 51 points.

Now, a University of New Hampshire poll shows dramatic tightening to just 13 percentage points, with 18 percent undecided for the September 8th primary. And for the first time in a potential general election matchup, Pappas trails the favored Republican candidate, John E. Sununu, by two percentage points. Tia, this is one that obviously people in New Hampshire have in their radar and at the party headquarters, but maybe a little bit more of a sleeper when you look at the larger map.

MITCHELL: Yes, I mean, I think it's a little bit of a sleeper because New Hampshire is a smaller state. It just hasn't drawn the attention of some of the bigger battleground states. But what I found so interesting from the numbers you just shared, Dana, is usually when we see a progressive surging. The party starts wringing its hands because they're like this person won't be as electable as the establishment candidate.

But in the polling you just showed, the establishment candidate is having some electability, you know, or at least there's some polling that's not great, right? That's showing that the establishment candidate is vulnerable. So I think that takes some of the, you know, it takes some of the ways that you would maybe see the establishment downplaying the progressive rising. It takes some of that off the table. So it'll be really interesting to see how the party responds to these dynamics.

BASH: And just take a look at the primary, which is the most important next thing, of course, and the question about Chris Pappas versus the far left progressive. First, let's just watch one of Chris Pappas's ads.

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CHRIS PAPPAS (D), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: My family's restaurant has been a community gathering spot for over a century. In here, there's no VIP section and the only special interest, the people who walk through the doors. Most politicians in Washington play by their own rules. But while they're cashing in, I'm fighting to ban stock trading. While they're slashing your health care, I'm working to make sure that no family has to choose between buying groceries and paying for a prescription.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So that's his ad, and we couldn't find an ad for his progressive opponent, Karishma Manzur. Most of what she is doing, just like we've seen in other states, is grassroots --

KANNO-YOUNGS (?): Yes.

BASH: -- and it's door to door. She's campaigning on banning big money in politics, the housing crisis, lowering the cost of living and ending, quote, "genocide of Palestinians." That's on her website.

KANNO-YOUNGS: And we saw that that sort of grassroots town hall style really worked in recent races, including in Florida, right?

BASH: Yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: I saw another sort of outside candidate, progressive on in Angie Nixon. I mean, here, this is going to be -- this is interesting, right? I think it does speak to sort of, do the traditional sort of televised advertising and messaging strategy? Does that still resonate, particularly when you have this surge and momentum --

BASH: Right.

KANNO-YOUNGS: -- on sort of outside the establishment, anti- establishment, progressive candidates? Or will that traditional grassroots campaign really work?

BASH: Let's play the what if game and looking at the big picture, we're going to show you the Senate map. So what if New Hampshire doesn't go for the Democrats, that the Democrats give it up to the Republicans? What that means is that Democrats would have to win five other seats.

[12:55:03]

So we're talking about potentially Maine, which is a toss up. North Carolina is now looks like a Democratic pickup. Georgia, they would have to keep. But in terms of pickups, you know, we're talking potentially about Iowa, potentially about Texas. These are two states we talked about earlier in the show. Alaska, maybe Ohio. So there is potential there. But then what happens if they don't lose -- they don't win Michigan?

DOVERE: I mean, there's -- the way these things tend to go is it's hard to see a scenario in which New Hampshire would go Republican and that much would go well for Democrats in other places.

BASH: Right.

DOVERE: Right? In 2014, when the midterms went very well for Republicans and they won a lot of Senate seats, the one Senate seat they held onto was the New Hampshire race. But it was by a slim margin for the Democrats.

Pappas is different, I think, from what happened in Florida with Vindman, because he's been a congressman for a bunch of terms and he -- his family there. We'll see what ends up coming. We always say voters tend to tune in after Labor Day. This primary is the day after Labor Day. So we'll see what happens.

BASH: Yes, it sure is. All right. Thank you guys so much.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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