A video was posted to the social media platform X by the National Enterprise Director of Turning Point Action, Brett Galaszewski, featuring him heckling Iowa Governor candidate Rob Sand. In part of the video’s caption, Galaszewski writes, “Sorry to cut your visit short, Rob!
@TPAction is here all week.”
While there were some commenters who mocked Rob Sand and considered it embarrassing that Turning Point Action successfully drove him away, others pointed to Galaszweski’s past and how following the Governor candidate into the bathroom was “creepy.”
In the video, you can see that Governor candidate Rob Sand is walking beside what is likely his family as well as a couple of police officers. In Brett Galaszweski’s post, he writes, “First day at the Iowa State Fair and we’ve already heckled the DSA-aligned candidate for Gov @RobSandIA off the premises. Dude even hid in the bathroom so the State Police could show up to escort him out. Sorry to cut your visit short, Rob! @TPAction is here all week.”
As Sand is being escorted out of the Iowa State Fair, you can hear Galaszewski say, “Get a CPA. An auditor’s office is not a political stepping stone.” Rob Sand is a lawyer and politician who has served as the 33rd State Auditor of Iowa since 2019. The position is a part of the government of Iowa and is meant to “ensure that government officials use taxpayer dollars for the intended purposes to benefit the public.“
Sand’s position as the 33rd State Auditor of Iowa made him the first Democrat since Lorne R. Worthington in 1965. He also was the Assistant Attorney General of Iowa from 2010 to 2017. According to a different post by Galaszewski, he believes that Republicans themselves are the reason that Rob Sand was able to become a Governor candidate.
In that post, he writes, “While the left was playing offense, republicans were showing up to gun fights with a box cutter. This opened the door to Rob Sand getting a sliver of power.”
He then pairs this with a screenshot of a post from the Republican Party of Jefferson County that was in response to his own video heckling Rob Sand, “Please! We are better than this! No candidate in Iowa should feel threatened while campaigning. Both Republican and Democrat candidates should be treated with respect and dignity. Ask hard questions, sure. But seeing candidates leaving the State Fair under police protection is nothing to celebrate.”
Comments and Reactions Towards Turning Point Director Heckling Iowa Governor Candidate
Many commenters found Brett Galaszewski’s decision to heckle Rob Sand to be “stupid.” One comment specifically read, “So you’ve decided to be stupid in public.” Similarly, others commented on the fact that he had followed Sand to the bathroom as he was heckling the man.
A different commenter wrote, “You perved around the men’s bathroom. Not a surprising action with someone connected with tpusa. I’d expect nothing else.” Similar to this, many other comments read something along the lines of, “This is so creepy dude. Nobody outside twitter thinks this is cool.”
As the video continues to circulate online, the debate has shifted from Galaszewski’s criticism of Sand to whether confronting a political candidate in this manner crossed a line.
