Democrat Rob Sand won the race for state auditor Tuesday night, receiving 51.7 percent of the vote when the race was called in his favor at 11:15 p.m.

Republican incumbent Mary Mosiman received 45.8 percent of the vote, and Libertarian Fred Perryman received 2.6 percent.

Sand’s campaign focused on the Mosiman’s administration not doing enough in terms of auditing and dealing with corruption across Iowa and his views of what the state auditor should do for their constituents. 

“This office is supposed to be a watchdog for taxpayers in Iowa, and yet even though they do law enforcement investigations, the current State Auditor won’t hire anyone with law enforcement experience,” Sand said. “They also have the ability to make efficiency recommendations to local and county governments with each one of the audits that they conduct, and they don’t, and I think that’s another way they could be basically doing more for taxpayers in Iowa.”

In addition to auditing, however, Sand said the office should do more to go after corruption, and as a result he wanted to hire professionals that aren’t accountants, especially those with a law enforcement background, to help the office build stronger criminal cases that are stronger when they go to court.