Iowa Republican primary: 'MAHA' businessman Zach Lahn edges out Trump-backed Rep. Feenstra for gubernatorial nomination by less than a point

Did Iowa cut short President Donald Trump's extraordinary streak in the Republican primaries? Technically, you could say yes, because his candidate fell by a few tenths of a percentage, but the reality in the state is more complex than that.

Businessman Zach Lahn, identified with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement being pushed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., won Tuesday by a razor-thin margin over U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, who was starting as the favorite after receiving President Donald Trump's endorsement in the final stretch of the campaign. Lahn's victory came just after Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, both Trump candidates, won the Republican primaries for the federal Senate and House in Iowa.

According to data collected by NBC News, with 98% of the expected vote counted, Lahn reached 37.8% to Feenstra's 37%, a difference of less than one percentage point. In turn, former state official Adam Steen came in third, with about 15%. The Iowa rules require the winner to exceed 35%; otherwise, the nomination would have been defined at a state convention. Although the networks have not yet officially projected the result, Feenstra's campaign spokesman, Billy Fuerst, confirmed to NBC News that the congressman conceded defeat to his opponent.

The result marks the second primary loss this midterm cycle for a Trump-backed candidate, following Brenda Wilson's loss last month to state Sen. Greg Goode in Indiana, as reviewed by The Hilland Iowa Capital Dispatch. However, a strategist in the president's entourage, quoted by NBC News, attributed the defeat more to Feenstra's own weaknesses than to punishment of the president.

The race, moreover, also does not represent a break with the dominant conservative line in Iowa: both Lahn and Feenstra ran as allies of the Trumpist agenda. The winner aligned himself with the MAHA movement, added the endorsement of former Rep. Steve King - a leader of the hardcore wing of the GOP in the state - and was helped by an outside campaign that portrayed Feenstra as too weak on immigration, the most important talking point for many MAGA voters.

Lahn will face Democrat Rob Sand, the current state auditor and Iowa's only statewide Democratic elected official in November. Sand, unchallenged in his primary, has been focused on the general campaign for weeks with an anti-establishment pitch. Republicans are defending the governorship in the wake of Kim Reynolds' decision not to seek a third term.