After more than a decade in the wilderness—or cornfields, in this case—Iowa Democrats finally got some good news this week: Rob Sand, the youthful-looking 42-year-old state auditor from the small town of Decorah, announced that he’s running for governor. He is the Democrats’ best statewide candidate in years, and his announcement video communicated why. It wasn’t one of those overly produced hype videos that populate your social media feeds every two years during campaign season. You know the genre: multiple cameras, too much Bruckheimer sepia tone, some generically stirring music licensed from Jingle Punks, slo-mo shots of the candidate walking down a quaint main street in some town they haven’t visited in years.