Iowa Dem Christina Bohannan announces 3rd challenge of Miller-Meeks

Southeast Iowa voters could likely see a back-to-back-to-back rematch for what’s expected to yet again be among the most tightly contested races in the country.

Iowa City Democrat and University of Iowa law professor Christina Bohannan hopes the third time will be the charm, as she runs again to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa's 1st District.

“I am running to put Iowans first,” she told The Gazette ahead of her official campaign announcement Tuesday. “People are so tired of the ugliness and the political division and the games that Washington, D.C., politicians are playing.”

She criticized Miller Meeks for prioritizing party interests over Iowa's needs, citing the GOP incumbent’s support of President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation bill and tariff policies.

“Rep. Miller Meeks has not been putting Iowans first. In fact, she has done exactly the opposite over and over again,” Bohannan said. “… The fact that she has had three terms in Congress, three chances to do right by the people of Iowa, and she's failed. Her time is up. It's time to finish what we started, and to elect somebody who's going to put Iowa first.”

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Miller-Meeks voted for Trump’s so-called “one big beautiful bill,” which includes trillions in tax cuts and reductions in spending on social programs like Medicaid and food assistance by tightening eligibility requirements and expanding work requirements for able-bodied Americans with some exceptions to target waste and abuse.

It also would roll back tax incentives for clean energy, increase spending for border security and immigration enforcement, restrict Medicaid and other health coverage for some non-citizens, and penalize states that provide state-funded coverage to immigrants, including lawful permanent residents, individuals with temporary work visas and refugees.

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Miller-Meeks has said the changes as necessary to eliminate "waste, fraud and abuse" and improve the program's effectiveness, weeding out individuals who could work taking advantage of the system and protect the program for those who genuinely depend on it.

"I voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act because it prevents the largest tax hike on families and small businesses in American history, secures the border and unleashes American energy dominance,“ Miller-Meeks said last week in a statement to The Gazette.

Critics, including Iowa nonprofits, doctors and nurses, warn that the proposed changes could lead to significant coverage losses, increased costs for families, and a reduction in access to necessary care.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates changes in the bill would lead to 10.3 million people losing Medicaid coverage. Additionally, an estimated 1.4 million people could lose coverage provided by states to immigrants regardless of their immigration status.

Miller-Meeks won re-election to a third term last fall after she defeated Bohannan in a rematch of 2022, when Miller-Meeks won by 7 percentage points.

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Last year’s margin was much tighter. Miller-Meeks won by fewer than 800 votes of about 427,000 cast — or roughly 0.2 percent — following a recount requested by Bohannan. Her win helped her party pad its thin majority in the U.S. House and retain control of all four of Iowa’s congressional seats.

She earned a first term in Congress when she defeated Democrat Rita Hart by just six votes in 2020.

Bohannan said she’s better positioned to defeat Miller-Meeks this go-around, arguing the national political headwinds that battered Democrats in 2024 have shifted and are now working against Republicans this cycle.

Historically, the president's party tends to lose seats in the House during midterm elections. Public opinion polls indicate a decline in Trump's approval rating. The president’s tariff policies have led to stock market losses and economic concerns, and Republican lawmakers have faced contentious town hall meetings with angry constituents expressing concerns about the administration's actions.

Miller-Meeks also faces opposition within her own party.

Davenport Republican David Pautsch has filed to seek the Republican nomination for the Eastern Iowa U.S. House seat for the second time in a run from the party's right flank.

Miller-Meeks fended off Pautsch in the 2024 GOP primary, winning with about 55 percent of the vote to Pautsch's 44 percent. It was a stronger than expected showing for Pautsch, who raised just $43,000 for the race.

National forecasters the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball list the race as a toss-up. In April, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it is targeting the district as one it hopes to flip in 2026.

Bohannan outperformed the top of the ticket by 8 points in the 20-county district in the 2024 general election. She received more raw votes and a higher vote share than Democratic former Vice President Kamala Harris. In addition to Johnson County, Bohannan carried Scott and Jefferson counties, which Trump won.

For those reasons, Bohannan claims she has the best opportunity to flip the Republican seat.

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Former Democratic state lawmaker and Veterans National Recovery Center president Bob Krause of Burlington and Democrat Travis Terrell, a University of Iowa health care worker from Tiffin, also have announced they are running for the U.S. House seat.

“When will Christina learn? Iowans have rejected her twice already, and now she has to run to the left to beat radical Bob Kraus and Bernie-bro Travis Terrell in the primary,” National Republican Congressional Committee Spokeswoman Emily Tuttle said in a statement. “There's no doubt whoever comes out of this liberal rat race will be sent send packing when Iowans re-elect America First fighter Mariannette Miller-Meeks next fall.”

Iowa’s 1st Congressional District contains the cities of Davenport, Iowa City, Burlington and Indianola.

Republicans hold a voter registration over Democrats, but “no party” voters outnumber both in the district. According to the latest figures from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, 36 percent of all voters in the district are registered as “no party,” compared to 33 percent registered as Republicans and 30 percent registered as Democrats.

Nonpartisan election forecaster The Cook Political Report lists the district as R+4, meaning the district performed four points more Republican than the nation did as a whole in the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections. Trump won the district in 2024.

Miller-Meeks and other House Republican incumbents in vulnerable seats demonstrated strong fundraising performance in the first quarter of the year, giving her a financial advantage heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

Miller-Meeks raised just more than $1 million during the first three months of this year, according to the latest federal campaign finance reports. The Republican incumbent was among nine House Republicans in battleground districts that surpassed the $1 million fundraising mark.

Bohannan: Iowans disheartened by dysfunction, division in Congress

Bohannan said she was encouraged run again by Iowans worried about increasing consumer costs from tariffs and trade wars, and losing their health care, their jobs, hospitals and nursing homes due to steep spending cuts.

“They're disheartened about the dysfunction and division in our government,” she said. “And you know, I spent the last few years talking to people in every corner of this district, and they know that I have been through the same struggles.”

Bohannan said she grew up in a mobile home, in a rural town of 700 people in Florida. While in high school, her father — who worked construction — fell ill from emphysema and had his health insurance canceled because of his preexisting condition, leaving her family in a bind to cover his medical expenses. She said she worked her way through school, becoming the first in her family to go to college.

A Republican from Ottumwa who also resides in Davenport, Miller-Meeks left home at age 16 after being severely burned in a kitchen fire, worked her way through college to earn her nursing degree, enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 18 where she served for 24 years, became a doctor and served in the Iowa Senate before being elected to Congress in 2020.

Bohannan said she’s running to be an independent voice prioritizing Iowa’s interests over partisan politics, noting she unseated a 20-year Democrat incumbent in a 2020 primary to represent Iowa City in the Iowa House as evidence she’s willing to buck her party.

“We basically had a tied race in 2024 because a lot of people who have traditionally voted Republican, voted for me instead,” she said. “And I think what it shows is that people really care about the person, not about the political label. When they are able to get to know the candidate and know what they really stand for, they will vote for you regardless of political party.”

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Bohannan said she’s also running to help revitalize rural communities and address rural challenges. This includes repealing tariffs that could prove costly to small businesses and consumers; ensuring the future of the country's social safety net by protecting Medicaid funding to prevent hospital and nursing home closures; supporting public schools and opposing a national school voucher program; and streamlining infrastructure and broadband investment regulations to speed up project implementation.

Immigration will likely continue to be a significant issue in the 2026 election, given Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement crackdown. The administration’s fast-track deportation policy has sparked nationwide protests and court challenges over stripping individuals of due process rights by making them vulnerable to rapid deportation without a fair hearing.

“We need a secure border. I believe in enforcing our laws,” Bohannan said.

She said she supports the bipartisan border security deal that was shelved in the U.S. Senate last year due to objections from Trump. Miller-Meeks has downplayed the reform plan, and charged Bohannan and Democrats have not prioritized immigration policy until more voters demanded it in 2024.

“Both political parties have absolutely failed to address immigration in a comprehensive way,” Bohannan said. “Democrats, including President Biden, were way too slow to take action on securing the border, and it frustrated a lot of people across all political parties. But, the Republicans refused to do anything about immigration a couple of years ago when they had the chance, because they wanted to keep playing politics with the issue.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com