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Campaign Almanac: Johnson County Democrat announces campaign for U.S. House seat
Also, Miller-Meeks raises $1M in preparation for re-election bid
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A Johnson County Democrat and health care worker has announced his campaign for Congress.
Travis Terrell filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission at the end March, signaling his intent to run for Eastern Iowa’s 1st Congressional District seat represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in next year’s midterm election.
According to his campaign website, Terrell grew up in Ottumwa in a single-parent household and started working at the age of 13 to help his mother pay the bills.
His website said he’s “watched the scourge of drugs and mental illness devastate loved ones and tear through communities that were already struggling. Not because people were weak — but because the support they needed simply wasn’t there.”
“I’m not a career politician. I wasn’t born into connections or money,” Terrell states on his website. “But I was born into a community that knows how to fight, how to survive, and how to rise even when the odds are stacked against you.
“I’m running for Congress because people like us — people from towns like Ottumwa — deserve better. We deserve leaders who don’t just show up for photo ops, but who live the struggle and carry it with them into every vote they cast.”
Terrell, in a statement to The Gazette, said he’s collecting signatures in the hopes of appearing on the primary ballot next year, and has launched a “people-powered campaign that speaks directly to the working class.”
“This is a grassroots effort fueled by sacrifice — not corporate money. I started this campaign by closing out my vacation savings,” he said.
Terrell, on his campaign website, said he’s running to protect and strengthen Mediciad and Medicare; fully fund the VA and modernize access to care in rural and underserved areas; expand federal assistance to address doctor shortages in rural communities; and increase investment in mental health services, addiction treatment and community health centers.
He said he’s also running to protect legal residents and visa holders from being “snatched and deported for practicing basic human and American rights.”
“Let’s be honest — the fear mongering around ‘open borders’ is nothing more than thinly veiled racism,” Terrell states on his website. “No serious leader is calling for open borders. That’s a myth used to scare people and distract from the real issues hurting working families.”
He said the path to citizenship in this country is “far too narrow, far too punishing, and far too broken.”
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.
National Democrats are pledging to dedicate resources to unseat Miller-Meeks and two other incumbent Republicans in the state’s U.S. House delegation.
The political arm of U.S. House Democrats announced last week it considers Iowa’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts “in play” for the 2026 midterm elections.
Miller-Meeks won re-election to a third term last fall by fewer than 800 votes of about 427,000 cast following a recount requested by Democratic challengers Christina 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.
No other Democrat has formally announced their plans to run for the seat.
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.
Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball lists the race as a toss-up.
Miller-Meeks raises $1M in preparation for re-election bid
Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks raised just more than $1 million during the first three months of this year, according to federal campaign finance reports filed this week.
Miller-Meeks, who last November was elected to her third, two-year term in Congress, is expected to run for re-election in 2026.
Eastern Iowa’s 1st Congressional District is once again expected to be one of the most competitive in the country and one upon which both political parties’ national leaders will focus in the contest for majority control of the U.S. House.
Miller-Meeks raised just more than $1 million and finished the three-month reporting period with just more than $1 million in her campaign account. Having gone through a competitive election in 2024, Miller-Meeks started the year with just more than $313,000 in her account.
“I am thrilled our America First Agenda for Iowa is generating immense enthusiasm in our fight against progressive lies,” Miller-Meeks said in a statement. “Iowans have elected me three times to Congress because I am fighting to protect Iowa farmland from the Chinese Communist Party, protect women’s sports, and pass tax cuts for hardworking Iowans."
Republican incumbent Congressman Zach Nunn, in Central Iowa’s 3rd District, also faced a tough re-election bid in 2024 and thus started 2025 with just roughly $53,000 in his account.
Nunn raised roughly $751,000 in the first three months of this year and finished the period with roughly $688,000 in his account.
Republican incumbent Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, in Eastern Iowa’s 2nd District, raised roughly $637,000 in the period and has more than $2.2 million in her campaign account.
Republican incumbent Congressman Randy Feenstra, in Western Iowa’s 4th District, raised more than $802,000 and has nearly $1.7 million in his campaign account.
Republican Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, whose term ends in 2026, raised just more than $1 million in the first months of 2025. She finished the period with just more than $3 million in her account. Ernst has not yet declared whether she plans to run for re-election.
Conservative women’s group endorse Hinson, Miller-Meeks re-election
Maggie’s List, a political action committee focused on electing conservative women to federal public office, named Hinson and Miller-Meeks to its first round of U.S. House endorsements for 2026.
They are among eleven Republican incumbents endorsed by the group, who “have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense and policies that empower women and families.”
Maggie’s List Iowa Chairwoman Gwen Ecklund, in a statement, said Miller-Meeks “serves her constituents well and has notably been seen protecting the Girls Sports Act, vouching for the SAVE Act, introducing English as the official language of America, advocating for veterans and making sure health care is affordable for all Iowans.”
Ecklund praised Hinson for “a strong conservative track record for making government more efficient, delivering tax cuts for Iowa families and respecting Americans’ taxpayer dollars.”
Feenstra announces Jim Jordan and special guest for family picnic fundraiser
Feenstra this week announced Ohio Congressman and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan will be his special guest at this year’s Feenstra Family Picnic on May 30 in Sioux Center.
“Chairman Jordan is an American patriot who champions conservative values, government accountability, and free speech,” Feenstra said in a statement. “Under his leadership, he has protected taxpayers from runaway spending, strongly advocated for our constitutional rights, and called for tax cuts for our families, farmers, and businesses. … I look forward to welcoming Chairman Jordan to Iowa and bringing him to the heart of rural America — Sioux County.”
Jordan, in a statement issued by Feenstra’s campaign, said the western Iowa Republican congressman is “crucial to our Republican majority and his work on both the Ways and Means Committee and the Agriculture Committee ensure that Iowa’s families, farmers, workers, and small businesses have a powerful voice in Congress.”
This will be Feenstra’s fourth picnic. In 2021, he hosted Vice President Mike Pence. In 2022, he hosted former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and in 2023, he hosted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
To purchase tickets and find more information, please visit feenstrafamilypicnic.com.
Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau
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