Can Iowa Democrats flip two U.S. House seats? Mathis, Bohannan rally supporters in Eastern Iowa

LISBON — If Democrats have any hope of flipping Republican-held U.S. House and Senate seats in Iowa, it’s going to be won on the margins and centered on mobilizing voters around abortion rights, opposition to former President Donald Trump and putting Republicans on the defensive over voting against the federal infrastructure law and Democrats’ climate, health care and tax bill, said former U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa.

“This is going to be won at the margins — whether it’s on abortion, whether it’s on any number of other issues where there may not be a huge effect just at that issue — but there’s going to be enough that anyone who goes after a number of these issues can put this together, I think, and have a winning campaign, especially at the House and Senate levels,” said Loebsack, echoing national Democratic voices expressing growing optimism about salvaging their majority in the midterm elections.

With Labor Day serving as the unofficial kickoff to the fall campaign season, Loebsack joined Iowa Democratic candidates running for state and federal office gathered at Sutliff Farm & Cider House in Lisbon on Saturday for a campaign rally to help elect Liz Mathis and Christina Bohannan. About 350 people attended, according to Mathis’ campaign.

Mathis, a Democratic state senator from Hiawatha, is running to unseat Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Marion in Iowa’s newly reconfigured 2nd Congressional District.

Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor and Democratic state representative from Iowa City, is running against Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa in Iowa’s new 1st Congressional District.

Democratic former Iowa state Sen. Rita Hart, who lost to Miller-Meeks by six votes in 2020 after a recount — the narrowest margin of victory in a U.S. House race since 1984 — emceed the event alongside Loebsack, who retired from Congress at the end of 2020 after 14 years representing southeast Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.

Mathis and Bohannan criticized Hinson and Miller-Meeks for voting against the federal infrastructure bill signed into law while praising projects supported by their funding.

The pair also called out the Republican incumbents for voting against a House bill that would have expanded health care benefits to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits and other hazardous substances during their military service.

While Hinson and Miller-Meeks did vote against the bill that originated in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 3967, both voted for the U.S. Senate version of the bill, S. 3373, which passed and became law.

The Democratic congressional candidates also criticized the House GOP incumbents for voting against the Inflation Reduction Act.

The legislation, signed into law last month by President Joe Biden, attempts to address inflation by reducing the federal deficit and increasing taxes on high-income businesses. It boosts clean energy tax credits, allows Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors, caps insulin costs at $35 per month for Medicare patients and extends temporary subsidies for millions of households receiving help paying for health insurance premiums through the public marketplace.

The federal legislation was approved on straight party-line votes, with all Democrats approving and all Republicans opposing.

Republicans, including Hinson and Miller-Meeks, have argued the legislation represents more federal government taxing and spending and said it will not constrain inflation.

“She can’t tell the truth about her record, because what she has done is vote against everything that would make ordinary Iowans lives better, and then tried to take credit for the good things somebody else has done,” Bohannan said of Miller-Meeks. “And it is time for Democrats, independents and Republicans — yes, Republicans — to come together and end this kind of political division and extremism that plagues our country.”

She and Mathis called Eastern Iowa “ground zero” for Democrats in the midterms.

The pair were named to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program that supports top-tier candidates running in swing districts Democrats see as key to retaining or growing their slim five-seat majority in the House. Democrats lost both Iowa House seats in the 2020 election.

“When all this began, like almost all Democrats, I was seriously concerned about what our chances were going to be” in the midterms elections in Iowa and across the country, Loebsack told The Gazette before the event.

“But, I do think that we’re trending in the right direction right now,” he said. “There’s no way I’m going to predict that we’re going to have success and somehow hold the House and the Senate and all that. But, I think we have significantly better chances.”

Loebsack pointed to recent ratings shifts and internal campaign polling showing the Eastern Iowa races getting tighter as evidence that momentum is moving toward Democrats in the battle for the House.

Both Roll Call and Inside Elections changed their forecasts for both Iowa’s 1st and 2nd congressional district campaigns in the Democratic candidates’ favor, from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican.”

“We can take what we learned in this purple district that I’m in as an Iowa state senator and scale it up,” Mathis said. “And that means talking and messaging to people about the things they want to hear solutions for, like the economy and inflation, right? Like reproductive rights. And Medicare and Social Security do not touch.”

Republicans respond

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Mike Berg, in a statement, said if elected Mathis and Bohannan “will rubber-stamp Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi’s harmful policies in Congress.”

“Iowans who want reduced inflation, secure borders and safe communities will vote for Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks in November,” Berg said.

Hinson campaign manager Sophie Crowell echoed Berg in a statement, stating Mathis supports “Biden and Pelosi’s tax hikes, forcing Iowans to pay off others’ student loans.”

“A vote for liberal Liz is a vote for another two years of Nancy Pelosi as speaker, more reckless spending and higher gas prices,” Crowell said. “While Ashley Hinson will always stand up for Iowa families, Liz has proven she will side with Pelosi over Iowans every single time.”

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