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Miller-Meeks rallies GOP amid shutdown and 2026 election push at Iowa City fundraiser
GOP congresswoman touts party priorities, calls Democrats’ shutdown tactics ‘disgusting and revolting’
Oct. 25, 2025 9:42 am
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
IOWA CITY — Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks used her fifth annual tailgate fundraiser Friday to rally supporters around the House GOP’s shutdown fight and the 2026 elections, touting Republican accomplishments while blasting Democrats for what she called political games that hurt the American people.
The event, held at Streb Construction in Iowa City, featured House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson and Randy Feenstra, and Iowa House Majority Leader Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, who served as emcee.
Miller-Meeks, who represents Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, took the stage to applause, recounting GOP priorities on border security, tax relief and parental rights while criticizing Democrats’ handling of the federal shutdown.
“I don't like Democrats shutting down the government over something that they could not get done when they had the House, the Senate and the White House, and now they expect us to do their job for them,” she said of Democrats seeking to extend enhanced health insurance tax credits set to expire at year’s end.
She accused Democratic leaders of using the shutdown as “leverage,” referencing reported remarks by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark.
“They’re saying the longer this goes on, the better it is for them,” she said. “ … You are not leverage. That’s disgusting and revolting. We’re going to work hard to open this government and have people’s needs met — we are not going to do the Democrats’ dirty work for them.”
‘Hard work and common sense’
The congresswoman highlighted key legislative priorities — including bills to fund military pay during the shutdown, provide tax relief for working families, and restrict Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland.
“I don’t like the Chinese Communist Party buying up Iowa farmland,” she said. “I don’t like California telling us how to raise hogs. I don’t like boys competing in girls’ sports, and I don’t like sex-mutilating surgery for minors.”
Miller-Meeks said Democrats have already spent $2.8 million attacking her and pledged to keep fighting: “We’re still standing, still going, and we are never going to give up. I’m like the defensive line of the Iowa Hawkeyes — don’t come at me, don’t come after my family, don’t come after my district.”
The tailgate served as both a fundraiser and a show of unity for Iowa Republicans ahead of the 2026 election cycle, which will feature an open U.S. Senate seat and governor’s race.
Emmer, Bird, Hinson and Feenstra echoed calls to maintain GOP control in Iowa and Washington, D.C.
Emmer defends Republicans amid shutdown criticism
Emmer, the House GOP whip, defended his caucus against criticism that Republicans were absent from Washington during the shutdown.
“Our members are all working every single day. They are working in their district,” he said. “You can look at Mariannette Miller-Meeks — she’s all over the place working in her district. … She's trying to get ready and help those people that are going to be harmed by what these Democrats think is their leverage.”
Emmer said the shutdown “isn’t about health care,” arguing that Democrats’ Senate proposal would “spend $1.5 trillion more” and “put illegals on taxpayer-funded health care” while cutting rural hospital funds — a claim Democrats dispute.
Senate Democrats’ proposal would restore federal health coverage for immigrants the government recognizes as “lawfully present” — including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program beneficiaries, refugees and those with Temporary Protected Status — while keeping in place the ban on coverage for people in the U.S. illegally. Republicans’ law barred those groups from Medicaid and Affordable Care Act eligibility; Democrats’ bill seeks to reverse that restriction while undoing roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.
Redistricting and Trump’s voter coalition
Emmer downplayed concerns about redistricting battles between the parties, saying Republicans are positioned to benefit from new maps. The GOP, he said, could gain as many as 17 to 18 seats nationwide, compared to a potential seven to nine-seat pickup for Democrats.
“Redistricting is not the issue,” Emmer said. “The issue is that the other side doesn’t have a leader, doesn’t have a message.”
He also cited shifts among working-class voters and communities of color that helped President Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election. A Pew Research Center analysis found Trump made notable gains among Hispanic and Black voters and expanded his margins among men, particularly those under 50. He drew nearly even with Kamala Harris among Hispanic voters and nearly doubled his support among Black voters compared with 2020, while continuing to dominate among rural and non-college-educated voters.
“Donald Trump moved the needle with traditional Democrat voters more than anyone in our history,” Emmer said.
The Minnesota Republican closed by calling Miller-Meeks “the key” to GOP success in Iowa and beyond.
“Mariannette Miller-Meeks winning means we’re winning everything you’re fighting for in Iowa,” Emmer said. “ … Don't take your foot off the gas, Iowa. Minnesota needs inspiration. We need you to continue to turn this place even more red so it starts bleeding north into Minnesota.”
Miller-Meeks closed the event by urging Republicans to stay organized and engaged: “We are not going back,” she said. “We’re going to keep fighting, and we’re going to win.”
Toss-up race draws national attention
Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Ottumwa who also resides in Davenport, is running for re-election in 2026 to a fourth term.
The former state lawmaker, ophthalmologist and 24-year Army veteran has survived two razor-thin elections, and national Democrats have again targeted Iowa’s 1st Congressional District as a potential pickup.
The 20-county district includes Davenport, Iowa City, Burlington, and Indianola. The Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, and Inside Elections all rate the race as a “toss-up.”
Miller-Meeks first won in 2020 by just six votes over Democrat Rita Hart, then defeated Democrat Christina Bohannan by fewer than 800 votes in 2024 — less than a quarter of a percentage point.
Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor and former state lawmaker, is seeking a rematch in what’s expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive House contests. Other candidates running for the seat include Democrats Taylor Wettach, a Muscatine native and lawyer, and Travis Terrell, a health care worker from Tiffin. David Pautsch, a Davenport Republican and founder of the Quad Cities Prayer Breakfast, also is running again after winning 44 percent in the 2024 GOP primary against Miller-Meeks.
Democrats hit Miller-Meeks on shutdown, ACA opposition
Democrats and advocacy groups have criticized Miller-Meeks for backing the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-spending plan that would make permanent many provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The measure also includes deep cuts to Medicaid, new work requirements and cost-sharing fees for many recipients. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the plan would cause roughly 10.9 million people to lose health insurance by 2034.
It also reduces food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by expanding work mandates and shifting some program costs to states. Environmental groups also warn the plan rolls back clean-energy incentives while expanding fossil-fuel leasing on public lands, and increases funding for border enforcement and deportation efforts and defense spending.
Miller-Meeks has also drawn fire for opposing an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that help tens of thousands of Iowans afford health coverage. In a recent interview with conservative radio host Simon Conway, she called making those credits permanent an “unreasonable demand.” She told Iowa reporters earlier this month the 2021—2022 expansions were temporary “bailouts to insurance companies” that benefit higher-income earners.
“The money goes to the insurance company. It doesn’t go to the individuals,” Miller-Meeks told Conway. “There’s no incentive for insurance companies to lower premiums, and this will continue to make the Affordable Care Act even more unaffordable.”
Democrats counter that the credits are vital for about 110,000 Iowans — including roughly 24,000 in Miller-Meeks’ district — who rely on them to afford ACA coverage. Without congressional action, premiums could rise by an average of 98 percent, and more than 11,000 residents in Iowa’s 1st District could lose coverage entirely.
“For the past four weeks Mariannette Miller-Meeks could have been working to stop health care costs from skyrocketing and Iowans from losing their SNAP benefits; instead, she is fundraising with her Washington party bosses during a government shutdown she helped create,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Katie Smith said in a statement.
Miller-Meeks has introduced legislation to fund federal food assistance that is set to lapse next month if the shutdown continues.
The congresswoman has also received recent pressure to hold an in-person forum after she pledged to do so earlier this year. Attention around the subject was reignited after CNN reported on Miller-Meeks’ statement at a Johnson County Republicans of Iowa meeting, where she said she will hold a town hall “when hell freezes over."
She recently held a telephone town hall Oct. 15 attended by 10,700 people, according to her office.
“Iowans need leadership and compromise, yet our Republican representatives are more worried about raising money for themselves than looking out for the Iowans who elected them,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart. “It’s too bad these folks are more supportive of their sports team and their donors than they are of their constituents.”
Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com
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