National Democrats believe 3 Iowa congressional races ‘in play,’ target GOP incumbents

DES MOINES — National Democrats are pledging to dedicate resources to Iowa in their effort to unseat three incumbent Republicans in the state’s U.S. House delegation.

The political arm of U.S. House Democrats announced Tuesday it considers Iowa’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts “in play” for the 2026 midterm elections, and that the organization will put resources into those three campaigns in its attempt to flip control of the seats and, more broadly, the U.S. House majority held by Republicans.

Tuesday’s announcement from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee indicated the group’s intention to invest in the campaigns against Iowa Republican incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson in Eastern Iowa and Zach Nunn in Central Iowa. Miller-Meeks and Hinson are serving their third, two-year terms in the U.S. House, and Nunn his second.

The DCCC, in a news release, said it considers the trio of Iowa Republicans among the GOP incumbents nationwide who are “vulnerable” and that the organization will work to ensure that voters hear that the three Iowa Republicans have embraced “Elon Musk’s extremism and their party’s dangerously far right agenda that’s raising costs, destroying jobs, eroding Iowans’ freedoms, and hurting our country’s future.”

“Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson, and Zach Nunn are running scared, and they should be,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement. “From tanking the economy, gutting Medicaid, abandoning our veterans, to making everything more expensive, they’ve broken their promises to Iowans, and it’s going to cost them their seats.”

The DCCC did not announce any plans to invest in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. The Western Iowa district is heavily conservative, and is currently represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra.

In addition to the resources it plans to invest in the three Iowa elections, the DCCC said it has created fundraising websites for each of the districts. The DCCC said the sites will provide donors the ability to contribute now to the eventual Democratic nominees.

“The DCCC is already working to recruit authentic and battle-ready candidates in Iowa who reflect these districts and will work to better Iowans’ lives, not line Elon Musk and their DC party bosses’ pockets,” DelBene said in the statement.

No Democrats officially have announced campaigns in any of the three districts.

Democratic state lawmakers Jennifer Konfrst, Austin Baeth and Sarah Trone Garriott, all from the Des Moines metro area, have said they are considering running in the 3rd District against Nunn.

In a response to The Gazette about the national Democrats’ announcement, the Hinson campaign, citing reporting from Inside Elections, named two potential Democratic candidates in the 2nd District: state lawmaker Lindsay James of Dubuque and former U.S. attorney Kevin Techau of Cedar Rapids. James told The Gazette she is not planning on running for Congress at this time; Techau has not indicated publicly his is considering a run, and did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment.

Republicans have a slim U.S. House majority of just seven seats; two seats that were held by Democrats currently are vacant after the deaths of two Democratic members.

Democrats go into the 2026 election cycle hoping to win back the U.S. House majority they last held from 2019 to 2022. Historically, the first midterm election after a new president takes office favors the party out of power. In 2026, Democrats are hoping that history repeats itself in the first midterm of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Republicans’ response

Republicans remained confident in Iowa’s U.S. House incumbents, pointing to their victories in recent election cycles.

“Iowans overwhelmingly rejected the radical, out of touch Democrat agenda in 2024. Voters know they can count on Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson, and Zach Nunn to put Iowans first, and that’s why they’ll send them back to Congress in 2026,” said Emily Tuttle, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee and a former Nunn staffer.

Said Hinson campaign manager Addie Lavis in a statement, “Bring it on. No Iowan wants to go back to failed Biden policies, but that’s exactly what radicals like Lindsay James and Kevin Techau represent. Ashley will continue fighting and delivering for Iowans.”

Miller-Meeks’ campaign highlighted her three election wins in what biennially is a competitive, swing U.S. House district.

“Iowans have elected Mariannette Miller-Meeks to Congress three times despite being in a swing district and outspent by Hakeem Jeffries’ billionaire pals,” Anthony Cruz, with the Miller-Meeks campaign, said in a statement. “While Democrats continue to reel from their 2024 loss, Mariannette will continue her fight to protect Iowa farmland from the Chinese Communist Party, protect women’s sports, and pass tax cuts for hardworking Iowans.”

The 3rd District also is targeted as a competitive election every two years.

“National Democrats are back at it, dusting off their same dirty, tired playbook and propping up a JV slate of radical candidates to run against Zach Nunn,” Nunn campaign manager Brendan Duffy said in a statement. “No matter what they throw at him, Zach will continue to deliver common sense results as a top 10 most bipartisan member of Congress, and most importantly deliver real results for Iowans.”

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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