Gazette endorsement: Bohannan for Congress 1st District

The race in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District pits Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks against Democratic state Rep, Christina Bohannan. Our endorsement goes to Bohannan.

Bohannan has made rural revitalization a central theme in her campaign, pointing to hospital closures, low wages, a workforce shortage and underfunded school districts. Bohannan correctly calls climate change an existential threat to the state’s agricultural economy. Bohannan would have supported the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is bringing billions of dollars in funding to Iowa. Miller-Meeks voted against the infrastructure bill.

Abortion rights have become a major issue in the campaign since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its constitutional protections for abortion access. Bohannan favors putting those legal protections established by Roe into federal law.

Miller-Meeks co-sponsored the Life Begins at Conception Act which grants the “right to life of each born and pre-born human person” and would ban abortion. The bill makes no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother. More recently, Miller-Meeks has said she favors those exceptions and is a co-sponsor of a bill banning abortions nationally after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Miller-Meeks claims that’s the threshold at which a fetus can feel pain, although the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists puts the threshold at 24 or 25 weeks.

The fact that banning the vast majority of abortions, with some exceptions, is seen by Miller-Meeks as some sort of middle ground is remarkable, given that not so long ago in Iowa such a position would be considered extreme. It strikes us that Miller-Meeks is trying to have it both ways, opposing abortion while seeking to mitigate the political damage resulting from that hard line stance. We’re not buying it. Bohannan supports keeping abortion legal, as do Most Iowans.

As Miller-Meeks sees it, gun owners have more than women seeking to control their own reproductive decisions. The congresswoman voted against even the modest package of gun safety measures approved after a string of appalling mass shootings. Bohannan favors expanding background checks for gun buyers.

It strikes us that after winning her seat in Congress by just six votes in 2020, Miller-Meeks would have served in a way that better reflects her closely divided swing district. But instead, marched sharply rightward with the rest of her party. We believe Bohannan is a far better fit for the 1st District.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com