U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the Republican representing Iowa’s 2nd congressional district, spoke to the Westside Conservative Club at the Iowa Machine Shed in Urbandale Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks told a group of conservatives Wednesday that Republicans should feel motivated ahead of the Nov. 5 general election as Democrats are taking up more traditionally conservative talking points.
Speaking to members of the Westside Conservative Club at the Iowa Machine Shed in Urbandale, Miller-Meeks said Republicans “have a lot to offer” — especially in the 2024 election cycle. Miller-Meeks is running for reelection in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, where she faces Democratic challenger Christina Bohannan.
While Republicans have seen significant wins in recent election cycles, Miller-Meeks is predicted to have a competitive race. In September, The Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found likely voters in Iowa’s 1st District favor a Democratic congressional candidate over a Republican, with 49% responding that they would vote for a Democrat and 46% a Republican while 5% said they were not sure.
Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn faces Democratic challenger Lanon Baccam, is another race rated by election forecasters as a “toss-up.” In that race, the Iowa Poll showed 52% of voters preferred a Republican candidate to 44% preferring a Democrat.
These election forecasts have changed from earlier in the year, when Republicans were seen as likely to win in many 2024 races. But there’s been a significant shift since Vice President Kamala Harris took the top of the Democrats’ ticket from President Joe Biden, leading to expectations of higher turnout for Democrats across the ballot.
However, Miller-Meeks said at the Westside Conservative Club meeting that shifts in talking points from Harris and Democratic congressional candidates on issues like gun rights, immigration and inflation show there is still significant support for GOP policies and candidates.
“They’re putting forth policies that Republicans put forward,” Miller-Meeks said. “I look at that and say, ‘Why vote for a fake Republican? Just vote for a real Republican,’ because you’ll get lower taxes, you’ll get a better economy, you will get a secure border, you will not have boys playing in girls’ sports in an uneven playing field, and you will not have abortion up until the time of birth. So just vote Republican.”
In the final stretch of the campaign season, Miller-Meeks said strategy has come down to “a lot of shoe leather and a lot of work” on the campaign trail. Much of this time, she said, is spent countering campaign ads from Bohannan and Democratic groups focused on abortion policy.
One ad, titled “Imagine,” features Bohannan stating that “Iowa now has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country because of Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and in Congress, she’s pushing to ban all abortions nationwide with no exceptions for rape or incest.”
Miller-Meeks stated that “it’s no question they lie about my position on abortion,” and called for Bohannan and Democrats to answer “at what gestational age is a human, a human.” She also criticized Bohannan for campaign advertisements that feature her with law enforcement and talking about securing the U.S. southern border, claiming that her opponent has given money to organizations that support abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and defunding the police.
“It’s a hard job,” Miller-Meeks said. “You have to raise money, you have to to be able to be on TV. Our district … it’s a big district, but it’s very media inefficient, we have three media markets. So we’re on the road a lot. We visit with people, a lot, we try to see people face-to-face, we door knock. Because I also think one of the ways that you counter lies on television is to look people in the eyes face to face and be able to answer their questions.”
Bohannan, as well as Baccam, outraised their GOP incumbent opponents in recent months, according to the July Federal Election Commission reports.
Miller-Meeks also said that “swing district” candidates her and Nunn in Iowa, as well as those in other states not considered pivotal in the presidential election, have to work through the 2024 campaign season with less national attention and support than during other cycles.
“The other thing that I think is challenging about the race … for those of us in swing districts, is that the top of the ticket is the president, and then there’s nothing in between but Congress,” Miller-Meeks said. “If the president is concentrating on the battleground states — which he needs to do, President Trump needs to concentrate on the battleground states — that means everything is left to your congresspeople. And your congresspeople know that they affect the down ballot races too, so they are working really hard and really hard with all of their Republican colleagues, their team, to make sure the entire team gets past the finish line. I think it’s critical.”
The incumbent representative first won a seat in Congress in 2020 representing Iowa’s 2nd district — prior to redistricting — by a margin of six votes. She said her district has always been a “swing district,” and that her campaign strategy has remained the same regardless of shifts in polling and predictions.
“The amount of money coming in from outside sources, I think, was unexpected,” Miller-Meeks said in an interview with the Iowa Capital Dispatch. “But otherwise, you’re out, you meet people, you raise money, you do events, you try to motivate people to get out to vote. Because ultimately, in a swing district, it’s who gets their members out to, you know, their supporters out to vote.”