Democrat Christina Bohannan is having a rematch against U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks for Iowa’s 1st Congressional District seat in the Nov. 5, 2024 election. (Photos by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks has won elections in Iowa’s southeastern congressional district encompassing areas including Iowa City, Davenport and eastern Des Moines suburbs, for two cycles. But Democrat Christina Bohannan and national watchers see abortion and pushback against “divisive” Republican rhetoric as strategies that could win back the seat in 2024.
Iowa’s 1st Congressional District is one of the races flagged as a surprise toss-up headed into the 2024 general election, despite being a rematch between Bohannan and Miller-Meeks.
In 2022, Miller-Meeks, who represented Iowa’s 2nd District before the redistricting process, won the seat by more than 20,000 votes in the midterm elections. Her win was part of what was considered a “red wave” in Iowa, as Republicans won control of Iowa’s full congressional delegation, a majority in the state House and supermajority in the state Senate, as well as all but one statewide elected office.
But when Miller-Meeks was first elected to office in 2020, then representing Iowa’s 2nd District, she defeated Rita Hart, now the Iowa Democratic Party Chair, by just six votes. Prior to Miller-Meeks’ election, the congressional seat had been held by former U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, a Democrat, since 2007.
Though voters will see the same names on the ballot in the Nov. 5 election as they did two years earlier, many election analysts and operatives expect to a much closer race. While part of that expectation comes from the southeast Iowa district’s history of moderate and Democratic wins, it’s also due to the changing landscape of Iowa and national politics.
Issues like abortion, foreign conflicts, as well as shake-ups in the presidential race have all played significant roles in election forecasters’ decisions to move the 1st District from a likely Republican seat to a “toss-up.” As the race heats up, both Bohannan and Miller-Meeks are aiming to push voters to participate in the upcoming election by both emphasizing their own popular opinions and accusing their opponent of having positions too “extreme” for Iowa voters.
Who is extreme?
Since 2022, the Iowa law banning most abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected – something that can occur as early as six weeks of gestation – has gone into effect. Election analysts pointed to concerns about restricting abortion access as a reason why the “red wave” Iowa saw in 2022 did not materialize in many other parts of the country, as the so-called “fetal heartbeat” law was blocked by the courts from taking effect in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Though Bohannan and Miller-Meeks both served in a term in the Iowa Legislature, neither voted on the 2018 or 2023 abortion ban laws that were debated by the state Supreme Court. However, Bohannan’s campaign has run ads linking the Republican incumbent to the legislation, and saying that she wants to take federal action to restrict abortion.
“Iowa now has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country because of Mariannette Miller-Meeks,” Bohannan said in one ad. “And in Congress, she’s pushing to ban all abortions nationwide with no exceptions for rape or incest. I could never imagine my daughter growing up with fewer rights than I had, but that’s exactly what’s happening.”
Bohannan has pointed to Miller-Meeks’ cosponsoring the a 2021 “Life at Conception” Act as proof that she does not support exceptions for abortion bans. The proposal does not directly ban abortion, instead guaranteeing a “right to life” for every human and stating that human life begins at conception, but does not specify situations where exceptions may apply to this language – like when a pregnancy involves rape, incest, or risks the life of the mother.
Miller-Meeks said at an Urbandale event in October that “it’s no question they lie out my position on abortion.”
“And they cover up their position on abortion,” she said. “They won’t answer at what gestational age is a human, a human. They voted for abortion up until the time of birth.”
Miller-Meeks also said that Bohannan is obfuscating her own positions on issues like supporting the police and U.S. border security. In 2021, PolitiFact Iowa rated claims that Bohannan wanted to defund the police and has financially supported organizations with this aim as “false,” but Miller-Meeks has also repeated these claims on the 2024 campaign trail.
“I think my opponent is extreme radical leftist progressive, and our job is to make sure people know that she gave money to defund the police, that she gave money to organizations to abolish ICE, supported sanctuary cities,” Miller-Meeks said in October. “… Those policies, that’s for record.”
Other Republican supporters, like former U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, a previous Iowa governor who encouraged Miller-Meeks to run, have also called Bohannan extreme.
“Unfortunately, you’re representing the most difficult district in our state, and you’ve got a lying opponent who is, well, we know from her voting record in the Iowa legislature, she’s a far-left liberal law professor at the University of Iowa,” Branstad said in support of Miller-Meeks at a GOP event.
One of the highest-profile issues surrounding college campuses this election cycles is the Israel-Hamas conflict, and pro-Palestinian demonstrations at college campuses since the war beginning Oct. 7, 2023.
Miller-Meeks said that it took Bohannan “days to say anything” about a controversial post by the UI Student Democrats’ organization in November 2023 stating that they “shamelessly and fully support Palestine,” and using the phrase “from the river to the sea.”
“(It) took her days to say anything about the Student Democrats at the University of Iowa, when they made antisemitic comments and antisemitic remarks, been slow to condemn the Hamas protesters, and like Kamala Harris, has not said that Israel is an ally,” Miller-Meeks said. “To me, there is not moral equivalency here. … And when you’re saying and chanting, you know, from the ‘river to the sea,’that’s the eradication of Israel, whether they know that that’s what that means or not.”
Bohannan had responded to the post stating that calls for Israel’s elimination are “wholly unacceptable.”
While Bohannan has faced pushback from Republicans for not showing sufficient support for Israel, student protesters calling for a ceasefire and increase to humanitarian aid for Palestinians have also criticized the Democratic candidate for not speaking up about the ongoing conflict.
Speaking with reporters in October, Bohannan said there has been massive suffering and loss of innocent lives on both sides of the conflict.
“I very much want to see an end to this violence,” Bohannan said. “I think everybody on all sides would like to see an end to the violence, and I keep hoping that diplomatic efforts will bring both sides to the table to result in release of the hostages and an end to the violence. But you know what I will also say is that, sadly, there is not any real consensus on how to make that happen or what to do about it here, you know, certainly not here in Iowa. And so what I am trying to do, as I just mentioned, is find those areas of consensus, those areas where we can do some good for people right here in Iowa.”
Final push to the polls
As early voting begins, the two candidates are aiming to surge turnout in the southeast district. While Bohannan lost by a significant margin in 2022, she told reporters in Iowa City that she expects to see higher Democratic engagement in the upcoming election because of the presidential race. She said that roughly 400,000 voters participated in the 2020 midterm elections in Iowa’s then-1st Congressional District when Miller-Meeks won by six votes, in comparison to 300,000 2nd District voters who cast their ballot in the 2022 election.
Bohannan said her campaign is focused on ensuring those who may have sat out during the midterms will vote in this year’s races, with a focus on grassroots campaign and door-knocking efforts in the final weeks.
“We are just going out and talking to people about the issues that matter to them. And obviously, I think our message really resonates the policies that we’re talking about, the laws we’re talking about – you know, education, reproductive freedom, you know, affordable healthcare, bringing down costs and the cost of prescription drugs, groceries, gas. Those are things that really revenue across all parties, and that is why we’re seeing that message resonate, and why this race is increasing to be one of the closest in the country.”
Another factor influencing the rise in the 2nd District’s prominence is the investments national parties and organizations are putting into the race. Federal Election Commission reports from July show that Bohannan raised more than $1.2 million with $2.42 million in reserve funds while Miller-Meeks raised $846,883 with $2.27 million cash on hand.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, U.S. House Democrats’ campaign arm, also made investments over the summer in the district, putting a combined $972,000 in ad buys supporting Bohannan for the Cedar Rapids and Davenport media markets.
Miller-Meeks said though there’s more attention focused on Iowa’s 2nd District this cycle, her campaign strategy remains the same as in previous election cycles.
“It’s a swing district, so I always think of it as a toss-up I always think of it as a competitive race – so to me, that aspect of it is no different,” Miller-Meeks said. “The amount of money coming in from outside sources, I think, was unexpected. 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. So that’s what we’re going to be doing.”