US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks declares victory in 1st District: race not called

Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks declared victory in a hotly contested race for southeastern Iowa's 1st Congressional District, narrowly leading Democratic challenger Christina Bohannan in their rematch for the seat.

With an estimated 99% of the vote reported as of 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Miller-Meeks had 50.1% of the vote, according to unofficial results. She took to the stage about 12 hours earlier at Riverside Casino to declare victory and celebrate winning a third term.

The Associated Press has not yet called the race. But Miller-Meeks defended her declaration of victory Wednesday afternoon as she led Bohannan by 799 votes.

Miller-Meeks’ lead is a blow to Democrats who looked to flip the seat in their quest to claim the U.S. House majority, which remained up for grabs as of Wednesday afternoon. Democrats looked to take the seat by attacking her record on reproductive rights while the issue has been top of mind for voters since Iowa’s new six-week abortion ban took effect.

Ultimately, Miller-Meeks' messaging on the economy and immigration, key GOP talking points in Tuesday's election, put her on top.

The race swung in Miller-Meeks' favor as Washington County's results came in Wednesday, helping her prevail in the 20-county district that includes the cities of Iowa City, Davenport, Burlington and rural southeastern Iowa. Only Jefferson, Johnson and Scott counties favored Bohannan.

During her victory speech, she acknowledged the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released in the days before the election that showed likely voters preferred a Democratic candidate by a 16-point margin in the 1st District and thanked pollster J. Ann Selzer for encouraging people to vote.

Miller-Meeks promised watch party attendees she would “make sure you are going to be prosperous again."

“This campaign is about you," Miller-Meeks said. "What country do you and do I and my family want to leave behind? That is our legacy, that is our responsibility and that is our duty and we do it with honor, courage, conviction, resilience and we do it with integrity.”

Democratic groups poured millions of dollars into the contest and had an early advantage in flooding the airwaves with attacks on Miller-Meeks, who was perceived as vulnerable after a close primary challenge from the right by David Pautsch.

But the Republican incumbent enlisted a series of high-profile GOP speakers and got a late spending boost from Republican groups looking to counter Democrats’ attacks.

With the race close late Tuesday night, Bohannan addressed the remaining crowd of supporters who gathered at Big Grove Brewery for her watch party in Iowa City.

"When we came into this race, we knew this was going to be a tough race,” Bohannan said. “From the beginning, there were people across the country who thought that we would never make it this far, that this would never be a toss-up race, and we made it a real toss-up race.”

After a failed 2022 bid to deny Miller-Meeks a second term, Bohannan, a 53-year-old University of Iowa law professor, tried again to unseat the incumbent, a 69-year-old ophthalmologist and Army veteran who claims an address in Davenport and maintains a residence in Ottumwa.

Bohannan had not conceded the race as of Wednesday afternoon.

"I am so, so proud of the work we have done in this district," she wrote in a social media post on X on Wednesday. "This race is still too close to call and we are expecting more ballots to come in over the coming days. We will ensure each and every lawful vote is counted."

Miller-Meeks centered the economy, immigration in bid to defend her seat

Miller-Meeks ran for Congress in southeastern Iowa three times, finally nabbing the seat in 2020 by six votes against Democrat Rita Hart.

To court the Republican base, she banked her 2024 reelection bid on the economy and immigration, acknowledging voters' frustrations with high costs and a record influx of migrants at the southern border.

Miller-Meeks also railed against transgender women and girls participating in sports aligned with their gender identity in her campaign. She said Wednesday there should be separate transgender leagues for those players to participate in sports.

In a third term, Miller-Meeks said she would look to extend tax cuts authorized by former President Donald Trump in 2017 that are slated to expire at the end of 2025. Voters reelected Trump on Tuesday.

On immigration, she supports H.R. 2, the "Secure the Border Act of 2023," which passed the Republican-controlled House but has not received a vote in the Senate. It would restrict the asylum process and require the Department of Homeland Security to continue building a southern border wall.

Miller-Meeks arrived at her watch party in Washington County just before 10 p.m. Tuesday to applause from attendees, spending several minutes greeting and taking photos with supporters.

State Rep. Martin Graber, R-Fort Madison, said he was not concerned about the outcome of the race. He pointed to Miller-Meeks' incumbency advantage and her track record supporting her constituents.

“She's done a lot of good things for the communities, like in our community down in southeast Iowa,” Graber said. “She went out and got grants for us and things like that, and supported us on some really important, crucial projects for us.”

Husband and wife Chuck Johnson and Lisa Johnson, both registered Republicans from Kalona, watched national election results at Miller-Meeks’ watch party just before 11 p.m. Tuesday.

More: Where Miller-Meeks, Bohannan stand on key issues, from abortion to the border to inflation

Lisa Johnson, who works in finance, said she hoped for a Republican majority in the U.S. House. She criticized House Democrats’ impeachment hearings and investigations into Trump and said she didn’t want to go through the “chaos” again in the Republican's second term.

Chuck Johnson, an electrical engineer, said his biggest priority leading up to the election was the economy. He also said he believed the country needed to work to become energy independent and not focus on reducing fossil fuels.

“I think the current administration, with its war on fossil fuels, has driven the cost of everything up when you’re paying quite a bit more for fuel,” he said. “Everything that goes to the grocery store or to whatever store you're buying from, it gets there for the most part with diesel. If that can get flipped so we get back to more energy independence, (prices) will get back down to where they were before.”

Bohannan put abortion front and center in campaign

Bohannan is among the Iowa Democrats who banked on abortion being top of mind for voters in the first general election since Iowa's six-week abortion ban, known as the "fetal heartbeat law," was allowed to take effect in July. It outlaws abortions before most women know they're pregnant.

After trumpeting her victory, Miller-Meeks criticized abortion being used as “a political football” that pits women against women. Instead, she said the focus should be made on other policies, such as increased access to oral contraceptives.

“It's demeaning to women to think that's the only issue women care about,” Miller-Meeks told reporters. “Women care about high prices at the grocery store, at the gas pump, high prescription prices, because often women are the ones that get health care services for their family members. They're concerned about the border. They're concerned about crime, their safety and their security.”

More: Miller-Meeks, Bohannan face 'toss-up' House race. What makes their 2024 rematch different?

Bohannan vowed to restore reproductive rights as they were under Roe v. Wade. Besides protecting abortion rights, her priorities included cutting the costs of health care and prescription drugs, expanding affordable housing, investing in public education and addressing the climate crisis.

Linda Yanney, 69, of Iowa City, was among more than 125 people who packed Big Grove Brewery Tuesday night for Bohannan's watch party.

She said she was in high school when the Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade and abortion was a key issue in her voting decision. Yanney said it was difficult to see those protections reversed and women should not have to endure the same reproductive hardships as when she was a child.

Yanney thought about a scenario where anti-abortion “lawyers and legislators” stood side-by-side with doctors to make a medical decision for an ailing woman.

“If you have to wait for a court to decide, it’s going to be terrible for women,” Yanney said. “These are the kind of decisions that need to be made now.”

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Marissa Payne covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. Reach her by email at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @marissajpayne. 

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks declares victory: race not called