Democrat Christina Bohannan believes the “third time is the charm” as she launches another bid to seek election in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District in 2026, potentially setting the stage for a third rematch with Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
After a narrow 2024 loss against the incumbent, the 53-year-old University of Iowa law professor and former state representative announced Tuesday, June 17, her bid to unseat Miller-Meeks, 69. It is expected to be one of the most closely contested congressional races in the U.S.
Iowans “are just so disheartened about the dysfunction, the division that they’re seeing in Washington, D.C., right now,” Bohannan told the Des Moines Register. “They’re worried about the high cost that they’re paying on groceries and housing and everything else. They’re worried about losing health care, their jobs, hospitals, nursing homes in their local areas. And I know what that’s like.”
The Iowa City Democrat grew up in a mobile home with parents who never graduated high school. When she was in high school, her dad was diagnosed with emphysema and his health insurance was canceled, which she said forced her family to choose between paying for his medicine and other necessities.
She cast Miller-Meeks as putting party interests before Iowans’, pointing to the Republican’s support for President Donald Trump’s sprawling tariffs and vote for his budget reconciliation bill that proposes deep cuts to Medicaid.
The measure, dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” would cut an estimated $625 billion from the public insurance program, which provides coverage for more than 71 million Americans.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the House-passed version would add $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
“She is not representing us, and she has just basically done what the political party tells her to do, and what her billionaire donors and the special interest tax and corporations tell her to do,” Bohannan said of Miller-Meeks. “And people are fed up. It is time for a change.”
More: Where Miller-Meeks, Bohannan stand on key issues, from abortion to the border to inflation
Miller-Meeks has defended her vote for the bill as helping secure the border, preserve Medicaid benefits for those who truly depend on it and “preventing the largest tax hike in American history,” she previously said in a statement.
“This bill protects Iowa families, seniors, and small businesses while strengthening Medicaid for the vulnerable — not for those who can work and choose not to,” Miller-Meeks said.
Iowa’s 1st Congressional District race shaping up to be one of the nation’s most competitive
As elections observers forecast another tight 1st District race, Bohannan credited the close competition to building momentum by talking to Iowans over two campaign cycles about the issues facing them ranging from cost of living woes to the quality of public education.
“There are people all throughout the district I’ve been talking to, they know that I understand what they’re going through, and that is why this became such a close race in 2024 and why it’s a toss up race starting right now in 2026,” Bohannan said.
The 1st District encompasses 20 counties in southeastern Iowa, including Iowa City and Davenport, and stretches into Marion, Warren and Jasper counties in south-central Iowa.
It is one of 35 races the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the campaign arm of House Democrats, is targeting to sway control of Congress. Iowa’s 2nd and 3rd District races, where Republican Reps. Ashley Hinson and Zach Nunn hold office, also are among the targets.
This is a more expansive list than at the start of the 2024 cycle, which DCCC officials said reflects eroding public support for House Republicans as they advance Medicaid cuts, “make everything more expensive” after campaigning to lower costs and show a “refusal to stand up to Donald Trump.”
Political analysts with the Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Inside Elections categorize the 1st District race as a “tossup,” meaning either party has a good shot at nabbing the seat.
According to data from the Secretary of State, 30% of active voters in Iowa’s 1st District are registered as Democrats, 36% are registered as Republicans and 34% are registered as “no party” or other.
Miller-Meeks wrote Tuesday in a post on X, “I see some comments from liberals hoping I am not running for re-election. They should hope for something else. My campaign is going strong, and I look forward to winning next November to keep Iowa winning in Congress.”
A former ophthalmologist and Army veteran who has an official address in Davenport but maintains a residence in Ottumwa, Miller-Meeks was first elected in 2020 on her third try, prevailing over Democrat Rita Hart by just six votes in what was then the state’s 2nd Congressional District.
Miller-Meeks survived a recount to win a third two-year term to the seat in 2024 by nearly 800 votes, or 0.2 percent of about 427,000 ballots cast. That was a far slimmer margin than when she bested Bohannan by more than 20,000 votes in 2022.
But Bohannan cited her support among Trump voters in the 2024 general election as a factor on her side. She carried heavily blue Johnson County as well as Scott and Jefferson counties, which favored Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.
The 2024 race was so close because “33,000 people who voted for President Trump also voted for me, ” Bohannan said. “They know that I am not going to be a typical Washington, D.C. politician, that I will fight for them, and I will be a strong and independent voice for Iowa.”
What issues will shape the race this time?
Bohannan focused her 2024 campaign on attacking Miller-Meeks’ record on reproductive rights, an issue that was especially salient for some voters since Iowa’s new six-week abortion ban took effect in 2024. It also was the first presidential election since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, leaving abortion rights to states to decide.
While Bohannan maintains that abortion rights should be restored to how they were under Roe, she’s setting the stage to focus her campaign more on economic issues this go-around.
“I still firmly believe that a woman should have the right to control her own body, and the overwhelming majority of Iowans are with me on that issue, and so that will always be something that I will stand up for,” Bohannan said. “But there are many issues in this campaign.”
She also has called for improving public schools, investing in rural infrastructure and reducing costs by taking on corporate price gouging and ensuring wealthy Americans “pay their fair share” in taxes.
Miller-Meeks’ third-term priorities have included working to reauthorize Trump’s signature tax cuts enacted in 2017, lower prescription drug prices, shield farmland from Chinese ownership and “protect women’s sports,” referring to efforts to keep transgender women and girls from competing in female sports.
Bohannan said “I think that there are very legitimate questions and issues that we need to deal with in terms of trans women in sports” but called it a “distraction” for Miller-Meeks to raise culture-war issues to shield the incumbent from dealing with real problems facing Iowans.
Approximately an estimated 1% of the U.S. population is transgender, so the share of transgender athletes in competitive sports is extremely small.
“We absolutely have to have fairness in women’s sports, but what Rep. Miller-Meeks has been doing is trying to create a panic around this issue to distract people from the fact that her entire time in Washington, D.C. has been spent listening to her party bosses, her billionaire donors and corporate special interests, instead of doing what the people of Iowa need her to do,” Bohannan said.
Bohannan criticized Miller-Meeks’ position on the House DOGE Caucus that joined forces with the turbulent federal Department of Government Efficiency effort to curtail federal spending.
Instead, Bohannan said she would look to rein in federal spending while working with Republicans to cut taxes on the middle class. She said does not support tax giveaways “for the billionaires who are already doing very, very well in our economy.”
But she opposes massive tax and spend policies, describing former President Joe Biden’s failed $1.7 trillion “Build Back Better” proposal to expand the social safety net as “too much all at once.” The House passed it but it stalled in the Senate, and parts of the measure were repurposed into the Inflation Reduction Act that addressed climate change, lowered prescription drug costs and focused on reducing the federal deficit.
Bohannan also favored the 2024 bipartisan border and immigration deal that did not advance but would have provided resources for thousands more immigration and border officials.
“I want to secure the border,” Bohannan said. “I want to do it in a way that respects law and respects the rights, especially of American citizens, and so I will work hard to do that and to solve the problem rather than playing politics.”
Who else is running for the 1st Congressional District seat?
Both Bohannan and Miller-Meeks have to prevail in their parties’ June 2026 primaries before potentially facing another rematch.
The Republican leads the pack of U.S. House incumbents in fundraising, bringing in more than $1 million during the first quarter, according to the most recent reports available.
Travis Terrell, a University of Iowa Health Care employee from Tiffin, was the first Democrat to launch a 2026 bid for the 1st District. Former state lawmaker Bob Krause, of Burlington, also is vying for the Democratic nomination.
And Republican David Pautsch, has launched a primary campaign against Miller-Meeks. He unsuccessfully challenged her in 2024 for the 1st District GOP nomination.
“When will Christina learn? Iowans have rejected her twice already, and now she has to run to the left to beat radical Bob Krause and Bernie-bro Travis Terrell in the primary,” Emily Tuttle, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement. “There’s no doubt whoever comes out of this liberal rat race will be sent packing when they re-elect America First fighter Mariannette Miller-Meeks this fall.”
This story was updated to add new information.
Marissa Payne covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. Reach her by email at mjpayne@registermedia.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @marissajpayne.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Democrat Christina Bohannan to run again in Iowa’s 1st District
