National Democrats are targeting three Iowa congressional races as they work to identify vulnerable Republicans and prepare their 2026 election strategy.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced Tuesday it’s eyeing races in Iowa’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd congressional districts — seats currently represented by Republican U.S. Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson and Zach Nunn respectively.
“Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson and Zach Nunn are running scared, and they should be,” DCCC chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement provided to the Des Moines Register. “From tanking the economy, gutting Medicaid, abandoning our veterans, to making everything more expensive, they’ve broken their promises to Iowans, and it’s going to cost them their seats.”
From left: U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, joined onstage by U.S. Reps. Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks speaks during Gov. Kim Reynolds’ Harvest Festival fundraiser at Oman Family Youth Inn at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Des Moines.
DelBene said her organization “is already working to recruit authentic and battle-ready candidates in Iowa who reflect these districts and will work to better Iowans’ lives, not line Elon Musk and their D.C. party bosses’ pockets.”
A trio of legislative Democrats have publicly expressed interest in running against Nunn. They include state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst and state Rep. Austin Baeth.
But it’s not yet clear which Democrats might run for the 1st and 2nd District seats.
Historically, the results of midterm elections have favored the party that does not control the White House. Democrats in Iowa and across the country hope that bodes well for their chances in 2026, even after an especially disappointing 2024 cycle.
Republicans have dominated recent elections in Iowa. But in 2018, the midterm year during Trump’s first term, the state sent three Democrats to Congress as a wave of discontent rippled across the country.
‘They’re not listening’: With GOP lawmakers absent, people’s town halls channel Iowans’ fury
1st Congressional District Republican incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks speaks during a debate hosted by Iowa PBS on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, in Johnston.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has also targeted its own list of vulnerable Democrats, proclaiming itself “on offense” as it looks to maintain and grow its majority in 2026.
“House Republicans are in the majority and on offense,” NRCC Chair Richard Hudson said in a March 17 statement. “Meanwhile, vulnerable House Democrats have been hard at work demonstrating they are painfully out of touch with hardworking Americans. Republicans are taking the fight straight to these House Democrats in their districts, and we will unseat them next fall.”
Analysts say 1st and 3rd districts are Iowa’s most competitive, but Democrats will also target 2nd District race
The Cook Political Report has called Iowa’s 1st District contest a “toss-up” race, their most competitive ranking. It comes after Miller-Meeks clinched her 2024 victory by only about 800 votes in a district Republican President Donald Trump won by 9 percentage points.
In the 3rd District, Nunn performed about on par with Trump, defeating his Democratic challenger by about 4 percentage points. Still, Trump’s 4-point margin of victory in the 3rd District made it his worst district in the state. He won Iowa overall by about 13 percentage points.
U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn speaks as USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins tours Iowa farms on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Atlantic, IA.
Cook Political Report is ranking that race as one that “leans” in favor of Republicans.
But in a surprise, the DCCC is also putting a target on Hinson in the 2nd District. Hinson comfortably won her last reelection by 15 percentage points in the district Trump won by about 9.7 percentage points. Cook Political Report does not list the race among those it considers competitive.
According to a news release, adding all three Republicans to the DCCC’s “Districts in Play” list “sends the clear message that Democrats will ensure Iowa voters know of these vulnerable Republicans’ continued embrace of Elon Musk’s extremism and their party’s dangerously far-right agenda that’s raising costs, destroying jobs, eroding Iowans’ freedoms and hurting our country’s future.”
U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson speaks to the Westside Conservative Club at Machine Shed restaurant on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Urbandale.
The House Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats, announced late last year it would also target the 1st and 3rd Districts.
Democrats’ message focuses on Elon Musk, not Donald Trump
In its announcement, the DCCC did not mention Trump, who decisively won Iowa.
Instead, it twice highlighted tech billionaire Elon Musk, who Trump has tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has been responsible for slashing government spending and implementing mass layoffs across the federal government.
The choice to emphasize Musk highlights a possible messaging strategy as Democrats work to create a winning argument against the status quo.
Elon Musk wears a cheesehead hat as he takes the stage during a town hall on Sunday, March 30, 2025, at the KI Convention Center in Green Bay, Wis. Musk held the event to drive turnout for Tuesday’s state Supreme Court election between Brad Schimel and Susan Crawford.
Musk has become the focal point of their ire as polling shows he is more unpopular than Trump.
And it comes after Musk campaigned aggressively and funneled about $20 million into a Wisconsin Supreme Court race on behalf of the conservative-leaning candidate who lost, prompting political observers to call him a liability for Republicans.
“Musk is becoming a drag on Trump, and his role in these cuts and where he wants to direct them are becoming a liability and a vulnerability for the administration,” Evan Roth Smith, lead pollster for Blueprint Polling, a Democratic-aligned firm, told USA TODAY.
Miller-Meeks in particular has worked to align herself with Musk and his government-slashing agenda, joining the House DOGE caucus. And Hinson has cheered Musk’s efforts, saying “this is exactly what the federal government needs.”
Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: National Democrats’ targets include Reps. Miller-Meeks, Hinson, Nunn
