{"id":2353558,"date":"2024-10-11T07:18:57","date_gmt":"2024-10-11T11:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-democrats-eye-a-pair-of-iowa-seats-late-in-the-game-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-10-11T07:22:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-11T11:22:24","slug":"house-democrats-eye-a-pair-of-iowa-seats-late-in-the-game-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-democrats-eye-a-pair-of-iowa-seats-late-in-the-game-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"House Democrats eye a pair of Iowa seats late in the game &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-democrats-eye-a-pair-of-iowa-seats-late-in-the-game-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2353558&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/survey-high-school-boys-trending-right\/\" title=\"High school boys&#039; current trend: Going right\">shifting\u200d political landscape<\/a> in Iowa, focusing on\u2063 two competitive House races. After a \u200cstrong Republican performance in the 2022 elections, where Democrats lost all federal representation in the state for the first\u200b time in decades, Iowa is now showing signs of \u2064becoming more \u200dcompetitive, with two districts considered toss-ups. <\/p>\n<p>In the 1st Congressional \u200dDistrict, incumbent Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks faces Democratic challenger Christina Bohannon in a rematch that highlights issues like abortion rights. Miller-Meeks narrowly won her seat by just six votes in 2020 and has encountered challenges within her own party, particularly from more conservative factions. <\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, in the 3rd Congressional District, Republican \u200dZach Nunn, who won by a narrow margin in 2022, is up against\u200c Democratic candidate Lanon Baccam. This district, which includes\u2064 Des Moines and its\u2062 suburbs,\u200b is experiencing a demographic shift as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wisconsin-dem-senate-candidate-announces-support-for-medicare-for-all\/\" title=\"Wisconsin Dem Senate Candidate Announces Support for Medicare for All\">suburban voters<\/a> increasingly lean away from the\u200c GOP, making the race tight. Both races exemplify Iowa&#8217;s \u200bpotential transition from a solidly Republican state to a more competitive political battleground.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-sacff-txt\">Magazine &#8211; Washington Briefing <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">House Democrats eye a pair of Iowa seats late in the game<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1670510\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Perhaps no state in the country had Republican candidates do better in 2022 than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/iowa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Iowa<\/a>. The GOP won up and down the ballot. For the first time since the Eisenhower administration, there wasn&rsquo;t a single elected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/democrats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Democrat<\/a> at the federal level. Iowa, which had once been the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/marijuana-and-abortion-is-ohio-purple-again\/\" title=\"Marijuana and abortion: Is Ohio purple again?\">quintessential swing state<\/a>, seemed on the verge of<a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/166775\/iowa-red-state-republican-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title> becoming safely Republican<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Two years later though, Iowa seems to be trending slightly more purple. It is one of a handful of states with two toss-up House seats in a shrinking congressional battlefield. Both competitive districts, out of Iowa&rsquo;s four House seats, feature vulnerable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/republican\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Republican<\/a> incumbents and spectacular sums of money being spent on the television airwaves.<\/p>\n<p>The southeastern 1st Congressional District resembles the platonic ideal of the industrial Midwest. It includes much of what was the Democratic heartland of the state &mdash; a long strip of mid-sized industrial cities running up and down the shores of the Mississippi River. Voters there for generations backed pro-union Democrats. So did Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa, which grew more liberal as the rest of the state trended rightward. In between, traditionally Republican rural voters are scattered in the district where former President Herbert Hoover was born 150 years ago.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From top left, clockwise: Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Former Iowa state Rep. Christina Bohannon (D), Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), Lanon Baccam (Courtesy of the Christina Bohannon campaign; Courtesy of the Lanon Baccam campaign; HOUSE.GOV photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Republican incumbent, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), first won election to Congress in 2020<a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/2021\/03\/rita-hart-accused-of-trying-to-oust-mariannette-miller-meeks.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title> by six votes<\/a>. A state legislator who had lost three previous bids for the House of Representatives, Miller-Meeks finally won by an extremely close margin amid the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Miller-Meeks won reelection in 2022 against first-term state Rep. Christina Bohannon. This fall features a rematch in what&rsquo;s turning out to be a tight race. The House Democratic campaign arm released<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/about:blank\"> an internal poll<\/a> recently that showed Bohannon up by a narrow margin.<\/p>\n<p>Bohannon, a University of Iowa law professor, has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-political-foes-locked-in-tight-house-race-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Former political foes locked in tight House race - Washington Examiner\">emphasized abortion rights<\/a> on the campaign trail in a state where a six-week abortion ban recently took effect. She also benefits from Miller-Meeks&rsquo;s shaky standing with the Republican base in a district where the MAGA wing of the GOP is strong. The congresswoman had a surprisingly weak performance in the Republican primary, winning only 56% against a poorly funded, much more conservative opponent who railed against Miller-Meeks for voting to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election and her support for same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n<p>Compared to Miller-Meeks winning her first election by six votes, her counterpart in the southwestern 3rd Congressional District, Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), won his first election by a landslide. Nunn, a former Iowa state senator, beat Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne by about 2,000 votes out of nearly 311,000 cast in 2022. It proved to be one of the closest races in the midterm election cycle.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Iowa&rsquo;s 3rd Congressional District, though, is very different than its neighbor to the east. Centered on Des Moines and its suburbs, it is prosperous and features a dense concentration of the type of suburban voters who have abandoned the Republican Party in the era of former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee. The voters of well-to-do communities such as West Des Moines have as much in common with<a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/175331\/never-trump-republicans-actually-just-democrats-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title> those who live in subdivisions<\/a> in places such as Scottsdale, Arizona, or Cobb County, Georgia, as they do with those in the struggling factory towns such as Fort Madison and Keokuk in southeastern Iowa.<\/p>\n<p>It is one of the few parts of the state where Democrats have managed to pick up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-democrat-super-pac-tells-party-to-shape-up-or-face-serious-consequences\/\" title=\"Top Democrat Super PAC Tells Party to Shape Up or Face Serious Consequences\">state legislative seats<\/a> as Iowa has moved to the right. It was President Joe Biden&rsquo;s best Iowa district in 2020. He lost by only about 1,500 votes in a state that was not heavily contested in the presidential election &mdash; Trump beat Biden in Iowa about 54% to 45%, after easily prevailing over 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n<p>Nunn, in his first reelection bid, faces Lanon Baccam, a military veteran and longtime Democratic staffer, in the district in what has always been expected to be a tight race. As one Washington operative noted, the seat has been &ldquo;constructed for all eternity to be decided by 1 point.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s also one where abortion has been emphasized as both candidates try to compete to appeal to centrist suburban voters.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As much as Republicans romped in Iowa in 2022, it may have been a political high-water mark for the GOP in the state. It&rsquo;s not that Iowa is somehow secretly Democratic or has even returned to its swing-state status from the turn of the 21st century. Instead, it just may not be that Republican. Rob Sand, the Democratic state auditor who was the only Democratic elected official to win reelection in 2022, told the <em>Washington Examiner, &ldquo;<\/em>I think the most underreported story about Iowa is just how purple it is has remained.&rdquo; After all, he argued that his two fellow statewide Democratic incumbents who lost in 2022, still received 49% of the vote and that a significant chunk of Iowa voters are still willing to split their tickets.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Democrats win one seat of the two, it won&rsquo;t herald a massive political shift in the state but merely an incremental gain. But, with Democrats needing to net four seats to promote current House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to speaker, an incremental gain in the Hawkeye State may be all that&rsquo;s required to transform Washington next year.<\/p>\n<p><em>Ben Jacobs is a reporter in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1670510\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1670510\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Democrats target two Iowa seats as GOP dominance wanes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3222,"featured_media":2353559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/WB.Congress-1016.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[33399,33723,42787,32076],"class_list":["post-2353558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-2024-elections","tag-house-democrats","tag-iowa-seats","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/WB.Congress-1016.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2353558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2353559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2353558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2353558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2353558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}