Washington — GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks lost reelection to Democrat Christina Bohannan in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District in their third consecutive rematch, CBS News projected.
The race was expected to be close in the months leading up to the election. As November neared, election forecasters shifted the race in favor of Democrats.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with House GOP leaders, effectively conceded defeat in mid-October when it halted spending in the district. President Trump campaigned in Iowa in late October and early November, but skipped Miller-Meeks’ district.
Cracks in the GOP’s dominance in Iowa widened in recent weeks as Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war have been detrimental for the agriculture-heavy state, driving up the costs of fertilizer and diesel. In one of their last votes before leaving Washington in September to focus on campaigning, Miller-Meeks voted for the first time to limit Mr. Trump’s ability to further strike Iran.
“I will not vote to keep our soldiers in an open-ended war, with Iowans paying too much at the pump,” she said.
Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor and former state representative, focused her campaign on affordability, while the Republican incumbent defended Mr. Trump’s economic agenda.
Miller-Meeks has served in Congress since 2021 after winning her 2020 election by six votes, in what was one of the closest House races in U.S. history. She won by a much wider margin — about 20,000 votes — in 2022 when she faced Bohannan for the first time. But her lead narrowed considerably during their 2024 rematch, when Miller-Meeks won her third term in Congress by less than 800 votes — one of the narrowest margins that year.
The results of the 2020 and 2024 races weren’t finalized until weeks after the election, after the close margins led to recounts.
