| New reporting from CNBC highlights how Iowa is home to some of Democrats’ “most promising opportunities to pick up House seats” as the “state’s economy is struggling” thanks to politicians like Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn, and Joe Mitchell.
Even Republicans are sounding the alarm about how “high prices and a stagnating agricultural economy could create an enthusiasm gap for Republicans.”
Miller-Meeks and Nunn’s agenda has hit Iowans hard: Medicaid cuts that “resulted in rural health clinic closures,” reckless tariffs that “hit soybean and other farmers hard,” and “farm bankruptcies are up” while “state tax revenue is on the decline.”
DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“Iowans are being squeezed from every direction thanks to Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn, and Joe Mitchell’s loyalty to Washington over Iowa. Voters will hold them accountable for putting their special interest bosses first while backing the agenda raising prices, gutting health care, and allowing reckless war overseas – Iowans are ready for change after years of broken promises and will reject these creatures of the swamp.”
CNBC: Democrats see midterm hope in reliably red Iowa as Trump approval ratings sag
Democrats have high hopes for Iowa in the 2026 midterm elections, with competitive races in both the House and Senate, as well as for governor.
Two of Democrats’ most promising opportunities to pick up House seats are in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd congressional districts, where they’re looking to unseat Republican incumbent Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
- Connie Klug didn’t leave the Republican Party. The party left her, she said. She was raised in the GOP, considers herself a fiscal conservative and married a registered Republican.
- Klug was hosting several friends for a roundtable with Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democratic state senator and one of a handful of candidates who have at least a fighting chance of flipping Republican-held U.S. House seats in the former swing state that is now reliably red.
- Nevertheless, Trump’s approval ratings continue to fall, prices are up due to the Iran war, and Iowa’s economy is struggling. Democrats are hoping to take back a House majority…And they see Iowa as an important part of that mission.
- In House races, Trone Garriott is trying to oust incumbent Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, and former state Rep. Christina Bohannan is due for a rematch with Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa’s 1st District. Bohannan lost in 2024 by less than 800 votes.
- “It’s really important to show up for people, and I have faith in Iowans to be able to come together and meet the challenges facing us today,” [Trone Garriott] said, fresh off a 21-county tour of the district that had ended the night before. “But I know that there are a lot of Iowans who have lost faith in their government, and for good reason.” There was palpable enthusiasm in the room about her candidacy.
- A Morning Consult poll released in May found Trump has a -7 approval rating in Iowa. And the state’s economy is struggling.
- Farm bankruptcies are up statewide. Tariffs and the Iran war have hit soybean and other farmers hard. Hospitals and rural health clinics are closing, or are at risk of closing, at least in part because of Trump administration Medicaid cuts. And state tax revenue is on the decline.
- Marc Short, a former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence who now chairs the board of Advancing American Freedom, a conservative public policy organization founded by Pence, has raised alarms about how in his view Trump administration policies have hurt farmers, a key voting bloc in a heavily agrarian state.
- High prices and a stagnating agricultural economy could create an enthusiasm gap for Republicans heading into the midterms in farming and rural communities in places like Iowa, Short said.
- “If there’s a lack of enthusiasm among a core constituency, I think there’s a huge risk to Republicans,” Short said. “You can see that there’s going to be plenty of people who feel that what they voted for did not turn out to be what they wanted from a policy perspective. So they just stay home.”
- …the policies touted by Nunn and Miller-Meeks are the same that Trone Garriott and Bohannan are citing to mount a case against the incumbents.
- “People are struggling, choosing between groceries and filling up the gas tank, not being able to find a doctor in their community anymore. And these are all Trump policies that my congressman is supporting wholeheartedly,” Trone Garriott said in an interview before the roundtable at Klug’s.
- Under Republican rule in Washington, ACA tax subsidies were not extended, year-round E15 has not gotten final passage, prices for diesel, gas and fertilizer have been volatile, and inflation is high. Bohannan and Trone Garriott both said Trump’s 2025 tax-and-spending package, which Nunn and Miller-Meeks voted for, resulted in rural health clinic closures.
- Nunn and Miller-Meeks have also repeatedly voted against war powers resolutions that would rein in Trump’s war on Iran. Two Iowans have died in combat — both from Nunn’s district — since the war began in February.
- Both Democratic candidates said if elected they would push to restore Medicaid funding and oppose Trump’s tariffs. They also criticized their opponents’ continued support of the war in Iran.
- Bohannan, who is positioning herself as an independent voice for Iowa…said she thinks people of all political persuasions in southeast Iowa are ready for a change.
- “Last cycle I came within 799 votes of winning this district even though President Trump won it by over 35,000 votes. And if you do the math on that, you see that tens of thousands of people who voted for Donald Trump also voted for me,” Bohannan said.
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