- Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is running against Democratic state Rep. Christina Bohannan in Iowa's 1st Congressional District.
- The 1st District covers most of central and southeastern Iowa.
Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks faces off against Democrat Christina Bohannan in Iowa's 1st Congressional District.
Polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. local time, or 9 p.m. EST.
2022 General EmbedsIowa's 1st Congressional District candidates
Don't say your vote doesn't cout: Miller-Meeks, first elected in 2020, won the election by just six votes after a recount. She now sits on the House Committees on Veterans' Affairs and Homeland Security.
On abortion, the Republican says she believes the procedure should be illegal with exceptions for rape, incest, and when the mother's life is at risk.
Prior to her time in Congress, Miller-Meeks was appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad as the director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, where she served until 2014. In 2018, she was elected to serve in the Iowa State Senate. Miller-Meeks also served in the US Army for 24 years as a nurse and doctor.
Bohannan, Miller-Meek's challenger, currently represents the 85th District in the Iowa House of Representatives. She's also a law professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches constitutional law, torts, and intellectual property.
In an interview with the Quad-City Times, Bohannan said she has disagreed with President Joe Biden on a number of issues — the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and recent student loan forgiveness — and agreed with former President Donald Trump on prioritizing infrastructure and standing up to unfair trade practices with China.
In 2020, she unseated Vicki Lensing, a 20-year incumbent, in the Democratic primary to represent Iowa city in the state house.
"I ran against a 20-year incumbent of my own party when I thought that neither the Democrats or Republicans were doing enough," she told the Quad-City Times.
Voting history for Iowa's 1st Congressional District
Iowa's 1st Congressional District covers most of central and southeastern Iowa and includes Iowa City, Davenport, Pella, and Burlington.
President Donald Trump had a 4 percentage point margin of victory over Joe Biden under the district's previous boundaries in 2020 before the once-in-a-decade redistricting process following the 2020 Census made it slightly less Republican. The new district would have had Trump winning, but with a less-than-3-percentage-point margin.
The newly drawn district includes 16 of the 24 counties Miller-Meeks currently represents.
The money race
According to OpenSecrets, Miller-Meeks has raised $4.45 million, spent $3.23 million, and has $1.67 million cash on hand, as of October 19.
Her challenger, Bohannan, has raised $2.93 million, spent $2.37 million, and has $558,000 still left to spend, as of October 19.
As of November 4, more than a dozen super PACs, national party committees, politically active nonprofits, and other non-candidate groups have together spent about $2.7 million to advocate for or against candidates in this race. Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican hybrid PAC that supports Miller-Meeks, alone accounts for more than half of the race's outside spending.
What experts say
The race between Miller-Meeks and Bohannan is rated as "lean Republican" by Inside Elections, "lean Republican" by The Cook Political Report, and "likely Republican" by Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.