Miller-Meeks vs. Bohannan: Where Iowa’s 1st District candidates stand
Here is where incumbent Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democratic challenger Christina Bohannan stand on the key issues facing eastern Iowa, including health care, foreign policy and clean water.
At Heartland Signal, we want to be sure voters are informed heading into the midterm elections. Accordingly, we’re creating a series where we offer voters in those districts a look at the two candidates and their stances on issues that matter most to voters right now.
Iowa’s 1st Congressional District
Incumbent: Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Republican)
District profile: Southeast Iowa, including Iowa City and Quad Cities Area
Last election:
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Percent |
| Mariannette Miller-Meeks | Republican | 206,955 | 50.0 |
| Christina Bohannan | Democrat | 206,156 | 49.8 |
Q: Who is running to represent Iowa’s 1st Congressional District?
A: Incumbent Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks is running against former Democratic state representative Christina Bohannan for this seat.
Q: Where is Mariannette Miller-Meeks from?
A: Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ series of alleged residences has been a source of some controversy. She grew up in California and moved to the Iowa town of Ottumwa (which is in a different congressional district) as an adult. But in 2022, she registered to vote at the house of a Republican state senator who did live in the district. The Republican Scott County attorney never investigated whether she actually lived there. In 2024, she re-registered at an apartment in the 1st District that was linked to one of her donors. Now, she’s registered to vote in the Ottumwa area again, even though it is not in the district, which means she cannot vote for herself.
Q: Where is Christina Bohannan from?
A: Christina Bohannan grew up in a mobile home in Florida. But in her late 20s, she moved to Johnson County, Iowa in 2000, where she still lives today.
Health care
Q: Does Mariannette Miller-Meeks want to make health care better?
A: Mariannette Miller Meeks has said she wants a system that “takes care of you when you’re ill and you’re sick, but also incentivizes to adopt healthy behaviors that keep you healthier and out of the hospital.” Accordingly, she said higher health care costs will force people to have “skin in the game” and an “incentive” to “exercise more” instead of “over-utilizing” doctors. She supported making it harder to get on Medicaid by voting to impose work requirements on recipients and cut billions in benefits, including money that would have gone to the MercyOne Genesis Medical Center in Davenport.
Q: Does Christina Bohannan want to make health care better?
A: Christina Bohannan wants to give everyone the option to get on Medicare for health insurance, cap the costs of prescription drugs and restore the health care funding that Miller-Meeks voted to cut. She stops short of single-payer health care proposals like Medicare for All, which many progressive Democrats have campaigned on. While she was in the state legislature, she supported bills that would have exempted female hygiene products from sales tax and required insurance companies to cover COVID-19 and telehealth treatments.
Q: Is Mariannette Miller-Meeks working to stop the cancer crisis?
A: Mariannette Miller-Meeks has prioritized supporting agribusiness while representing Iowa in Congress. This means she supported an effort to reverse an EPA ban on trichloroethylene, which has been linked to increased rates of kidney cancer, liver cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She also voted to gut the Clean Water Act and make it easier for states upstream from Iowa to pollute rivers.
Q: Is Christina Bohannan working to stop the cancer crisis?
A: Christina Bohannan has pledged to fight against forever chemicals and other cancer-causing water pollutants as well as to create incentives for farmers to keep carcinogenic chemicals out of streams and rivers. While she was in the legislature, she also supported a bill requiring water systems be tested annually for lead.
Affordability and tariffs
Q: Is Mariannette Miller-Meeks trying to make things cheaper?
A: Mariannette Miller-Meeks has a history of voting to support Donald Trump’s priorities, some of which have led to higher costs. She has voted to support the Iran War after it was launched. She also voted to support higher tariffs in March 2025, September 2025 and this past February. The Iran War and higher tariffs have led to increases in inflation. She has also defended the current health care system, saying high-deductible health care plans for catastrophes incentivize people to exercise more.
Q: Is Christina Bohannan trying to make things cheaper?
A: Christina Bohannan opposes tariffs and the Iran War. She also wants to address the cost of living by lowering housing costs and reining in corporate greed. She also wants to lower health care costs by capping the price of prescription drugs and allowing people to opt in to Medicare. While she was in the legislature, she sponsored bills that would make more people eligible for the child tax credit and child care assistance program, as well as giving more funding to food banks.
Data centers and energy bills
Q: Will Mariannette Miler-Meeks stop data centers?
A: Marianette Miller Meeks voted four times for a bill that would have prevented states and cities from regulating AI data centers.
Q: Will Christina Bohannan stop data centers?
A: Christina Bohannan wants local communities to be able to decide for themselves whether data centers should be built nearby, although she has not yet defined what that legislation looks like.
Ethics and accountability
Q: Will Mariannette Miller-Meeks fight corruption?
A: Marianette Miller-Meeks has a mixed record on anti-corruption measures. She voted against a bill that would have banned dark money, prevented congressmen from making money off of their roles and strengthened ethics enforcement. She also took a $1,000 donation from an insulin manufacturer on the day that she voted against capping insulin prices. But she also supported a ban on congressional stock trading.
Q: Will Christina Bohannan fight corruption?
A: Christina Bohannan supports a number of anti-corruption measures in addition to the proposed stock trading ban. She also includes a constitutional amendment that would block corporate and billionaire spending on elections and increased ethics enforcement.
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