DAVENPORT, Iowa — More than 12 hours after polls closed in Iowa on Election Day, there's still no winner declared in the race to represent Iowa's 1st District in the House of Represenatitives.
As of 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 6, the 1st District rematch between incumbent Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democrat Christina Bohannan remained too early to call. With 99% of votes counted, Miller-Meeks holds a slight lead over Bohannan, 206,669 votes to 205,870.
Miller-Meeks is seeking her third U.S. House term as she faces the same Democrat she beat in 2022. In that race, Miller-Meeks topped Bohannan by about 7 percentage points — a far greater spread than her six vote margin in 2020 over Democrat Rita Hart.
In her campaign, Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor and former legislator who represented the 85th District in the Iowa House from 2021 to 2023, emphasized her support of abortion rights at a time with Iowa Republicans have changed the law to outlaw abortions in most circumstances. She also called for reducing costs for a range of goods and services, including groceries, gas and housing.
University of Iowa Political Science Professor Tim Hagle said a recount must be declared within three days of the election.
"You start with how close the particular election was," Hagle said. "The reason that is particularly important is it has to do with who pays for it."
If the final vote margin is within 1% or 50 votes, the State of Iowa will pay for the recount. If a recount is requested, a three-person board is created to evaluate the votes.
"It may be worth it to a candidate if it's really close and they think that they can get a couple of votes here and there," Hagle said.
Miller-Meeks and Bohannan were also also facing a write-in campaign from Libertarian Nicholas Gluba after a state panel found that the Libertarian Party of Iowa failed to follow state law in choosing their candidates. The Iowa Supreme Court upheld this decision, pulling Gluba and two other candidates from the ballot.
Gluba is a member of the city council in Lone Tree, Iowa, which is a small town of approximately 1,400 people. He is also a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.