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.
Nov. 6, 10 p.m. | Miller-Meeks held a press conference in Iowa City on Wednesday, where she reaffirmed her lead. She previously declared victory at her election party in Riverside late Tuesday night. That was before Washington County reported its votes, being the last in the district to do so.
During the press conference, Miller-Meeks said her margin was too big for Bohannan to overcome. Washington County gave her an even bigger lead over Bohannan, as her team predicted; she leads Bohannan by 799 votes.
"We anticipate that there are very few votes that are remaining, very few votes that are out there in provisional ballots, and certainly not enough to overcome a triple-digit number that we’ve been able to put up at 799," Miller-Meeks said.
Miller-Meeks said Bohannan's focus on abortion and education didn't connect with what voters were worried about.
"What people were concerned about was high prices, they were concerned about the border, they were concerned about fentanyl because it was affecting everybody in their community," Miller-Meeks said. "They were concerned about what they saw as increased crime and policies that were soft on crime, and they were concerned about constitutional liberties like free speech."
When it comes to easing those high prices, Miller-Meeks said a new farm bill, renewing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and increasing domestic energy production will help families.
"If we can increase energy domestic homegrown energy production, not only does that help the state of Iowa, but it also helps to lower energy costs," Miller-Meeks said. "Not only can we lower costs at the pump, about 60% of food cost is energy cost, so that helps to lower the cost of food."
She said the U.S. Senate is responsible for a delay in the farm bill. She said the House will continue to push, but an extension to 2025 is possible.
In a post on social media, Bohannan said she expects more ballots to come in over the coming days and thanked her supporters for their work.
Miller-Meeks said she's confident in her lead, even if Bohannan calls for a recount.