First District congresswoman Marianette Miller-Meeks is in office because, after three failed runs for Congress against incumbent Dave Loebsack, she finally managed to get six more votes than Democrat Rita Hart after Loebsack retired. With not enough time to complete a recount by Iowa law, she was seated in congress.
Miller-Meeks has turned out to be an ideological politician who has been publicly aligning herself with the extremists in her party. Examples include her virtual town hall in March with Jim Jordan, who voted to overturn the 2022 election results, refused to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and failed to answer questions about his phone calls with Donald Trump on Jan. 6.
And now last week Miller-Meeks posted a photo on her Twitter account from her campaign revealing the flag of the Three Percenters hanging in plain view on the wall. The Three Percenters are a far-right militia anti-government group. Why would a representative in government display anti-government propaganda?
Add to that her embarrassing wearing of a mask with the number “6” on it in congress. Did that stand for 6 votes or Jan. 6? Then getting fined for refusing to wear a mask in the House to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In her mind, it was okay to wear a mask for political purposes but not to protect her colleagues from the possibility of getting infected with COVID-19? Is hers the kind of leadership that is needed at this moment in time?
Miller-Meeks has had her chance. She’s had her day in congress but she does not stand for Iowa values and we cannot afford to give her another term.
Christina Bohannan, of Iowa City, is a highly qualified Democratic candidate also running to represent District 1. Let’s send someone to congress in November who will do the job.