A Democratic PAC that supports doctors and scientists in elections is attempting to unseat Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) by blaming her for high healthcare costs in one of the most tightly contested House districts in the country in the November midterm elections.
314 Action Fund, a left-wing political action committee that helps candidates with science backgrounds win federal and state elections, spent $750,000 in a television, digital, and mail advertising attack campaign against Miller-Meeks.
Miller-Meeks, an ophthalmologist by training who first won office in 2019, secured her reelection in 2024 by fewer than 800 votes. This year, she faces the same challenger, former Democratic state Rep. Christina Bohannan.
Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, told the Washington Examiner via email that her organization is investing heavily in the race because “the path to winning the Democratic majority in Congress runs through Iowa.”
“As a doctor in Congress, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks should be standing up for Iowans on healthcare, but instead she’s sided with insurance companies and Donald Trump,” Naughton said.
The 15-second and 30-second television and online video ads against Miller-Meeks hone in on her support for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Trump last year, which Democrats denounce as cutting $1 trillion in funding for Medicaid health insurance for low-income Americans over the next decade. Republicans maintain that the savings are not from spending cuts but rather from reforms that strengthen work requirements and cut down on fraud.
The ad also notes that Miller-Meeks, who sits on the GOP Doctors Caucus in the House, has received nearly $262,000 from the pharmaceutical and health industry while in office, according to the campaign finance website Open Secrets.
Anticipating the Democratic attack line that the spending reductions would imperil rural hospitals, Republicans included a $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund in the legislation aimed at helping hospitals and health systems improve the quality of care they provide to rural communities. Miller-Meeks played a significant role in that effort.
The Washington Examiner contacted Miller-Meeks’s office to request comment on the ad and her healthcare policy record.
314 Action is throwing its support behind Bohannan, an engineer and attorney by training and a former law professor at the University of Iowa.
Bohannan has a comprehensive healthcare agenda on her campaign website. Unlike more liberal Democrats pushing for a Medicare for All agenda, Bohannan says she does not support “forcing everyone onto Medicare” to create a universal healthcare system that eliminates private health insurers.
“I want everyone to have health care coverage, and I want everyone to have choices,” Bohanna’s campaign website reads. “I want you to have the choice to have Medicare as your health insurance if you want it, and I want you to have private insurance as an option too.”
Naughton said via email to the Washington Examiner Miller-Meeks “has betrayed her Hippocratic Oath, taking money from Big Pharma and voting with Donald Trump to strip healthcare coverage from hundreds of thousands of Iowans.”
“While Christina has spent her entire career working to fight corruption, lower costs and expand healthcare, Rep. Miller-Meeks has spent her career talking out of both sides of her mouth,” Naughton said.
A multitude of physicians, healthcare professionals, and other scientists are running for office in the 2026 elections, many of whom are Democrats backed by 314 Action.
For example, Dr. Annie Andrews is running as a Democrat for Senate in South Carolina against Republican Sen. Darlene Graham Nordone, the sister and successor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. Andrews, who has run for office multiple times, launched her campaign earlier this year following a state-wide outbreak of measles among unvaccinated children.
HALEY STEVENS SAYS ‘FOLKS LIKE ME’ AREN’T WINNING AGAINST PROGRESSIVES
Dr. Amy Acton, a former public health official, is also running for governor of Ohio with the help of 314 Action against former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Since its first election cycle in 2016, 314 Action has raised more than $100 million over the past decade and $25 million this cycle alone. The organization has contributed $14.5 million to Democratic campaigns across the country in the midterm elections so far, its largest primary investment to date.