DAVENPORT, Iowa — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) praised Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) as a key peacemaker in the House Republican Conference during a stump speech for her tight Iowa reelection campaign.
“Mariannette is one of the handful of people who can walk into a room when it’s very contentious, calm everybody down, get them together,” Johnson said. “It is an essential skill set in this historic moment we’re in, OK? I got to have her.”
Johnson spoke to a crowd of supporters at the Davenport, Iowa, headquarters for the reelection campaign of Miller-Meeks, whose 2024 race was the tightest election in the country.
Miller-Meeks, who was first sworn in to Congress in 2019, defeated former Iowa state Rep. Christiana Bohannan by fewer than 800 votes in 2024. The pair is facing off again on Nov. 3, with early voting starting Wednesday.
Iowa is a key state in the 2026 midterm elections, with four House races tilting toward Democrats. Ceding that many seats could cause the Republicans to lose control of the House.
Johnson said analysts estimate the contest between Miller-Meeks and Bohannan will cost close to $50 million in spending by both parties.
Bohannan has a slight polling advantage over Miller-Meeks in the toss-up district in eastern Iowa. Both Miller-Meeks and Johnson said that polling is inaccurate.
“I don’t care what the experts say,” Miller-Meeks said. “They don’t know Iowa, and they don’t know us.
Protesters outside the event criticized both Miller-Meeks and Johnson for passing a nearly $1 trillion reduction in Medicaid spending over the next 10 years as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025.
Kate Pence, 72, from Eldridge, Iowa, told the Washington Examiner that she was denied entry into the rally despite registering in advance.
“What they’ve been doing to healthcare is criminal,” Pence said.
Miller-Meeks told the Washington Examiner the Republican bill “strengthened and preserved Medicaid for those who need it” by preventing illegal immigrants from taking advantage of the program and by implementing work requirements for able-bodied adults.
“Every dollar that goes to waste or fraud in Medicaid is a dollar that doesn’t go to a child,” Miller-Meeks saidIt’s a dollar that doesn’t go to a pregnant woman, and it’s a dollar that doesn’t go to a senior citizen or someone with disabilities.”
Roughly 20% of Iowans, or 700,000 people, depend on Medicaid, the partially federally funded safety net insurance program for low-income adults and children. The state’s Medicaid program also covers nearly 4 in 10 births.
Miller-Meeks was instrumental in advancing the Rural Health Transformation Fund in the OBBBA, which allots $50 billion for upgrading rural health systems nationwide over the next five years. Iowa is set to receive about $209 million in the first year of the program, with up to $1 billion total through 2030.
TUREK TRIES TO TIE HINSON TO MEDICAID CUTS IN CRUCIAL IOWA SENATE RACE
Sue Dasvich, 69, a retired physician from Iowa City protesting the event, told the Washington Examiner the money from the rural health program will not be enough to offset the costs and will be “devastating for Iowa.”
“It doesn’t add up for Iowa,” Dasvich said.