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July 10th Len’s Political Note #737 Christina Bohannan Iowa 01
2026 General Election
Christina Bohannan
The incumbent Republican, Marianette Miller-Meeks was first elected in 2020. She won by 6 votes. Votes, not percentage points. In 2022, Christina Bohannan ran for the first time and lost by 20,000 votes, just less than a 7 point margin. In 2024, Christina Bohannan ran again, losing by 799 votes.
No wonder Christina Bohannan decided to run one more time. In a year which looks bad for Republicans, Christina Bohannan has reason to think that third time is a charm, that she has a decent chance for election.
Marianette Miller-Meeks was the first person in her family to go to college. She got a bachelor’s degree in from Texas Christian, a Master’s from Southern California – the first in nursing, the second in education. Not counting her marriage to Curt Meeks, she made her first long term choice and got a medical degree from the medical school associated with the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. An ophthalmologist, she made her second professional long-time choice and joined the army. In 1983, after eight years in the army, she made an adjustment and joined the reserves where she stayed until 2000. She retired as a Lt. Colonel and became a private practitioner in Ottumwa.
After her experience as a military doctor, Miller-Meeks made her third long term professional choice – politics. Christina Bohannan can run against her protected from being mocked for having lost twice already. Marionette Miller-Meeks wanted to be a Member of Congress, ran against the incumbent Democrat in 2008, and lost by nearly 20 points, by nearly 60,000 votes. She ran against him again in 2010. In that overwhelmingly Republican year, she lost again – but by 5 points, by a little more than 10,000 votes. Miller-Meeks skipped 2012, but ran for a third time in 2014. Again, she lost to Democrat Dave Loeback. Again she lost by about 5 points — a 14,000 vote loss this time.
Miller-Meeks did get an appointed political position in 2010. She became Iowa’s Department of Public Health Director. Her desire to be a Member of Congress was strong enough that she resigned from that position to make her 2014 run. Perhaps because of her previous role as Public Health Director, her political/medical positions became more visible and more of an issue in 2014. She opposed the Affordable Care Act. She opposed abortion (with the exception of rape, incest, or harm to the mother). She also opposed same sex marriage and criticized the regulation of coal and waterways because of the uncertainty it created for farmers.
Marionette Miller-Meeks got her serious chance in 2020. Dave Loeback retired. Facing State Senator Rita Hart, she finally had her chance for Congress. And she won by those 6 votes. At least one race for the House of Representatives was closer than this one. In 1984, Democrat Frank McCloskey defeated Rick McIntyre by 4 votes. If there were closer races that led to someone sitting in Congress, I could not find them.
Christine Bohannan ran against Miller-Meeks for the first time in 2022. Miller-Meeks won 53-47, ordinarily a narrow win. For Miller-Meeks that result was a landslide. Christine Bohannan came back again in 2024, to lose by 799 votes. And now, Christine Bohannan is running again in 2026.
Chistina Bohannan grew up, the youngest of three children, in a trailer in rural Florida with her mother doing child care and her father working construction. She has a personal understanding of the importance of public support for medical care for low-income people. Her father developed emphysema, couldn’t work, and lost his health insurance. As Christina Bohannan explained, the family had to choose between paying for his medical care and paying for everything else. “People like my dad, who work hard and do their part, should be able to make a living without the fear of everything they worked for being ripped out from under them [by illness].”
Christina Bohannan’s political support for public education grows out of her personal experience as well. Neither of her parents had completed high school. The support of her public school teachers made the difference. They helped her believe she could go to college and helped her prepare to succeed.
Christina Bohannan worked while paying for her schooling at the University of Florida, Gainesville. She picked oranges and cleaned other people’s trailers. After an internship at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, she got a. job there. While working as an engineer for the State of Florida, she went to law school – writing papers, winning prizes, serving as editor-in-chief of Law Review, and graduating first in her class. She earned a clerkship with the eleventh circuit of the US Court of Appeals.
Her students say good things about her: “The only professor my first semester to treat me like an actual person.” “Great professor. Very clear, and very helpful. She will scare you at first, but that will wear off because she is extremely nice.”Christina Bohannan was also a success in academic politics – a form of politics that some people think is the toughest of all. She was elected President of the faculty senate and served on a presidential search committee.
Her intellectual interests and experience in academic leadership led her to think about public leadership. In 2020, she defeated a 20-year legislator in a primary and won the general election. In the legislature, she earned a reputation for tough and critical analysis of proposed bills and proposed constitutional amendments. An academic attorney, she prepared detailed reasons for her opposition to those Republican proposals. With her persuasive work, she earned the respect, though perhaps not the friendship, of her fellow legislators. She had a particular interest in helping families and small businesses recover from the pandemic.
If she is elected, Christina Bohannan, will be a powerful and sophisticated Democratic voice in the current dispute between those who believe the principal role of government is to help the wealthy and big businesses thrive and those who believe the role of government includes ensuring that everyone gets a fair chance at success. More than most, she understands the consequences of poverty, what the government can do to give people a decent chance at success, and what the consequences are of the regulation of business. These conversations continue throughout the country and especially in Iowa’s First Congressional District.
Help Christina Bohannan win this election. DONATE. This is a seat we can flip.
There will be more pieces about candidates who can flip Republican seats. Here is one to consider:
New York 21. Dairy Farmer Blake Gendebien was nominated to run in the special election to replace Elise Stefanik, who was slated to become the ambassador to the United Nations. Trump withdrew the nomination anticipating narrow margins in the House of Representatives. Now she will be running for the US Senate. We have no idea who the Republicans will nominate, but Blake Gendebien has an early start. By April, he had raised $3 million. Help him flip this Republican seat. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #706
Do not forget the vulnerable incumbents. Help them, too:
California 13 Former Assemblyman Adam Gray flipped this seat with a 187 vote win. DONATE. His likely Republican opponent is Javier Lopez, mayor of the small city of Ceres. So far, Adam Gray has raised $400,000. Lopez announced too recently to have reported for the first quarter. See Len’s Political Note #716
California 45 Attorney Derek Tran flipped this seat with a 653 vote win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be, though some are urging Michelle Steel to run to get her seat back. She closed the first quarter with nearly a million dollars on hand, double what Derek Tran had. DONATE to Derek Tran. See Len’s Political Note #717
Maine 02 Incumbent Jared Golden retained his seat with a 2,706 win. Former Governor Paul LePage, a kind of pre-Trump Trump-like figure has announced his candidacy. LePage does not have first quarter fund raising to report while Jared Golden reported about $450,000 available on March 31. DONATE. Jared Golden is facing a man with a following, especially in this Congressional district which Trump carried and earned an electoral college vote. See Len’s Political Note #719
Ohio 09 Incumbent Marcy Kaptur retained her seat with a 2,832 vote win. We do not yet know who her Republican opponent will be, though some think her 2024 opponent Derek Merrin will run again. Marcy Kaptur raised a modest $250,000+ in the first quarter, but had $600,000 available on March 31 to begin the campaign. DONATE to Marcy Kaptur. See Len’s Political Note #718
Texas 34 Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez retained his seat with a 5,237 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be. Vicente Gonzalez is getting himself ready. He has more than $500,000 cash available. Help him stay ahead. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #720
North Carolina 01 Incumbent Don Davis retained his seat with a 6,307 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be though multi-millionaire Sandy Roberson is a possibility. Don Davis had a little more than $500,000 available on March 31. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #721
California 27. Space travel advocate and corporate and governmental leader George Whitesides flipped a Republican seat with a margin of 7,990 votes. We do not yet know who his opponent will be and early money could discourage strong opponents. He is a formidable fundraiser himself and entered the second quarter of fund raising for 2026 with approximately $850,000. Join up. DONATE. Help increase his resources. See Len’s Political Note #726
New York 19 Josh Riley, an attorney on behalf of Democratic causes, returned home to run for Congress. He lost by 4,495 votes in 2022, but flipped the seat by 8,357 votes in 2024. We do not know who his opponent will be. Josh Riley raised $750,000 in the first quarter of the campaign and, on March 31, began the campaign with nearly $700,000. He needs more. In order to win in 2024, he outspent the incumbent $9.5 million to $5.5 million. Outside spending was more even — $16 million on behalf of Josh Riley, $15 million on behalf of his opponent. DONATE to Josh Riley. See Len’s Political Note #727
Ohio 13 Emilia Sykes represents Akron as her mother and father did in the state legislature for more than 40 years. She has, as her opponent, former State Senator Kevin Coughlin, who she defeated by 8,542 votes in 2024. She raised less than $300,000 in the first quarter of this year, the amount she had on hand on March 31. That is more than her prospective opponent who had less than $50,000 on March 31. That disproportion resembles the 2024 race where Emilia Sykes raised $5 million to Kevin Coughlin’s $1.5 million. Outside spending also favored Emilia Sykes — $9 million to $7.5 million in round numbers. DONATE. Keep her lead. Help her win.
New York 04 Laura Gillen represents southeastern Long Island. Neither the Republicans nor we know who will oppose her in November, 2026. She won by 8,603 votes in 2024 and a couple of Republicans have expressed interest. She raised nearly $600,000 in the first quarter of 2025, spent some of it, and began the second quarter with $475,000. DONATE now. Discourage Republicans from running. Convince them she will raise at least the $7 million she raised in 2024 and outsiders will spend the $15 million they spent on her behalf in that previous race.
California 09 Josh Harder represents this Central Valley agricultural district. A graduate of Stanford with advanced degrees from Harvard, he won in 2024 by 9,009 votes, defeating the Republican African American Evangelical mayor of Stockton, He outspent the mayor $4.8 million to $2.2 million. Candidate spending was partially offset because outside spending on behalf of the Republican came to $1 million, while very little outside spending supported Josh Harder. In support of the 2026 campaign, he raised $700,000 in the first quarter and had $2.2 million available for the campaign. We do not know who Josh Harder 2026 opponent will be, but early funding will discourage some. DONATE. Keep him in the lead. See Len’s Political Note #730
GIVE OF YOURSELF AS WELL.
Join peaceful demonstrations. I hope you found a place to march on June 14 and did something on Memorial Day to remember those who died in the wars. Be prepared to march on July 17. Look around. Many communities have weekly demonstrations against Trump. Find one and join. Call your Senators and Members of Congress. Remind them Trump and the Republicans have been working on huge tax cuts for the wealthy, sharp reductions in Medicaid for those who are not wealthy, and expanding our national debt in the process.
