Democrat Christina Bohannan Unseats Iowa Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Third Straight Matchup

Democrat Christina Bohannan has won Iowa's 1st Congressional District, CBS News projected, defeating Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the pair's third consecutive contest for the seat.

The race had been expected to be tight in the months before the election, but as November drew closer, election forecasters shifted their ratings in the Democrats' direction.

Warning signs for Republicans emerged in mid-October, when the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with House GOP leaders, stopped spending in the district in what amounted to an effective concession. President Trump campaigned in Iowa in late October and again in early November, though he did not appear in Miller-Meeks' district.

The GOP's longtime dominance in Iowa showed widening cracks in the closing weeks of the campaign. Mr. Trump's tariffs and the war with Iran have hit the agriculture-heavy state hard, pushing up the cost of fertilizer and diesel for farmers.

Miller-Meeks also broke with the president shortly before the election. In one of the final votes before lawmakers left Washington in September to campaign, she voted for the first time to limit Mr. Trump's ability to launch further strikes against Iran. "I will not vote to keep our soldiers in an open-ended war, with Iowans paying too much at the pump," she said.

Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor and former state representative, built her campaign around affordability, while the Republican incumbent defended Mr. Trump's economic agenda.

Miller-Meeks has held the seat since 2021, after winning her first race in 2020 by just six votes, one of the closest House contests in U.S. history. She prevailed far more comfortably in 2022, beating Bohannan by roughly 20,000 votes in their first matchup, but the margin narrowed dramatically in their 2024 rematch, when she secured a third term by fewer than 800 votes, one of the slimmest results in the country that year.

Both the 2020 and 2024 races were so close that they went to recounts, with the final outcomes not settled until weeks after Election Day.