U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, emphasized her support for law enforcement at a campaign event in Wilton, Iowa, Wednesday night. 

During a “Back the Blue” event at Axe & Oak Whiskey House, Miller-Meeks thanked local law enforcement and called for a secure southern border. Miller-Meeks highlighted her pro-law enforcement stance and support for building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

“Close that border,” she said. “Put up a wall, put up a fence, put all the security apparatuses, all the sensors, all the technology. Secure that border.” 

Miller-Meeks is running for Iowa’s 1st Congressional against Democratic candidate Christina Bohannan. A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll found Democrats are preferred to Republican congressional candidates in the district, marking the first time during the 2024 election cycle that polling showed a Democrat favored to a Republican in an Iowa congressional district. 

With less than a month before the Nov. 5 election, both campaigns have boosted events across the state, with Miller-Meeks targeting rural Iowa and Bohannan focusing on the young vote. 

Miller-Meeks underscored that her opponent, Bohannan, voted against a bill that would increase qualified immunity protections for law enforcement. 

“Like Kamala Harris, [she] supported groups that were defunding the police, that were abolishing prisons, or sanctuary cities, or no cash bail,” Miller-Meeks said. “All of those things that have put us in peril, including an open border, and now they want to pretend like they want to fix it.” 

A PolitiFact Iowa fact-check in 2021 — when Miller-Meeks and Bohannan first faced off for the seat — showed Miller-Meeks’ claim that Bohannan wants to abolish law enforcement was false.

Addressing roughly 50 locals in the restaurant, Attorney General Brenna Bird, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, and two law enforcement officers thanked Miller-Meeks for her staunch support of law enforcement. 

Ernst, who is campaigning on behalf of several fellow Republicans, encouraged attendees to support every Republican on the ballot and pushed the importance of not only an all-Republican Iowa Congressional Delegation but an entirely GOP-controlled Congress. 

“I’m going to drive hard through the election — not my election cycle — but gosh darn it, we need to make sure that we’re keeping all the right people in all the right places,” Ernst said.  

Ernst said Iowa needs to “win big” for former President Donald Trump. 

Bird also emphasized the importance for the Republican party of not only electing Trump, but GOP congressional members as well. 

“President Trump needs her in the house to get the things done that need to be done for this country,” Bird said. “We absolutely need her in the House.”

Bird also praised Miller-Meeks for the relationships she has built with people all over Iowa’s 1st Congressional District. 

“She’s taking the time to sit down and listen and to serve those who serve,” Bird said. 

Bird told attendees to encourage other people to vote because it will be a tough race. Bird, Ernst, and Miller-Meeks all poked fun at her previous tight races. Miller-Meeks won her first time in Congress against former Iowa state senator and current Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart in 2020 by just six votes and won reelection against Bohannan in 2022 by seven percentage points. 

“You like the tough races, you always have taken on the tough stuff,” Bird said to Miller-Meeks. “I’ve never seen this lady sign up for a cakewalk, have you? She’s a fighter, she’s ready to take it on.” 

A recent Miller-Meeks campaign ad featured local law enforcement officials Muscatine County Sheriff Quinn Riess and Chief of Police Dave Clark. The pair spoke in support of Miller-Meeks and stressed the importance of maintaining a strong relationship between government and law enforcement. 

Bohannan released a campaign ad featuring endorsements from law enforcement and touting her public safety record on Sept. 27. Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber and Johnson County Sheriff Brad Kunkel voiced support for Bohannan in the ad. 

“I’ve always known Christina to tell the truth — and that’s what we need in Washington,” Kunkel said in a news release about the ad. “I have complete trust in Christina Bohannan to deliver for local law enforcement, improve public safety, and secure the border when she is in Congress. She has always had our back, and now I’m proud to have hers.” 

Bringing Bohannan’s voting history in the state legislature to the foreground, the news release said Bohannan has voted to increase penalties for human trafficking, fight the fentanyl crisis, and introduce a measure to support officers who are injured on the job. 

Standing in front of a Blue Lives Matter flag, Riess said the Republican party is strong and supports law enforcement daily at the federal, state, and local levels. 

“We’ve got a great team between local legislators, board supervisors, state house members, state senate members, members of the federal level, we could not be better supported,” Riess said. 

RELATED: Iowa 1st Congressional District candidates to debate Oct. 21

Clark asked attendees to vote for Miller-Meeks to maintain support for law enforcement. He said representing a smaller department, this was the first time he’s had a politician sit down with him to ask what he was facing in his small town. 

“That’s never happened in a 20-year career where I’ve had the congresswoman, state’s attorney general come in and say, ‘Okay, what are you facing in your small town?’” Clark said. “I have felt like over the years, my voice and my concerns have been relayed to the proper people, and they’ve been heard.”

Henry County Sheriff Rich McNamee plans to cast his ballot for Miller-Meeks in the upcoming election. After visiting the border at McAllen, Texas on Sept. 23, McNamee said the border is a large concern of his. 

“It’s a disaster, and it affects people all across our country,” McNamee said. “It isn’t just Texas or Arizona or New Mexico, it’s the entire country that’s affected by our weak border.” 

Jefferson County Sheriff Bart Richmond said he fully supports Miller-Meeks because she supports his county. 

Richmond said his deputies have started to carry Narcan and have been trained on how to use AEDs because people in his county are overdosing on fentanyl. He said his department has worked with a drug task force to work to stop the flow of drugs. 

Overdose deaths are rapidly declining across the nation, but Iowa is an exception, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control. Iowa is the only state in the Midwest with increasing overdose deaths as other state’s numbers are decreasing. 

A January report by the Omaha Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration showed Iowa saw a 105 percent increase in fentanyl seizures last year.

“It’s flowing in stronger,” he said. “And stuff that is being caught is in larger amounts than we’ve ever seen, and it has to stop. It’s going to ruin our communities.”

Miller-Meeks and Bohannan will face off in a televised debate on Oct. 21 at 8 p.m.