In an almost hour-long debate, U.S. Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Iowa City Democrat Christina Bohannan squared off in a testy exchange over abortion and immigration during an Iowa PBS debate on Monday. 

The debate comes with only 15 days until the Nov. 5 general election. Iowa’s 1st Congressional District race is a virtual coin toss and one of the most competitive in the country. Most major election forecasters rate the races as a tossup, and a September Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll shows Democrats favored by 3 percent in the district — well within the poll’s margin of error. 

Almost immediately, the two sparred over the issue of abortion. This issue has come to define the upcoming election from the top of the ticket, on down to Iowa’s 1st Congressional District. Bohannan has sought to define her campaign on the issue seeking to draw a contrast with Miller-Meeks, who she accuses of supporting unpopular restrictions on abortion. 

Abortion became a key issue for Democrats after conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal precedent in Roe v. Wade with the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which ended federal common law protections for abortion. Three of the six conservative justices were appointed by former President Donald Trump. 

During the debate, Bohannan sought to drill down on Miller-Meeks’ record on abortion pointing to her support for a national life-at-conception bill that would have banned all abortions by giving fetuses personhood rights. 

Miller-Meeks argued that the bill doesn’t mention abortion. However, the bill would give legal personhood status to fetuses, meaning abortion would equate to murder.

“Everybody knows this. It is a personhood bill,” Bohannan said. “It creates the full rights of personhood at the moment of conception. Everybody knows the real consequences of that is a complete abortion ban with no exceptions across the country.” 

Bohannan also pointed to Miller-Meeks’ support for a six-week abortion ban during her campaign for Iowa Senate in 2019. She also pointed to Miller-Meeks’ vote for a constitutional amendment that would explicitly remove any projections for abortion from the Iowa constitution. 

“I think that’s wrong,” Bohannan said during the debate on Monday. “ I think that that’s very much out of step. It’s creating a lot of problems for women around the state.” 

Bohannan said she supports putting the federal abortion protections in Roe v. Wade back into federal law. 

Miller-Meeks said that she now supports a federal abortion ban that limits abortion to 15 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. The bill would not affect states with more strict abortion bans but would set a federal standard for states with more stringent protections. Miller-Meeks said that Bohannan’s refusal to specify a specific time frame in which she would support limits on abortion is extreme.

“As a physician and a scientist, I can say that life begins at conception for what my opponent just said was to refuse to answer whether or not there were any restrictions or limits on abortion,” Miller-Meeks said. “Roe v. Wade does not have limits or restrictions on abortion.” 

The candidates also sparred on the southern border, with Miller-Meeks saying that she wants to go back to Trump-era policies and reduce the number of illegal border crossings. 

Border crossings reached a high during President Joe Biden’s presidency in December 2023 with over 200,000 encounters recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Control, however, it has returned to the same levels seen in August 2020 in recent months. 

“We have a crisis at our southern border,” Miller-Meeks said during the debate Monday. “I think we need to start going back to policies that worked, rather than the Biden-Harris administration that got rid of executive orders that were keeping the border in check, and now we have a crisis that our southern border due to these policies will respond to that.” 

Miller-Meeks emphasized the need to secure the southern border, pointing to Democrats to blame for the increase in border crossings. Miller-Meeks also said that her opponent, Bohannan, only started speaking on the border because it became a political liability. 

During the debate on Monday, Bohannan said that she also supports securing the border and that she also wants to see an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants. But, she criticized Miller-Meeks for not acting on immigration and instead voting for a bill that would never pass in the Senate. Bohannan also criticized congressional leaders for killing the bipartisan border bill that was being negotiated during the height of the spike in border crossings. 

“We have to secure the border. I think that’s very, very important,” Bohannan said. “Congress, under our Constitution, bears the brunt of the responsibility on immigration policy and what we have seen is that both parties, for a long time in Congress, talked a lot about needing to secure the border and did nothing about it — kept kicking that can down the road, but we had an opportunity.” 

Republican organizations hold watch party 

Eastern Iowa Young Republicans and Americans for Prosperity hosted a joint debate watch party at Quinton’s Bar & Deli in downtown Iowa City Monday night.

Roughly 10 people attended, as a mix of college students and Johnson County residents ate chicken wings and watched the two candidates spar. 

Ray Slach, a Republican of West Branch, said both candidates performed well, but he agreed with Miller-Meeks’ responses more than Bohannan’s. 

Slach said Bohannan’s campaign focuses too heavily on abortion when there are other issues that Iowans are dealing with, such as the economy. He said Miller-Meeks’ platforms are stronger than the Democratic challenger. 

Slach said the debate reaffirmed his support for Miller-Meeks, highlighting in particular her stance on immigration and stemming the flow of border crossings.

For Kayleigh Jurzzyk, a University of Iowa first-year student and an Independent, the night marked her first time viewing a Congressional debate. Jurrzyk said she watched Miller-Meeks speak four years ago to the Scott County Republicans Club, and she feels as though Miller-Meeks has fine-tuned her ability to answer questions. 

“She was ready to bring forth her thoughts and get her point across of what she stands for, and I think that was really important to me as somebody who’s voting to see what she wants to get across and where her values lay,” Jurzzyk said. 

Jurzzyk said going into the debate, she didn’t fully understand the candidates’ stances on abortion, including Miller-Meeks’ support for a national abortion ban with exceptions for the life of the mother, rape, or incest. 

She said hearing from the candidates themselves on their opinions and values on abortion clarified the issue for her, and getting first-person information from candidates is important. 

Mackenzie Fuglseth’s vote was solidified by the debate. A UI second-year and registered Republican, Fuglseth said seeing young voters turn out to the watch party excites her. 

Fuglseth said Miller-Meeks outperformed Bohannan and criticized the Democratic candidate for finding loopholes, avoiding answering questions, and presenting mismatched ideas. 

“Marianette Miller-Meeks was definitely clear-minded and spoke her truth throughout the entirety of the debate,” she said. “I just think Mariannette Miller-Meeks is definitely more of a leader and really fights for what she wants, and you can see that in everything she talks about.”

Bohannan campaign holds packed watch party

Leading up to the 8 p.m. start time, Sarah Prineas, Bohannan’s political director, called Bohannan’s husband while she was in the green room. The room yelled “good luck Christina,” to which she laughed over the phone and replied, “That is very sweet.” 

“Go get ‘em!” Prineas yelled, and everyone cheered, raising glasses and whopping for the Democratic candidate. 

A TV set up at the front of the Red Room at Sanctuary Pub, roughly 30 Bohannan supporters gave lively responses throughout the 1st Congressional District debate.

Passing around drinks and food, attendees clapped and snapped when Bohannan brought up Miller-Meeks’ voting record on issues such as abortion, immigration, and taxes.

For John Macatee, a retired physician, reproductive freedom is a key issue in the upcoming election. Macatee said he and his wife, an OB-GYN in Cedar Rapids, want to see Roe v. Wade reinstated. Macatee began volunteering for Bohannan’s campaign about two months ago, and said he helped in her original bid for the U.S. House in 2022. 

Macatee also places climate as a top issue, one in which the candidates also went back and forth on. 

“I do appreciate that Miller Meeks is on the Conservative Climate Caucus in the House, but she needs to walk the walk, not just talk to talk, and really do more for climate change,” Macatee said. “Climate change is a human issue. It should not be a partisan issue. Education, health, these are human issues, they should not be a partisan issue.” 

Iowa Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, sat at the back of the room, perched on a red stuffed chair for the majority of the debate. 

Weiner said she is glad the candidates discussed abortion in depth, and their stances and policy proposals are out to the public now. 

“In many ways, it’s a relief that that piece is out there, because it matters so much to so many Iowans, and it’s true,” Weiner said. “It’s true that we’re fiftieth in the country for the ratio of OB-GYNs to women. It’s true that it’s harder to recruit now. It’s true that we have all these health care deserts, and it’s true that an abortion, that the six week abortion ban, is going to make all these things worse, not better.” 

Weiner said a win for Bohannan in the upcoming election would push for Democratic control in Congress, which would lead to codifying reproductive rights. The GOP holds a slim majority in the U.S. House, and Democrats only need four seats to claim control. 

“You get Christina Bohannan, you get Lannon Baccam in the 3rd District — that’s half of those,” Weiner said. “And once you get four in, which I believe will happen, at least on the House side, that gives them the ability to codify Roe v. Wade.”

Weiner said if such legislation could also be passed, it would put Iowa back in a place where it was for decades, a place with reproductive freedom and abortion access. 

Iowa Rep. Elinor Levin, D-Iowa City, did not expect the candidates to discuss home insurance in Iowa because despite the issue being topical and timely, it isn’t nationally politicized. 

“I really expected the entire debate to be these sort of big topic, big ticket, nationally politicized issues, and instead we got something that people are right now feeling the hurt as insurance funds are coming in,” Levin said. 

Levin has been door knocking and attending Bohannan events throughout the summer and fall, and she hears that people are excited about Bohannan and disappointed with Miller-Meeks voting record, including not seeing the passage of a Farm Bill. 

“We have more and more people feeling that hurt back home and feeling like they’re not being served,” Levin said. “And I’m really hopeful that that’s going to result in a big win for Christina on the fifth.”