David Pautsch, a Republican pastor from Davenport, announced his second campaign for Iowa’s 1st Congressional District last week, setting up a Republican primary challenge to U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa.
Pautsch previously challenged incumbent Miller-Meeks in the 2024 Republican primary but lost by 12 percentage points. Pautsch is mounting a challenge to Miller-Meeks’ right flank and has criticized her for not being more conservative on abortion or gay marriage.
Pautsch’s announcement comes after the House Majority PAC, a political action committee operated by the U.S. House Democrats, announced they would be targeting Miller-Meeks’ district. Cook Political Report rated the 2026 congressional race as a “toss up,” meaning either Democrats or Republicans could take the race.
Despite his 2024 loss, Pautsch remained positive as he said he was a “latecomer to the whole thing,” having only announced his campaign six months before the primary election.
“I was underfunded and unknown, but we worked hard, and still we got 44 percent of the vote,” Pautsch said.
Since his loss last June, Pautsch said he has been working hard to turn his campaign around and make his name known.
“I’ve got a bigger start now. I’ve got a year and a half to work on this thing,” he said. “I’ve already developed a big foundation for the work that I’ve done here.”
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Pautsch said he is running against Miller-Meeks for the Republican candidacy because he feels she is untrustworthy and not representative of the people.
“It’s really about saving America and establishing it on the values and principles that our founders established,” he said.
Among those values and principles, Pautsch cited George Washington, a founder who believed it impossible to govern a nation without God and the Bible at the center.
Pautsch said he intends to strengthen the country, which begins with strong leadership.
“It starts at the top. Leadership affects everything,” he said. “If the roots of the tree are bad, you’re going to have bad fruit. It all flows downhill from leadership. You need to have good, Godly people who truly care about people.”
Pautsch said his desire to run for Congress is fueled by the power it would give him to speak up on issues of importance to him, such as making certain the U.S. is a family-safe country, ridding the country’s debt, and getting rid of the divide between church and state.
“Our country was founded under the Judeo-Christian God, and he’s the one we worship. That’s what our founders had in mind,” Pautsch said. “There’s no such thing as the separation of church and state. That’s not part of the Constitution.”