Christina Bohannan is running against Republican incumbent Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa's 1st Congressional District race. Bohannan spoke with WVIK News about her campaign, top priorities, and differences with Congresswoman Miller-Meeks.
The transcript has been edited for clarity.
WVIK News: Thank you so much for joining me today at WVIK. Christina Bohannon, I just have a few questions for you, and to start, can you tell me a little bit about the events that led you to run for Iowa's 1st Congressional District?
Christina Bohannan: Yeah, you know, it really has to do with how I grew up. I grew up in a town of 700 people in a mobile home. Neither of my parents graduated high school. My dad was a construction worker. My mom was part-time in a daycare. And, you know, honestly, I've never seen two people work harder than they did from before daylight until after dark. But, you know, it was still tough for them to make ends meet. You know, we were doing okay until my dad got sick. And when that happened, they canceled his health insurance. And at that point, we really lost everything. We couldn't afford his prescription drugs that it took to keep him alive. And we were making some really tough choices between the cost of his prescription drugs and putting food on the table. So, you know, I think that that's really what has shaped my reasons for running here because I know that there are people all over this district who are really struggling with the cost of things with prescription drugs and putting food on the table. And right now, we have a representative who consistently puts a special interest, the big drug companies, lobbyists, and party bosses, over what the people of Iowa need her to do. And so it's time for a change in representation.
WVIK News: What are your top priorities if elected to Congress?
Bohannan: So I think a couple of things. I think bringing down those costs is so important and people are struggling even though they're working really hard. They deserve to be getting ahead instead of just trying to get by. And so we got to take action on corporate price gouging. We gotta make sure we're bringing down costs of those prescription drugs. You know, making sure we're allowing Medicare to negotiate for those lower drug prices. I think we ought to cap the price of Insulin for everyone, we've done it for seniors now but we need to do it for everyone. And I think those are some of the things I'll be looking to do. You know, obviously reproductive freedom is going to be a real priority here. You know, Representative [Mariannette] Miller-Meeks has been very extreme on this issue. Iowa now has one of the strictest abortion bans in the entire country. It bans abortion before most women even know they're pregnant. And Representative Miller-Meeks supported that ban, but she didn't stop there. You know, when she got to Congress, she co-sponsored a life-at-conception bill that would ban all abortions across the entire country with no exceptions at all. Not for rape, incest, or even to save a woman's life. And we are seeing devastating consequences of those kinds of laws all across the country and now in Iowa. So, one of my priorities would be to put Roe v. Wade back into federal law where it was for half a century before the Supreme Court took it away. And I would like to restore the rights as they existed before all of this stuff happened.
WVIK News: And running your campaign - has there been any issues you evolved on or changed your mind from years past?
Bohannan: No, I think we've been really consistent. I think this is really about serving Iowans instead of special interest or what the party bosses tell somebody to do. We need an independent voice for Iowa. We've got to get in there and work with any party to get what needs to be done for Southeast Iowa. And unfortunately, that is just not what we have now. When you look at the record for Mariannette Miller-Meeks over the four years that she has been in Congress, she has co-sponsored a national abortion ban with no exceptions*. She has voted to cut teacher jobs by about 145,000 across the country. She failed to pass the Farm Bill, failed to secure our border, voted against letting Medicare negotiate for lower drug prices, voted against capping the price of insulin at $35, voted against bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States from places like Taiwan and China. So, you know, over and over again, she has put the special interests and what her party bosses tell her to do over what the people of Iowa need her to do. This is not a record that she can run on now. No one could run on the record that she's established in her four years in Congress. And we need a change. It's someone who is going to be an independent voice for this district and someone who is going to put the needs of Iowans ahead of everything else in Washington, D.C.
WVIK News: I know Iowa this year has dealt with flooding and droughts. What can Congress do to help Iowans adapt to our changing climate? And you personally, if elected to Congress?
Bohannan: This is a really important issue and, you know, it's an issue for our climate generally, but it's a really important issue for Iowa's economy as well and for Iowa's farmers. You know Iowa's farmers are already seeing severe drought conditions occasionally. We're seeing severe weather. Those kinds of unpredictable weather patterns make things really difficult for our farmers. And as a result, they make things difficult for our whole agricultural economy. You know, places like John Deere and the layoffs, you know, are partly because the farmers are ordering less farm equipment. And the harder farming gets, the more that kind of thing happens. And so, you know, climate is very central to Iowa's economy. So, what we have to do is invest in our farmers to be part of the solution. You know, no unfunded mandates. We cannot expect farmers to bear the brunt of cleaning up our water or fixing our climate. We have to invest in our farmers. And they can invest in cover crops and other kinds of sustainable farming practices. They can sequester carbon. And build buffers for our water to make it cleaner. These are all things that our farmers are ready and able to do. But we have to make those investments. We also need to invest in our renewable energy. You know, Iowa is already a leader in renewable energy in the country. And we can do even more than that to become an economic powerhouse and strengthen our economy and grow it at the same time.
WVIK News: I know you mentioned in one of your earlier responses about the border- immigration. If elected to Congress, what needs to be done to fix America's immigration [system]?
Bohannan: We need to elect people to Congress who will put our border security over playing political games. Representative Miller-Meeks refused to even vote on a bill that would have been the strictest border security measure ou r country has ever seen. You know, that bill was negotiated by very conservative Republicans in the Senate. Everyone said it was the best chance we would have to secure our border. Even our Republican Senator, Joni Ernst, said it was the best opportunity we would have had to secure the border in our lifetimes. But Representative Miller-Meeks and the Republicans in the U.S. House refused to even bring it to a vote because they wanted to keep using it as a campaign issue rather than actually solving the problem. This is unacceptable. We cannot put our border security and our national security at risk to play political games. We need to get serious, and we need to send people to Congress who will put that ahead of their own campaigns.
WVIK News: Thank you. And moving on to military aid to Ukraine and Israel, if elected to Congress, would you have any concerns or red lines for you personally on voting for any further aid to these two countries?
Bohannan: Look, these situations are always evolving, and we have to look at them as things happen. In Ukraine, you know, there are no blank checks here. I do support aid to Ukraine, but we have to be mindful of our spending. We have to make sure that any investments we make there are in our own national security and that their plan and strategy for winning there makes sense for them and for us. So I support some aid to Ukraine, and we need to protect democracy and push back against Vladimir Putin. But, you know, as with everything else, the spending needs to make sense. Also, you know, on Israel. You know, Israel is our ally in that region. It's the democracy in the region. And now it is really under threat from Iran. Iran is the biggest threat in that entire region. They've fired 200 missiles at Israel directly, as well as they've supported Hamas and Hezbollah over there, including supporting that October 7th attack against Israel. So, you know, we need to make sure that we are helping Israel defend itself against the Iran. And I think that's, you know, one of the main threats going forward.
WVIK News: I know the Cook Political Report has Iowa's 1st Congressional District as a toss-up, and you've kind of mentioned this throughout the interview. But what would you say to voters who are still undecided a few days out from the election?
Bohannan: Yeah, you know, I would say that we need an independent voice for Iowa. So much of what I'm talking about here really isn't about the left or the right. It's really about right and wrong. You know, Iowa needs its Farm bill. This has largely been an uncontroversial bill. There has been a lot of support for it in Congress. It's never had trouble passing. But Representative Miller-Meeks has failed to get our Farm bill done because she and others continue to play politics with this. That is not usually a left or right bill. That is just a bill that's usually uncontroversial. We need to stop playing political games with that, and we need to get that done. You know, we need to elect someone who is standing up for Iowans, not for the corporations and the special interests. You know, when Representative Miller-Meeks has taken over a quarter of a million dollars from the big drug companies and then voted against letting Medicare negotiate for lower drug prices. She took a campaign contribution from a group of insulin manufacturers on the very same day that she voted against capping the price of insulin for our seniors. That's not about politics. That's not about the left versus the right. That is really just wrong. That is showing that she is captured by the special interests, and she is not standing up for Iowans. And then you look at our freedoms, you know, the reproductive freedom. You know, two-thirds of Iowans support a woman being able to decide what happens with her own body, two-thirds, including a lot of Republicans and Independents. But Representative Miller-Meeks is pursuing her own extreme agenda rather than listening to the people of Iowa. We need to elect someone who's going to be more independent and who's going to stand up for Iowans and put us first.
WVIK News: Thank you so much, Christina. With that, that's all the questions I have for you today. Unless there's anything else I may not have asked about that you think is important for voters to know going into Election Day.
Bohannan: No, I think that's great. I hope everybody will get out and vote. It's so important. And I will say I look forward to representing everyone in Southeast Iowa, regardless of whether they vote for me or not. But I do hope that they'll vote for me on November 5th.
WVIK News: All right. Thank you so much for your time, Christina.
Bohannan: Thank you.
The general election is on November 5th.
*Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks did co-sponsor a Life at Conception bill that didn't address abortion directly. Still, it does state the moment of fertilization as a right to life without any exceptions.
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