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1st District candidates debate abortion, immigration and the economy

From left: 1st Congressional District candidate Christina Bohannan speaks during a debate with Republican incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks hosted by Iowa PBS on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, in Johnston.
Lily Smith/The Register
/
The Des Moines Register
From left: 1st Congressional District candidate Christina Bohannan speaks during a debate with Republican incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks hosted by Iowa PBS on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, in Johnston.

Three weeks before Election Day, 1st District candidates Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Christina Bohannan, shared their positions on abortion, immigration and the economy in a debate hosted by Iowa PBS Monday night.

The southeast Iowa district is one of the most competitive House races in the country. The Cook Political Report has labeled the district a toss-up.

It’s also a rematch between the two candidates. Miller-Meeks defeated Bohannan by a six-point margin in 2022. Miller-Meeks first won the seat in 2020 with a margin of six votes.

Abortion

Bohannan, a law professor and former state representative, criticized Miller-Meeks' sponsorship of the Life at Conception Act, which would have given a fetus the protection of personhood.

“What I support, what I’ve always supported, is Roe v. Wade — restoring Roe v. Wade into federal law, where it was for half-a-century before Dobbs overruled Roe v. Wade a couple years ago,” Bohannan said.

She said the previous standard under Roe v. Wade was a balanced approach, and that Iowa’s new law, which bans abortion at around six weeks of pregnancy when cardiac activity is detected, is too strict.

Miller-Meeks said access to birth control is the best way for women to get pregnant on their own timelines.

“The best way to prevent abortion is to prevent pregnancy and empower women to be able to do so," she said.

Miller-Meeks said she doesn’t see federal legislation coming anytime soon that would set a national abortion ban. She opposes abortion rights, but supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.

The candidates also sparred on what the standard of abortion for “life of the mother” means when compared to “health of the mother,” and how compromised a patient’s health would need to be to receive medical assistance.

“When we say 'life of the mother,' we mean that a woman has to be very near, at death doorstep, before she can get an abortion,” Bohannan said.

Immigration

Both candidates said the U.S.-Mexico border needs to be more secure, but disagreed about who bears responsibility for the issue.

Miller-Meeks said the border has been a liability for the Biden administration.

“Trump-era policies that reduced the amount of illegal immigrants coming across our border, that helped to keep down the amount of illegal drugs, illegal fentanyl, that our customs and border protections agents actually felt like they were doing their job,” Miller-Meeks said.

Bohannan said that the Biden administration was too slow to act on the border, but that Congress bears the brunt of the responsibility for immigration policy.

“We had a golden opportunity recently to pass the strictest border security bill that we have seen in this country in a very long time, maybe ever. And Rep. Miller-Meeks and her party in the House killed it,” Bohannan said.

Bohannan also said there needs to be a timely process to determine if people coming into the country are legitimate asylum seekers.

The economy

On Social Security, Miller-Meeks said young people are afraid they are paying into a system that they won’t see the benefits of.

“What I’ve recommended, and what I voted for, was a bipartisan commission that would look at long-term debt and how to preserve both Social Security and Medicare.”

Miller-Meeks also emphasized the strain of inflation as a regressive tax that impacts everyone.

Bohannan said she supports tax cuts to the middle class, and that billionaires should pay their fair share. She also criticized raising the retirement age for hard, manual-labor jobs, such as construction and firefighting.

The candidates found consensus in their concern about tariffs impacting farmers.

Miller-Meeks responded to the potential of former President Donald Trump invoking more tariffs if he is elected.

“I have concern over tariffs and concern over getting into trade wars," she said. "I think free trade is very important, but it has to be trade that is fair for American producers, as well as American farmers.”

Bohannan said she agreed with Miller-Meeks on this issue, and that tariffs must be looked at very carefully to ensure there are markets out there for Iowa farmers’ products.

Copyright 2024 Iowa Public Radio News

Natalie Dunlap