OTTUMWA, Iowa – State Senator Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Ottumwa, announced on Wednesday morning that her congressional campaign in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District received the endorsement of twenty four members of the Iowa Legislature.
These endorsements are added to the 12 state legislators who had already endorsed her campaign. Miller-Meeks seeks the Republican nomination in a four-way contested primary. The Republican nominee will face former State Senator and Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor Rita Hart. The incumbent, U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, announced that he would retire at the end of his current term.
“It’s truly humbling to receive this overwhelming support from my colleagues in the Senate and House,” said Miller-Meeks, an Ottumwa Republican. “In the legislature, we have cut taxes, reformed the judicial nominating system and held our government bureaucrats accountable. We have never quit fighting for the state we call home and I’ll take that same attitude to Washington DC.”
State Senators Zach Whiting of Spirit Lake, Jim Carlin of Sioux City, Tim Kraayenbrink of Fort Dodge, Mark Segebart of Vail, Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs, Jake Chapman of Adel, Tom Shipley of Nodaway, Mark Costello of Imogene, Amy Sinclair of Allerton, Brad Zaun of Urbandale, Charles Schneider of West Des Moines, Jerry Behn of Boone, Annette Sweeney of Alden, Waylon Brown of St. Ansgar, Michael Breitbach of Strawberry Point, Carrie Koelker of Dyersville, Craig Johnson of Independence, Jeff Edler of State Center, Tim Kapucian of Keystone and Dan Zumbach of Ryan announced their support
State Representatives Dustin Hite of New Sharon, David Kerr of Morning Sun, Jeff Shipley of Fairfield and Shannon Lundgren of Peosta also backed Miller-Meeks’ campaign.
“We’re proud to support Mariannette for Congress because we know Mariannette,” said Senate President Charles Schneider. “We’ve seen her work ethic; we’ve seen her commitment to serving Iowans and we’ve witnessed her ‘never quit’ attitude up close. Iowans across the 2nd District have an opportunity to flip this seat and send a conservative voice to Congress. My colleagues and I have no doubt that Mariannette is the best person to do it.”
Miller-Meeks has also outraised her opponents in the Republican primary by a wide margin. She raised almost $260,000 in 2019 after announcing her campaign in October.
Miller-Meeks, an ophthalmologist and former president of the Iowa Medical Society, enlisted at age 18 and served as an Army nurse before graduating medical school. She retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve. In 2010, then-Gov. Terry Branstad appointed Miller-Meeks as the director of the Iowa Department of Public Health where she served in that role for three years. She was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2018.
