Craig Nelson's blog

A House race to keep an eye on is Iowa's 2nd District which includes Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

Dr. Marianette Miller-Meeks won the GOP primary for the seat last Tuesday (by 109 votes!) after being down by over 20 points to Peter Teahen, who belonged to a very well known family in the area.

Dr, Miller-Meeks is a physician, a 25 year veteran in the Air Force where she holds the rank of Lt. Colonel in the reserves, is the daughter of a Master Seargent in the Air Force, was raised near San Antonio, TX and her husband has served two tours of duty in Iraq. She was the AMA's spokesman for Iowa in Washington D.C. and is very articulate.

The 2nd district was Republican for 26 years until the Democrat Dave Loebsack won it from Jim Leach in 2006 by 6,000 votes out of 208,00 cast. Leach won it by 60,000 votes in 2004.(The district was drastically changed in the 2000 census, when Iowa lost a House seat going from 6 to 5).

With Miller-Meeks bio she has an excellent chance of winning it back for the GOP. Iowa and Mississippi are the only 2 states that have never had a woman in the House or Senate or as Governor. Hillary Clinton mentioned this as an explanation why she ran 3rd in the Iowa caucus.

Marianette is incredibly well informed on every issue and what is very exciting to me, is a true believer in free markets, individual freedom, limited government and low taxes.. She isvvery vocal on personal accounts for Social Security, for free market health care solutions, making the Bush tax cuts permanent, cutting corporate tax rates to 20% to ensure global competitiveness, is against earmarks, is against climate alarmism, and supports free trade, even in Iowa.  

Dr. Miller-Meeks would be a vast improvement over Jim Leach who was an arch RINO, but Dave Loebsack is a socialist. 

This one could be a counter-trend race. Everyone who meets her loves her.  She's a lot more conservative in person than she is on her website. She told me on economic issues, she's a more practical Ron Paul, without the isolationism.