These 3 IOWA US House Districts may decide whether Democrats or Republicans win the House in 2026!

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Hello everyone, and welcome to today's video. Today we're looking at the 2026 House elections. In the past video I did, I focused on some very important House races in the state of Pennsylvania. Today I'm looking at the state of Iowa and three House races that very may well decide whether the Republicans keep their House majority in 2026 or the Democrats win these seats and potentially flip the House back to their side going into 2027.

[00:00:26]So, first things first, on 270towin.com, the current consensus ranking map across, I believe it's the Sabato Crystal Ball, Cook Political Report, and Inside Elections map have the Republicans favored in 209 House races, Democrats favored at 207, with still about 19 seats left for grabs. Now, Iowa plays a very important role in this cuz two out of the 19 toss-up seats are in the state of Iowa, including the 2nd District, which is listed as likely Republican, but I do want to talk about due to the special circumstances of this race.

[00:00:58]So, Iowa, you may know, at the presidential level has six electoral votes, meaning it has two US senators and four congressional districts. Now, the way the current map in Iowa is drawn, the 4th District, which is held by Representative Randy Feenstra, who, even though he is retiring to run for governor of the state of Iowa, this is going to be a safe Republican seat really no matter what. But the 1st District and the 3rd District are definitely toss-up seats and are very much up for grabs for both the Republicans and the Democrats in 2026.

[00:01:27]The 2nd District is currently listed as likely Republican, but there is something special that is going on in that race. So, first things first, I want to look at the 2026 Wikipedia page here cuz there is a very interesting number that I want to show you, which is the 2025 Cook Political Voting Index or the Cook Partisan Voting Index. It's a measurement of the partisanship of a US congressional district or US state, and it's indicated as a lean towards the one party or another.

[00:01:55]Now, these districts are all favored in the Republican direction, but not by an absolutely massive amount. The first district in Iowa 1, which is currently held by Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, is listed at Republican +4. The second district, which is currently held by Representative Ashley Hinson, is listed as the same, Republican +4. The Iowa 3rd district, which is held by Congressman Zach Nunn, who is running for re-election, is only Republican +2. So, based on the Cook Partisan Voting Index rankings alone, you would say the 3rd is the most likely one to flip, and then the 1st and the 2nd district would be the 2nd and 3rd most likely to flip in that regard. But, these elections are very, very interesting though, given how they voted in 2024.

[00:02:39]So, we'll start with the 1st district.

[00:02:41]In 2024, you cannot get any closer than this, really. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the Republican congresswoman, defeated Democratic challenger Christina Bohannan by 50.1% to 49.9%, a margin of victory of 0.2%, which in the 2024 presidential election year came out to roughly about a 800-vote difference between the Republican and the Democrat winning this district.

[00:03:05]Again, the Partisan Voting Index is Republican +4 in this district, and the Republican congresswoman only won by 0.2%.

[00:03:14]And you look at the margins here, President Trump won this district in the presidential race by 8.48%, meaning the Democratic candidate Christina Bohannan roughly ran about 8.29% better in this district than Kamala Harris did, or better than Donald Trump did in this district. So, a very impressive shift for the Democrats here.

[00:03:34]And why did this district get so close?

[00:03:36]Well, just looking at the raw votes here, you go sort by the amount of votes in this district. Scott County, which was won by Bohannan by 2.3%, this is the largest area of votes in this district. So, Scott County's going to be the first one to keep an eye out for. It's essentially a toss-up county. One the Bohanan in 151.14 to 48.86, getting roughly about 44,900 votes for Bohanan in here. Next, you have the county of Johnson County, a very reliable Democratic county, but this is where the Democrat candidate really got a ton of votes in this area. She got roughly nearly 60,000 votes out of Johnson. So, 60,000 here plus roughly about 45,000 or so here gets you a very considerable amount. You look at the other county, small one, Jefferson County, but it went to the Democrat, but still an important area to show how the Democrats are running in this race.

[00:04:28]Then you look at some of these other counties as well that voted Republican, but you look at the margins in which they did. In these areas, despite being pretty solidly red, when you look at the swing from the 2022 House race to 2024, this is very jarring. Only one of these counties in Johnson County shifted towards the Republican a 1.44% win there. Otherwise, every single county in this district shifted towards the Democrat and by a pretty significant amount. Des Moines County, 11.34% shift.

[00:04:57]Lee County, 6.8. You could look at 8.76% in Clinton. You could look at Jackson, 11.4%. Massive shifts all across this district. And I'm It's very important to mention this. Now, we can look at the races individually as well because the candidates in this race are very important. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is running again. She does have a primary challenger, but she'll probably win the primary, but her Democratic opponent rematch of 2024 is what it's looking like, Christina Bohanan versus Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a race that when President Trump won this district on the top of the ballot by about eight points. This time around, it's going to be in a midterm year. Toss-up rankings across the board. The only poll has come from the uh Democratic House Public Policy Polling Firm, which is essentially like their like this is going to make the Democrats look the best that they can pollster, but Bohanan's leading Miller-Meeks 43-39 in that poll from back in June. So, not really any polling yet in the race besides that one, but I mean just the numbers alone will tell you. Super close result, only a 0.2% difference in a 2024 election year when Donald Trump and the Republicans won pretty much everywhere across the country. Now, in 2026, definitely could be a different story.

[00:06:09]President Trump's approval rating as of the time I'm recording this video is roughly about -20 points or -19 points.

[00:06:15]39.7% approve, 58.5% disapprove.

[00:06:19]Certainly not a great place for Republicans to be in. On the generic ballot, it's also getting bad. One of the largest margins we've seen in recent months, Democrats at 46% Republicans at 39.7.

[00:06:31]So, if the Democrats are in for a very strong night, well, then this first congressional district which barely voted Republican in 2024 and shifted heavily towards the Democrats in 2024 in an election environment that should be even more Democratic-friendly, certainly looks like one of the first House districts that could definitely flip.

[00:06:49]The only thing that might save it here is that the partisan voting index of this race suggests it should be a Republican district uh district, but Mariannette Miller-Meeks drastically underperformed that ranking from 2024. I don't see why 2026 would be any different. So, that is the first district with Miller-Meeks versus Christina Bohannan. And again, it's looking like we're probably going to see a rematch of that one in the general election. We'll have to wait and see for the primaries to officially confirm that, but it does look like we're heading that way.

[00:07:18]Next, we have the third district.

[00:07:20]The third district, this is Republican Representative Zach Nunn who faced off against Democrat Lanon uh Back Am, I believe it is. And he won 51.92% to 48.08, roughly right around a 3.9% win in this district which pretty much equates to about a 16,000 vote overall net win here. Now, President Trump won this district pretty similar to how Zach Nunn did, actually. Trump won it by 4.42%.

[00:07:45]Nunn won it by about 3.9. So, not a whole much of um kind of disagreement on that one from the voters between the Trump and Zach Nunn voters. Still, Franken did run roughly about a half a point more than the Democratic side. The main Democratic votes in this district come out of Polk County. This is where the capital city of Des Moines is in the state of Iowa.

[00:08:04]And the Democratic candidate won here, and he won here pretty big, roughly 55.6 to 44.4, getting 138,919 votes. Again, he The Democrat got 197,000, nearly 198,000 votes in this entire district, and he got 138,000, nearly 139,000 just out of this one county. So, Polk County is very crucial for this race. Neighboring county, as well, right next to it, and Dallas County, right next to it, Zach Nunn won it by roughly about seven points or so. And Nunn won 53.2, 46.8, or so, and roughly another 28,000 votes for the Democrat there. So, 138 plus another 28, and you're already close to the final vote totals in these two counties. So, for the election in 2026, these two counties, and the margins in which this is going Democrat, and this is going Republican, if this if Dallas County is going blue, that's 4,000 votes swing towards the Democratic direction, this district almost certainly going to be going Democratic. But the margins in which Polk goes blue and Dallas potentially goes red or maybe flips could be the indicator of how this race is going. The rest of the district is all pretty reliably Republican, but like with a lot of house districts, there aren't as many people living in these solid Republican areas in the smaller counties, like we see across the country. Still, Zach Nunn got very high percentages in these areas. He got as many votes really as possible in these smaller areas, and the margins of of all of them, like the three, 4,000 votes here or there, combined with his performance in Dallas County, getting 32,000, and getting still 110,000, nearly 111,000 in Polk County with was enough to give him roughly about a 16,000 vote win across the district.

[00:09:44]But again, in an election environment where in 2026, Donald Trump's down roughly 20 points on the approval rating, Democrats are leading by about six points on the generic ballot, it's going to be tougher for Zach Nunn to win this race in a little tougher election environment when he won it by about 3.9% in 2024. Does this mean Zach Nunn can't win it in 2026? No, not not necessarily.

[00:10:05]I think Zach Nunn has a honestly better chance of winning his race than Meijer Miller-Meeks does, which is actually the kind of the exact opposite of the Cook Partisan Voting Index. But he he performed strongly in 2024 compared to Miller-Meeks. She only has 0.2% to lose to lose that race. Zach Nunn has roughly 3.9%. So, I think Nunn starts out with a little bit of a better spot than Miller-Meeks in this race. But this is certainly one of the top pick-up opportunities for the Democrats as well in the 2nd District. As for the candidates on this one, Zach Nunn, as I mentioned, the representative is running again. He already has the endorsement of President Trump and Vice President Pence and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and prominent Republican Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio. So, clearly the Republicans desperately know they have to keep this seat. They need Zach Nunn to be the candidate and that's going to end up being the case. On the Democrat side, the only Democrat candidate currently in the race after the other candidate in the race was disqualified and the previous candidate, Jennifer Konfrst, withdrew from the race, is State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott.

[00:11:10]She's a state senator of the 14th District. She'll be the Democrat candidate for the general election. As for this race, toss-up from three out of the four Inside Elections has it lean Republican. One poll from back in March from Ragnar Research was a poll sponsored by Conservatives for America, which is a Republican Study Committee.

[00:11:28]So, obviously Republican-sponsored by this poll that would to make Republican candidates look very good. Axne is leading 48 to 42.

[00:11:37]In the hypothetical polling from before that, Axne versus Feenstra conference from the public policy poll from back in September showed a tied race. Generic ballot poll for Ragnar Research Partners showed 44 to 43. So, even though this poll shows Axne up by a lot, it's certainly going to be a very very close race and it's going to play very important role in the House elections in 2026. So, that's the 3rd District. Last thing I want to talk about the 2nd District, which US Republican Representative Ashley Hinson won 57.13% against the Democrat Sara Corkery's 41.56.

[00:12:11]Now, overall, Hinson actually outperformed Donald Trump in this district. Trump won it by roughly about 10 points. Hinson won it by 5.57.

[00:12:18]So, on paper here, this district really should not be too competitive and that's why on the House rankings on 270 to Win, the consensus rankings they have it listed as likely Republican, but it is still, I would say, very significant.

[00:12:32]That with Ashley Hinson, you may not know this or you may know this, she's running for US Senate in Iowa. She is not running for this race. So, it's an open race. So, there's not going to be a Republican incumbent running in this district, which at very least is probably going to take away that 15 points or so that she won by. It's probably going to go down closer to Trump's 10 points, if not even lower in the right election environment. So, I don't know if the Democrats necessarily are going to be contending in this district and maybe even trying to win it, but I think the margin of victory for the Republicans on election night may fall like closer to a 5% win and then they kind of be like a "Whoa, how did we miss this one? How did we miss this being so competitive?" And I think that might be something we might be looking out for here.

[00:13:13]In terms of the votes in this district, the largest county overall is Linn County where Cedar Rapids is. The Democrat candidate got 61,886 votes, but every other county, including the Black Hawk County where Waterloo is, which is very competitive. Ashley Hinson won by roughly about two points.

[00:13:29]Probably we'll see this district flip to the Democrats in the 2026 election environment, but that county including all the others all went Republican by pretty significant margins. So, what we're going to see for 2026, I think we're going to see stronger Democratic margins in Cedar Rapids. We're going to see the Waterloo County, Blackhawk County flip to the Democrats, and we may see some softening of the margins in some areas across here given the election environment we're likely going to see in 2026, but still I think we're going to see this district probably end up in Republican hands. But if Democrats can find a way to this to win this district, this could be a situation where the Democrats are performing very strongly nationally, and they may be getting a Democratic wave and winning back the house by a monumental amount of seats. So, this is an important district to at very least keep an eye out for as sort of like a metric of if the Democrats are winning, they may be winning by a lot if this district is ultimately going blue.

[00:14:23]In terms of the candidates in this race, uh there's still a Republican primary underway between Joe Mitchell and Charlie uh McClintock. It is worth noting that Joe Mitchell, the former state representative, already has the endorsement of President Trump, several top Republican representatives including the speaker of the house in this race.

[00:14:40]So, Joe Mitchell will probably end up being the Republican candidate. Three Democrats are running in Cathy Dolter, Lindsay James, and Clint Twit Ball. And uh the only endorsements thus far are from uh Kevin Tecchau for Lindsay James and as well as three US representatives as well. So, have to wait and see how that one shakes out, but we're probably I would say Lindsay James having more notable endorsement at very least is something to take note of.

[00:15:05]As for the rankings on this one, three out of the four have it listed as likely Republican. Race to the White House does only have it listed as Tilt Republican though. Again, that one poll actually we have a Public Policy poll from relatively recently from the middle of April. This is again the Democratic uh pollster that's sponsoring Lindsey James' campaign shows her leading 36 to 33 with 31% undecided. Again, I do think ultimately we see this race go to the Republicans when everything is said and done, but that's not 100% a consensus ranking on the Cal-Shai market odds.

[00:15:37]They have this race listed as a toss-up with potential to go to the Democrat in that race. So, that could be an interesting one to keep an eye out for.

[00:15:45]So, yeah, as I showed you the Cal-Shai odds, they currently have the third district first district as Democratic flips and the second one as a uh toss-up at this current point in time. My own ranking to this race right now, I think the first district flips. I'm most confident in that one flipping for sure.

[00:16:01]The sec- or the third district I think is really sort of like uh toss-up between flipping and not flipping with Zach Nunn. I think him being the incumbent and running again in this race is a very big get for the Republicans and gives them a strong chance at holding this district, but I do think the national environment alone might be a little too strong where Zach Nunn might lose this district by like 5,000 votes or less. Might be that type of close election. The second district I do think the Republicans are still going to hold on. It's possible falls under five points, especially something that has to be considered is at the top of the ticket is the governor's race in Iowa where the Democrat candidate Rob Sand seems to be performing very well in the early polling and the early approval ratings as well. So, with a strong Democrat at the top of the ticket that might drive turnout in the state that's typically been a pretty reliable Donald Trump state.

[00:16:48]So, with that said, I do think the second district narrowly stays red, but the first and the third district do nearly flip potentially on the coattails of Rob Sand in the governor's race.

[00:16:59]And in terms of the overall House map, this still has Republicans it would have the Republicans at 209, Democrats at 209, but the current House map the Republicans only have a majority of roughly about three seats, 220 to I believe it's uh 215.

[00:17:14]So, these two seats flipping to the Democratic side and potentially the second district as well, play very important roles on the consensus house map, where the Democrats and Republicans have to get to 218. There's still 17 toss-ups remaining, but getting these two seats from Iowa would be crucial to the Democrats' chances of winning the house, and very detrimental to the Republicans' chances of holding the house if they're losing these two districts in the state of Iowa. I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope you found it interesting. Make sure you hit like and subscribe if you did. Leave a comment below telling me your thoughts on this video, and maybe another state you'd like to see me go over their house map. This video has been updated since Virginia's house map did get struck down, so it is back to the original map with the handful of extra Republican seats as well, so that's now factored in on that. But yeah, I hope you enjoyed this video. Again, please remember to hit like and subscribe, and hope to see you in a future video.