Politics

‘We Can’t Be Concerned With Optics’: Democrats Continue Campaign To Overturn Iowa Congressional Election

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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Congressional Democrats are preparing for hearings and a vote that could overturn the election results in Iowa’s Second Congressional District.

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart by six votes, in the closest congressional election since 1984, according to Fox News. Hart is seeking votes in the House Administration Committee and on the floor to overturn Iowa’s certification of the election and seat her.

The House Administration Committee has the authority to investigate the results of a contested House election under the Federal Contested Elections Act. The entire House can then vote to affirm Miller-Meeks’ victory, hold the seat vacant, or declare Hart the winner.

Congressional Democrats, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, are forging ahead with a potential reversal. It was only “six votes out of 400,000 votes cast,” Pelosi told George Stephanopoulos on March 14, before criticizing Republicans for “call[ing] anybody hypocritical… when two-thirds of them in the House voted against accepting the presidency of Joe Biden.”

Republican Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst and Charles Grassley, neither of whom objected to Biden’s Electoral College victory, criticized the move from House Democrats. “They were complaining because Republicans wouldn’t tell people that Biden won the election on November 4, the day after the election, and now they’re playing this game? It just doesn’t add up,” Grassley told CNN.

“Where is Cindy Axne saying, ‘This is an outrage and the Iowa voters have spoken?'” Ernst asked, alluding to the only Democratic member of Iowa’s congressional delegation. (RELATED: Iowa Democrat Who Voted For $15 Minimum Wage Increase Admits It Will Cause Harm To Small Businesses)

Axne released a statement on Dec. 22 following the certification of Miller-Meeks’ victory. “It is critical that every Iowan’s voice is heard in this election,” she said. “I support a transparent process that ensures every properly-cast vote in this contest is counted. It is the only way to give Iowa voters full faith and confidence in the outcome of this historically-close election.”

“Rita Hart has Constitutional and legal grounds to pursue that goal [of making all voices heard] at the federal level,” she added.

Axne did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

In defending the process, North Carolina Rep. GK Butterfield told CNN that Democrats “can’t be concerned about optics.”

“I don’t ever question Republicans’ ability to conflate what’s actually happening with the facts,” California Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar added, discounting the similarities between the Iowa race and the 2020 presidential election.

Hart’s legal team argues that 22 ballots that Iowa state courts excluded should be counted. If those ballots were counted, Hart would have a nine vote victory.