Winner, Winner: Christina Bohannan on representing "the heart of the country"

Christina Bohannan is running one of this cycle's most effective campaigns by respecting voters, representing the middle, and saying no to special interests.

In today’s episode of the Winner, Winner podcast, I’m in conversation with Christina Bohannan, who’s running for Congress in Iowa’s 1st congressional district against Mariannette Miller-Meeks, one of the Republican Party's biggest under-performers: Miller-Meeks won the district by just six votes in 2020, and she lagged the top of the ticket by 11 points in 2024.

Christina ran for Congress in 2022 in a previous iteration of the district
and went back for a rematch against Miller-Meeks in 2024. Christina lost that race by just 798 votes, the second-closest race in the country.

In her 2024 congressional campaign, Bohannan made a point to meet constituents in rural areas where voters had not seen or heard from Democrats in years. She was also able to differentiate herself by opposing Democratic policies that were not popular among voters like student loan debt cancellation and calling on President Biden to drop out of the race. This helped her achieve the strongest over-performance of any other Democratic challenger in the country, outperforming Harris by 8.2% and running 11.3 points ahead of a generic Democrat in her district.

All of this has put her in a great position to flip this crucial seat for her rematch against Miller-Meeks in 2026.

Iowa-1 has a Cook PVI of R+4, and Trump won the district by 8 points in 2024.
The district is on the DCCC's Red to Blue list.

You can watch the episode here.

Christina and I had a dynamic conversation where she shed light on the specific ways she differentiates from the traditional Democrat to earn trust in this conservative-leaning district. She emphasized the importance of independent-mindedness, bipartisanship, and diversity in thought as an elected leader:

We need to elect people who are independent-minded and in the middle — People who are trying to work with both parties to get things done and who are not constantly beholden to what their party leaders are telling them to do, or what the special interests or what the donors are telling them to do… The fact is that when you have representatives who are just taking tons of money from corporate PACs and special interests and from their very wealthy and influential donors, then that’s who they’re listening to. They’re not focused on the people right there in their district. And I think this is what has happened with Miller-Meeks… She’s become so entrenched in the Washington, D.C. bubble, listening to the people in her own party, and shutting out all other voices and her constituents. I don’t think she knows anymore what this district needs.

Christina also spoke about why supporting and listening to Democrats running in competitive and conservative districts is so important, particularly for the party overall, and how she feels privileged to be running in a swing district like hers.

I think it’s critical that we elect Democrats from very difficult districts for a number of reasons. What I would say to my friends in these safe Democratic districts who might want to take further left positions is if you want to win the majority and do anything for people, we’ve got to win my seat. So don’t tell me what we need to do here. You should be listening to what we’re hearing in these kinds of districts because these are the swing districts that are really going to make the difference.

I’m not running to make big statements and comment on the latest social media thing or make these far sweeping statements about different issues. I want to win this election so that I can actually do some real good for the people of Iowa. That’s why I’m in this. So we have to think about why the national Democratic brand has become so unpopular and so toxic. If we ever want to do anything for people again, that’s something that we really have to reckon with, and we have to have those tough conversations within our party…

And I will be honest and say I wouldn’t want my district to be a safe D district. I would not choose that. Because this is really more the heart of the country. This is the middle. It’s a little right-leaning right now, but it went for Obama twice. This is a classic swing district. This is where most Americans are. And I feel extremely privileged to be running in a district like that because I feel like we get more at the truth because we can see both sides of every argument. We can see how it’s affecting people, and we can see where most people really are.

I don’t want to be in a district that’s a bubble that doesn’t really reflect the entire country. I don’t want this to be a safe district or to be a super left-leaning district. I just want to meet you where you are and hear what’s happening in your daily life and see how I can help to make that better. And I think that that breaks down a lot of barriers. And I’ve heard from Marie [Gluesenkamp Perez]. She says something along the same lines that we don’t want to be judgmental and condescending, right? We need to start with respect. So I just feel a tremendous sense of honor and privilege that I have the opportunity to run in a district like this one. And I wouldn’t change it one bit.”

Finally, I asked Christina why so many Democrats who get elected to Congress fail to remain true to their values and their constituents when they’re elected, and how she plans to govern if elected:

I think a lot of people go to Congress with good intentions and then they get there and it’s just way harder in these interpersonal ways than they expect, even within their own caucuses…. When you’re talking with your caucus… that gives you strength as a member to go in and say, “No, let me tell you about my district. Let me tell you about what is happening there.” If you don’t have those stories, if you don’t have that knowledge about your own district, then you can’t fight for them… And, frankly, the other piece is just confidence. You’ve got to be confident in your beliefs and in your abilities. You can’t get bullied or intimidated by your party leaders or lobbyists or the corporate PACs or special interests. Sometimes they’ll say, “Oh, I need you to sign on to this thing.” And I’m like, “No, I’m not doing that.” We have some special interest groups who want you to sign on to all of these crazy positions and things and you just have to say no.

And sometimes that’s hard when it’s a big name national group that you were fully expecting to endorse you and then it turns out that they want you to say things that are just not consistent with the people of your district. You have to have the confidence and the courage to say “No, I’m not doing that,” and to stand up to the people…

We have to have confidence that what we’re doing is right and not allow ourselves to be intimidated or bullied or told that you’re a bad person because you’re not supporting this bill or that bill or whatever. We have to be willing to just stand up and say, “Look, I know my district, I know my people, and this is not the right thing for my district.”

Christina is part of Welcome’s Win the Middle slate for the 2026 election cycle. You can support her race here.