Another Democrat has entered the race for Congress in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, while another Republican is running in the 4th District. The two candidates, like their districts, are very different.
Attorney Taylor Wettach is the fourth Democrat to launch a campaign for his party’s nomination to take on three-term incumbent Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. A seventh-generation Iowan, Wettach grew up in Muscatine. He attended Georgetown University, where he earned both a BS and an MA from the university’s School of Foreign Service. Wettach later attended New York University School of Law.
Wettach practiced at a major law firm, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where he was focused on trade and national security. But Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is one of 15 law firms that have been targeted for punitive actions by President Trump. Six of those firms are challenging, or have challenged, Trump’s actions in court, and judges have so far ruled in their favor. Nine of the firms declined to challenge Trump, and instead agreed to provide pro bono legal services totaling $940 million for causes selected by the White House. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett was one of the firms that settled, offering Trump $125 million in pro bono work.
In his campaign launch video, Wettach explains that “when my law firm caved to Trump’s bullying and cut a deal to do his legal work for free, I resigned. Sure, it wasn’t easy, but real change never comes easy. Neither does fighting for what’s right. And that’s why I’m running for Congress.”
On his campaign site, Wettach said he’s running because “Iowa families are in the middle of an affordability crisis, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks is making it worse.”
“Whether it is the price of groceries, gas, healthcare or housing, prices keep going up. And Trump’s tariff and trade policies are making it harder on Iowa farmers to sell their crops and making it impossible for small businesses to plan for the future.”
Wettach also talks about the importance of protecting Medicaid and Social Security in the face of Republican funding cuts.
“Folks want to turn the page on Miller-Meeks and what she and what far-right Republicans are doing to our state,” he told Radio Iowa. “Folks want to start anew. They want new leadership. They want new ideas and I will be that person that will fight every day for them.”
In the Democratic primary for District 2, Wettach will face Travis Terrell, a first-time candidate who says he’s running a “100% percent grassroots campaign”; Bob Krause, who served in the Iowa House in the 1970s; and Christina Bohannan, who ran unsuccessfully against Miller-Meeks in 2022 and 2024.
The new candidate in the 4th Congressional District is no newcomer to Iowa politics. Republican Matt Windschitl has served in the Iowa House of Representatives since 2007. He was speaker pro tempore of the House for three terms before becoming majority leader in 2020. A Marine Corps veteran, Winschitl was homeschooled and attended the Colorado School of Trades to study gunsmithing. He currently works for Doll Distributing, a major beer distributor. He has also worked for the Union Pacific Railroad as a conductor and switchman, and has worked as a gunsmith.
The 4th District, which covers most of western Iowa, is currently represented in Congress by Randy Feenstra. Feenstra is expected to run for governor next year, since Gov. Reynolds is vacating the office, but the three-term congressman has not formally announced a campaign yet. He has, however, formed an exploratory committee and run statewide ads that are for all practical purposes campaign commercials. This week, Rep. Miller-Meeks, Sen. Joni Ernst and 22 state lawmakers endorsed Feenstra for governor, even though he still hasn’t formally announced he’s running.
In a statement on social media, Windschitl said he’s “focused on continuing the strong, conservative leadership our district deserves. I’m proudly pro-life, pro-ag, pro-2A, pro-business, and committed to cutting taxes and getting government off the backs of hardworking Americans while fighting to ensure Iowa’s values are represented in Washington.”
On his campaign site, Windschitl cites “Passing constitutional carry, stand your ground, and restoring Second Amendment freedoms,” and “Advancing some of the nation’s strongest pro-life protections” as his priorities. Windschitl was one of the key legislators who helped pass the 2022 amendment to the Iowa Constitution that overturned almost all gun regulations in the state, and his site boasts that he “was instrumental in passing Iowa’s heartbeat bill — twice.”
Most Republican candidates in a solidly Republican district like the 4th would go out of their way to praise President Trump on their campaign sites, but Windschitl’s only mentions the president once. Under the section entitled “Secure the Border & Uphold the Rule of Law” it says, “A strong supporter of President Trump’s national security agenda, Matt is an outspoken advocate for the work the administration is doing to protect our streets and communities.”
Still, the day before the president’s July 3 visit to Iowa, Windschitl was effusive about Trump in a Facebook post: “We all know Iowa is Trump Country, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome you and your team to the Iowa State Fairgrounds tomorrow to launch #America250.”
Windschitl was less sure about Iowa being Trump country during the 2024 Iowa Caucus. He was one of the few elected officials in the state to back Ron DeSantis over Trump, endorsing the Florida governor long before Gov. Reynolds did so.
“We need a leader that’s looking forward towards the future, not a leader that’s looking in the rearview mirror and potentially going to be vindictive towards other people,” Windschitl told the Des Moines Register in May 2023, explaining his decision to back DeSantis. “We need somebody that’s accountable to the people that has proven in their state that they can do this job and take that same prosperity and spread it throughout America.”
Windschitl is the second Republican to officially launch a campaign in the 4th, joining Siouxland Chamber of Commerce President Chris McGowan. State Sen. Lynn Evans of Aurelia announced in May he had formed an exploratory committee to consider a run for the open seat.
There is no Democrat currently running in the 4th District.
