Christina Bohannan and Lanon Baccam continue to outraise their incumbent Republican opponents, according to the campaign finance reports published this week by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Bohannan, the Democratic congressional candidate in Iowa’s 1st District, raised $1,887,603 million in the three-month period ending Sept. 30, almost twice as much as two-term incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who raised $1,003,606.
Baccam, the Democrat running in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, raised $1,704,079 in the third FEC reporting quarter, while Rep. Zach Nunn raised $1,106,362.
“It is the fourth quarter in a row that Baccam has outraised Nunn and the fifth quarter in a row that Bohannan has outraised Miller-Meeks,” Brianne Pfannenstiel noted in the Des Moines Register.
According to the FEC reports, Bohannan has outraised Miller-Meeks during the current campaign cycle, $5,261,255 to $4,574,317. In the 3rd District, first-term incumbent Nunn has outraised first-time candidate Baccam during the current cycle, $5,096,420 to $4,418,922.
Typically, incumbents have no problem raising more money than their challengers. That is certainly the case in Iowa’s other two congressional races.
In Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Dubuque, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson had raised $5,059,827 in this election cycle, as of Sept. 30, while Democratic challenger Sarah Corkery, a political newcomer, had raised $432,277. In the most recent quarter, Hinson raised $899,423 and Corkery garnered $177,397. Hinson also outspent Corkery in the third quarter, $652,852 to $131,946. Overall in this election cycle, Hinson’s campaign has spent $652,852, almost five times the amount Corkery’s campaign has.
Heading into the final six weeks of the campaign, Hinson had $2,147,513 on hand, while Corkery had $114,879.
For the first time in this year’s race, there was a third candidate report filed in the 2nd District. Jody Puffett is not affiliated with any party. She announced her candidacy in June and qualified for the ballot in August. Puffett, who retired after working for 30 years in insurance and finance, has not run for office before and does not appear to have been active in politics prior to this year. Laura Belin reported at Bleeding Heartland that the Open Secrets database showed only two candidate contributions made under Puffett’s name. In 2021, she donated $100 to rightwing talk-radio host Larry Elder when he ran for governor of California, and that same year she also donated $225 to Donald Trump’s Save America PAC.
In the three-month reporting period covered by the most recent reports, Puffett raised $25,244 and spent $25,620.
In Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, which covers much of the western part of the state and is one of the most solidly Republican districts in the country, Democrat Ryan Melton raised $64,086. That number may pale compared to the $420,340 raised by incumbent Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra, or the other Democrats running this year, but it represents a surge in donations to Melton’s campaign and is more than half of the $123,143 he has raised during this election cycle.
This the second time Melton is challenging two-term incumbent Randy Feenstra. Just like he did in 2022, Melton is running a DIY grassroots effort, campaigning throughout the enormous district with few resources and while still working at his full-time job. And just like in 2022, his campaign has been completely ignored by the national Democratic Party.
Melton understands how improbable a win in the deep-red 4th District, where Feenstra was elected with 67 percent of the vote in 2022, would be. In 2022, he decided to run when no other Democratic candidate had filed as the deadline to qualify the ballot approached.
“No one knew who I was at the time, I didn’t have any money, I didn’t have any connections, I didn’t have a pedigree. I was as blank-slate, as grassroots as they come,” Melton told Little Village earlier this year. “But I just decided in the age of Trumpism, in the age of anti-democracy we could not just concede a quarter of our congressional districts without a fight.”
In this year’s election, he was the first Democratic candidate for Congress to announce his candidacy.
“I’m not going to out-fundraise most people, but I’m going to out-work them,” Melton said. “And that’s how we’re going to continue to put a dent in the status quo here.”
For Melton, putting a dent in that status quo involves encouraging more Democrats to run for state and local offices in western Iowa, and creating common ground with registered Republicans and independent voters. During this campaign, the issue of pipeline companies wanting to use eminent domain over the objections of farmers and homeowners has provided much of the common ground. Melton was the first congressional candidate in either party to take a stand against the plans by politically well-connected companies to use eminent domain to build pipelines across western Iowa for carbon capture projects designed to boost the profitability of ethanol plants.
Republican Kevin Virgil, who unsuccessfully challenged Feenstra in the June primary election, also made opposition to pipeline companies using eminent domain a central part of his campaign. In August, Virgil endorsed Melton.
“I think Iowa deserves better,” he told Iowa Public Radio. “I think it’s time for people to start deprioritizing party loyalty and think about electing the leaders that actually want to solve problems.”
Feenstra and Iowa Republican Party leaders denounced Virgil for endorsing the Democratic candidate, even though Virgil encouraged voters to vote a split ticket and also vote for Donald Trump for president.
Virgil conceded that he disagreed with Melton on a number of issues, but explained “I do respect his integrity that he stands up for what he believes in.”
Still, despite the fundraising bump Melton had in the third quarter, he entered the final stretch of the campaign with just $31,022 on hand, according to the FEC reports. Feenstra had $1,210,803 on hand.
Even though Bohannan and Baccam have consistently raised more money than Miller-Meeks and Nunn this year, they are also trailing when it comes to cash on hand, because both challengers have outspent the incumbents. For the entire campaign cycle, Bohannan had spent $4,064,256 as of Sept. 30, compared to $3,161,959 in spending by the Miller-Meeks campaign. Baccam spent $3,714,539, while Nunn spent $3,454,043.
As of Oct. 1, Bohannan had $1,291,225 on hand, and Miller-Meeks had $2,055,191. Baccam had $702,383; Nunn had $1,783,357.
