Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is no longer claiming to be a resident of the congressional district she represents in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republican incumbent, now in her third term, has never been a resident, as that term is commonly understood, of Iowa’s 1st Congressional District.
When not in Washington D.C., Miller-Meeks lives in Wapello County, in the home she’s shared with her husband for more than 20 years. But after the boundaries of Iowa’s four congressional districts changed during the 2021 redistricting process that followed the 2020 census, Wapello became part of Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District. Rather than run against Cindy Axne, the Democratic incumbent in the 3rd — and the last remaining Democrat in Iowa’s Congressional delegation — while the new district boundaries took effect in the 2022 election, Miller-Meeks announced she’d run for reelection in what is now the 1st District. (Iowa congressional districts are numbered from east to west, and 2021 redistricting changed the district of Jackson County, which contains the state’s easternmost point, and made what was the 2nd District into the 1st.)
Miller-Meeks announced in November 2021, she would run for reelection in the 1st, which still contained most of the same counties as the old 2nd, where a six-vote margin of victory in 2020 sent Miller-Meeks to Congress for her first term.
“While Wapello County, where my current home is located, is not part of the new district, the counties that will become the new 1st Congressional District next year have been home to me for many reasons,” Miller-Meeks said, explaining that in the past she had worked in West Burlington and taught at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Miller-Meeks said in her announcement that while she and her husband would keep the house in Wapello, she would move to the 1st District. She never did.
The Constitution only requires a member of the House to be “an Inhabitant of that State in which he [sic] shall be chosen.” It does not require members to live in the districts they represent. Still, it’s very rare for a House member not to live in their district.
Although she never actually moved to the 1st District, Miller-Meeks did find ways to claim residence in the district in order to vote there. Under Iowa law, the address on a residential unit rental agreement, the deed of a house or a utility bill is enough to establish residency when registering to vote.
Miller-Meeks’ claim to being a resident of the 1st District ended in July. That’s when she registered to vote in Wapello County, using the address of the home where she actually lives, Sarah Watson of the Quad City Times reported on Friday.
“According to Wapello County records, Miller-Meeks changed her voter registration to her Ottumwa home on July 11 of this year,” Watson wrote.
After Wapello County became part of the 3rd District, Miller-Meeks claimed to be a resident of Scott County in order to vote in the district she represents. In 2022, she listed the LeClaire family home of fellow Republican Chris Cournoyer as her official residence on the final day for preregistering before the Nov. 8 election. (At the time, Cournoyer was still a state senator. In 2024, Gov. Kim Reynolds appointed Cournoyer lieutenant governor, after Adam Gregg resigned. In May, Cournoyer announced she is running for Iowa State Auditor.)
Ahead of the June 2024 primary election, in which Miller-Meeks was being challenged by Quad Cities Prayer Breakfast founder David Pautsch, she changed her voter registration, listing a Davenport apartment she had rented as her official residence. In September that year, one of Miller-Meeks’ 1st District constituents living in LeClaire filed a request with the U.S. House Office of Congressional Ethics, asking it to investigate Miller-Meeks’ claim of 1st District residency. The request was not acted on.
When Miller-Meeks voted in the November 2024 general election using the Davenport address, an attorney from Bettendorf challenged her ballot, arguing that the fact Miller-Meeks was still claiming the homestead tax exemption on her Wapello County home meant she couldn’t claim the apartment as her residence for voting purposes. The challenge was rejected by the Scott County board reviewing challenged ballots.
The QC Times’ Watson reports that the 2024 general election was the last time Miller-Meeks voted. Even though she registered in Wapello County well before this year’s city/school election, the congressmember did not vote in November, according to Wapello County records.
“Congresswoman Miller-Meeks has moved her residency back to their property in Ottumwa to be by her husband’s side,” a spokesperson for the Miller-Meeks campaign told Watson in an emailed statement. “Miller-Meeks has lived in Southeast Iowa for almost 40 years and remains committed to serving the people of Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, having held over 280 events in all 20 counties this year alone.”
The emailed statement did not say Miller-Meeks plans to reestablish residence in Scott County so she can vote for herself in the June 2026 Republican primary or the November general election.
