This one is worth watching.
The House Administration Committee held a meeting today to consider Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks’s motion to dismiss a challenge from her once and forever opponent, Democrat Rita Hart. In November, Miller-Meeks triumphed over Hart in a historically close race in Iowa’s 2nd congressional district; the Republican won by just six votes, or 0.0015 percentage points. This wasn’t some preliminary result, but one arrived at after a recount. Nevertheless, Hart has persisted with her challenge and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has backed her up, observing back in December that “the issue relating to Iowa is an issue for the House Administration Committee” and adding that the “House decides who it will seat.” As National Review‘s John McCormack noted at the time, it is true that the House reserves the right to seat whomever it deems the winner, but it’s only overruled local election officials once in the last 35 years — also a project of the Democratic Party.
Today’s proceedings began with Administration committee chairwoman Zoe Lofgren announcing that she was of the opinion that “rather than granting or denying contestee Miller-Meeks’s motion to dismiss at this time, I would recommend that we postpone the motion’s disposition to give the committee an opportunity to consider the merits of the case.” Hart, Lofgren claimed, is making “specific, credible allegations” that lawful ballots were excluded from the count.
Ranking Member Rodney Davis — who, it should be noted, did not object to the certification of Electoral College results in January — responded by arguing that “our committee should not be moving forward with overturning our colleague’s state-certified election” and reminding the committee that Miller-Meeks was certified the winner “only after a thorough, transparent, and bipartisan process.” That process included “bipartisan recount boards” comprising a representative from both campaigns and an “agreed-upon third party” in every county counting and recounting every ballot, as well as Iowa’s bipartisan state canvassing board unanimously certifying the results. He also pointed out that Hart had declined to make a challenge in court in Iowa, which should serve as evidence that she could not win under Iowa state law, but might have a fighting chance in the Democrat-run House.
Lofgren replied by noting that state-court rulings would not be binding, since the ultimate authority and decision rests with the House. Essentially, might makes right.
After a little more back-and-forth, the committee voted first on a Republican amendment to dismiss the challenge and then on a resolution to postpone consideration of Miller-Meeks’s motion. Both were party-line votes, with Republicans voting aye on the former and no on the latter. Democrats won. Lofgren indicated that the next step would be to send questionnaires to both parties with “identical questions about the specific procedures, legal principles, and timelines that should control the course of this case.”
And so the House Democrats’ embarrassing but largely uncovered effort to make up for their disappointing showing in 2020 by stealing a seat continues. Stay tuned!