Miller-Meeks campaigns at Washington GOP

Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the Republican Congressional candidate for Iowa District 2, visited with supporters Thursday morning at the Washington County Republican Headquarters in Washington.

Miller-Meeks said that the biggest concerns she has heard from voters are keeping kids in school and getting the nation back to work.

'People are also very concerned about the protests that are involving riots and what's happening to support for police and law enforcement and their concern about law enforcement being attacked,” she said. 'There seems to be a level of violence that is very unsettling to a lot of people.

'Almost everyone, regardless of their party, is very supportive of law enforcement and making sure we have law enforcement support in our minority neighborhoods and communities.”

She said that there is a lot of enthusiasm for 're-electing the president, also electing a member of Congress to flip the House and re-electing Sen. Joni Ernst.”

'We feel a lot of momentum and excitement for the Republican Party and for our candidates,” Miller-Meeks said. 'I think this is one of those cycles where we have great candidates who have very full and robust resumes, and I have a resume that is really attracting people right now because we need that skillset in D.C. right now.”

Iowa Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, who joined the campaign stop, praised Miller-Meeks' experience as a retired military officer, physician, state senator and former director of public health.

'I can't think of a better time to have a doctor and former director of public health in Congress,” Gregg said.

Miller-Meeks said, 'We need people with medical experience, public health experience, military experience to help us get through the pandemic, recover from it, prepare for the next one and get people safely back to work.”

Part of the discussion centered on voters' attitudes during this election cycle.

'I think what's happening this year is that people are just tired,” Washington County Republican Party Chairman Merle Miller said. 'As a general rule, Republicans just shut their mouths and go to work and mind their own business.”

Miller-Meeks agreed, saying that Republicans are more tolerant than Democrats.

'They'll tolerate you no matter how many piercings, no matter how many tattoos, no matter what color your hair is, no matter what your gender affiliation is, race, color, all that, atheist, but if you're not conformed in thought, you're out,” she said.

She later said, 'We have been blamed, shamed, censored, canceled, you name it, and people are tired. We're not confrontational people. We're reasonable; we're pragmatic. We don't want to incite violence. We don't want to confront if we don't have to, but we've been pushed too far, and we're fighting back.”

Miller-Meeks praised the state's handling of the pandemic, pointing out that the bi-partisan Council of State Governments ranked Iowa no. 1 as the most resilient and able to get through the pandemic.

'If people tell you that we're just concerned about dollars, this is the reality: Those economics, those budgets, those dollars are lives and livelihoods,” she said. 'We were able to help people at the start of the pandemic that lost jobs when we closed down things because we had fully-funded emergency funds, because we had a budget surplus.

'We're interested in saving lives, protecting people and allowing them to support their families and communities. Our state has done a great job doing that.”

Miller-Meeks noted that she, along with other Republican candidates, won this week's Iowa Youth Straw Poll by significant margins.

'Why is this significant?” she asked. 'This same youth poll in 2016 predicted Donald Trump winning Iowa by 10 points, and he won by 9.5 points.”

Following the stop in Washington, Miller-Meeks and Gregg held another campaign stop at the Henry County Republican Headquarters in Mt. Pleasant.