Bohannan asks voters for support

Editor:
I’m Christina Bohannan, and I’m running for Congress here in Iowa’s 1st district. With election day around the corner, I’ll get right to the point: for years, my opponent Mariannette Miller-Meeks has put her party bosses and special interest donors first, voting against Iowans’ best interests and then lying about her record to keep her seat in Washington. Iowans deserve better, and I’m ready to deliver.
I’m not a Washington politician like Miller-Meeks. I grew up in a mobile home in a town of about 700 people, and neither of my parents graduated high school. They worked harder than anyone I’ve ever known, and for a while, their work paid off. But everything changed when my dad got sick.
When my dad got sick, they canceled his health insurance.  He couldn’t get new insurance because he had a “pre-existing condition,” something we’d never heard of before. We couldn’t pay out-of-pocket for the sky-high prescription drugs he needed to survive. Even though we worked hard and did everything right, we lost everything trying to pay for his medicine.
The problem with Mariannette Miller-Meeks is that she’s too deep in the pockets of special interests to help families like mine – and like yours. She took over $250,000 from the biggest drug manufacturers and then voted against letting Medicare negotiate for lower prescription drug prices. She’s pocketed over $1,000,000 from Wall Street, then supported tax cuts for billionaire CEOs while pledging to cut Social Security and raise the retirement age. She even took a campaign contribution from a group of insulin manufacturers on the same day she voted against capping insulin for seniors at $35 a month.
Unlike Miller-Meeks, I’ve taken no money from corporate PACs – my only loyalty is to my fellow Iowans. 
That includes Iowa women. Miller-Meeks supported Iowa’s new abortion ban – one of the strictest in the country – that bans abortions before most women even know they’re pregnant. Then she went to Congress and co-sponsored legislation that would ban all abortions nationwide with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. When I’m in Congress, I will work to restore and protect Iowans’ fundamental freedom to make decisions about their own bodies.
Miller-Meeks is also selling out our children’s future. We’ve all seen how Governor Reynolds’ private school voucher program is gutting our public schools in Iowa. Mariannette Miller-Meeks introduced a federal private school bill that is ten times bigger: it would take $10 billion from our public schools nationwide, leaving them underfunded and understaffed. She also voted to cut math and science funding and 145,000 teacher and educator jobs. When I am in Congress, I will work to ensure every kid can learn, and I won’t stop until Iowa is number one in public education again.
At the end of the day, Miller-Meeks cares more about serving herself and her special interest donors than delivering for Iowans. 
While she votes to slash taxes for national corporations, Iowa’s workers – like folks I’ve met with in Burlington – see their unions busted and their costs rising. No wonder so many people have lost faith in the government. When I’m in Congress, I will fight to protect union rights, hold corporations accountable, ensure hardworking Iowans have a chance to not just get by, but get ahead.
I will work with anyone in any party to get things done – from lowering costs and securing the border, to passing a Farm Bill and supporting Iowa businesses, to investing in affordable housing, Social Security, and Medicare.
Above all, I promise I will always put Iowans first. 

Christina Bohannan,
Iowa City
Candidate for U.S. Rep. (Iowa- 1)