Defeated Iowa Democrat Challenges Election in Rare Exploit

Democratic congressional candidate Rita Hart was defeated by Republican physician Mariannette Miller-Meeks for a congressional seat in Iowa by just six votes. The race has been touted as the closest congressional contest in decades.

Iowa certified the contest this week having declared Miller-Meeks the winner of the state’s 2nd Congressional District.

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Iowa has certified Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) as the winner over Rita Hart (D) by six votes, 196,964 to 196,958 in #IA02. Hart plowing ahead w/ legal challenge.

Apparently when we said this would be a "single digit race," we really meant it this time.

— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) December 1, 2020

Instead of using standard state channels to contest the election results, Hart now intends to challenge the results by going directly to the House of Representatives using the Federal Contested Elections Act of 1969.

The move will send the case directly to the House Administration Committee who will conduct their own an investigation into the election. Following the investigation, the committee will provide a recommendation to the full chamber where members will vote, by simple majority, to declare the final winner.

The rarely applied and controversial exploit was last used to decide the outcome of an Indiana congressional race between Democratic incumbent Frank McCloskey and Republican challenger Richard McIntyre in 1984. At that time, a wide Democratic majority voted to elect McCloskey, despite McIntyre having been certified the winner.

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