Democrat Efforts to Overturn Certified Iowa Election Backfire

Democrats’ partisan efforts to overturn Iowa’s certified Second Congressional District election have backfired after numerous Democrats have come out against the plan, in addition to losing public support.

Democrat Representative Elissa Slotkin (MI) joins the lengthening list of Democrats opposed to the overturning of Iowa’s Second Congressional District election. Slotkin told the Skullduggery podcast, “I’m sorry, I cannot support overturning an election, especially given everything that’s gone on and what we’ve been hearing from the Republican side of the aisle.”

Slotkin also spoke to Yahoo News:

“I mean, that’s their whole schtick. They attempted to delegitimize the results of the election and not certify those elections … They tried to use violence to stop us from certifying an election,” Slotkin told Yahoo News. “I can’t turn around and vote to decertify something that’s been stamped and approved in Iowa.”

Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA), Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Rep. Dean Phillips (D-NM), Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA), Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), and Rep. David Price (D-NC) have already come out against overturning Iowa’s certified election.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has compiled a list of vulnerable Democrats who have not publicly stated their position on the matter.

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday to express his thoughts on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) efforts to overturn the election results.

Grassley said Mariannette Miller-Meeks is now representative of Iowa’s Second Congressional District. “Her opponent chose to forgo her right under Iowa law to present any claims of election irregularities to an independent panel of judges. That’s because, under Iowa law, she has no legal claim,” Grassley said.

“Representative Miller-Meeks won fair and square, as certified by Iowa’s bipartisan Election Board. The House Administration Committee is moving forward with a process to overturn this certified election,” stating it will “exercise its discretion to depart from Iowa law.”

Grassley and Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst released a joined statement in December about Iowa Democrat Rita Hart’s efforts:

Both the original vote count and recount confirmed Mariannette Miller-Meeks won her election. There are legal avenues through which candidates can litigate election disputes if they believe there are specific election irregularities. Rita Hart declined to take legitimate legal action in Iowa courts and instead chose to appeal to Washington partisans who should have no say in who represents Iowans. That’s an insult to Iowa voters and our nonpartisan election process. We are confident in the fairness and accuracy of Iowa’s election system.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also rebuked Pelosi’s (D-CA) claims on the Senate floor for looking into “overturn a state-certified election” in the House.

McConnell reiterated Miller-Meeks won her race by six votes and was sworn into office in January with the House members’ newest class. “Two months ago, every Democrat, cable news channel, and every liberal news channel was melting down over some Republicans’ efforts to dispute state-certified election results here in congress. I opposed those efforts myself,” McConnell explained.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote on Tuesday against the efforts to overturn the election.

The editorial board communicated, the Democrats’ lawyer Marc Elias “says the House should ignore state law to steal a House seat.”

“Ms. Hart lost by six votes to GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. But rather than asserting that if state election law is strictly followed his client would win,” the editorial board wrote. Mr. Elias tells House Democrats that they may need to bend the law to reach their desired outcome.

The editorial board continued:

That sentence wasn’t a slip. Mr. Elias adds that “when voter intent can be determined but a ballot is not, for one reason or another, in strict conformity with state law,” it should be counted. He urges the Committee to “exercise its discretion to depart from Iowa law, and adopt counting rules that ‘disenfranchise the smallest possible number of voters.’”

Mr. Elias is right as a constitutional matter that each house of Congress has sweeping authority to “judge” its Members’ elections. But the explicit suggestion that state law be discarded gives the political game away.

…

“Equitable approach,” sure. Another way of putting it is that an Iowa court would have followed state law, while Mr. Elias hopes Democrats in Congress will ignore it to count the votes they want to count.

“This is a power grab, pure and simple, and Republicans should be shouting about it to everyone in Iowa and beyond,” the board said.

On Wednesday, the Washington Examiner editorial board also wrote against the efforts to overturn the election, outlining the opinions of the Democrats who are against the effort.

Pelosi is using the effort to be “blatantly partisan, dishonest, and anti-democratic that a few members of Pelosi’s own party caucus have come out against her.” They emphasized Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips’s statement: “just because a majority can, does not mean a majority should.”

The editorial board continued:

To say this is hypocritical would be an understatement. Just a few months ago, Democrats rightly denounced former President Donald Trump for trying to overturn President Biden’s victory in several swing states. Pelosi’s actions at this point utterly lack legitimacy and are identical in essence to Trump’s when he encouraged Republican senators to overturn the Electoral College vote.

Pelosi’s goal is the same: to grab power after losing the election.

House Democrats have argued that Hart has every right to challenge the election’s results given how close it was. Funny — that’s exactly what Trump said.

The board finished by saying Pelosi’s power grab shows the Democrats’ willingness “to steal this seat unless enough Democrats have a conscience and decide, like Phillips, that just because they can steal it doesn’t mean they should.”