Senate Republicans Warn Corporate America Over Partisan Efforts to Overturn Iowa House Race

Senate Republicans warned corporate America against giving money to Democrats who vote in support of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) partisan efforts to overturn an Iowa House race.

In response, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) authored a letter to send to trade associations, firms, and businesses.

McConnell’s decision to sign the letter will get the attention of companies receiving it, Axios reported. The letter serves as a warning sign for possible repercussions if the companies do not follow their own precedent. In January, many of these companies cut contribution ties with Republicans who voted to block the certification of President Biden’s Electoral College victory.

“There’s no excuse why anyone who was outraged in January shouldn’t be sounding the same alarms right now,” McConnell said.

None of the Senators who signed onto the letter voted against election certification in January.

“Just a few weeks ago, much of corporate America publicly condemned the actions of members of Congress who voted to overturn a certified election, and even in some cases promised to stop supporting those members,” the group of Senators wrote. “We write to ask if you are taking the same position with respect to members of the House of Representatives who are poised to overturn a state-certified election in the second Congressional district in Iowa.”

The group continued:

Last fall, Republican State Senator Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart to represent Iowa’s second district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under Iowa law, this result was confirmed after multiple recounts by bipartisan election officials. Iowa’s bipartisan Board of Canvass unanimously certified Miller-Meeks as the winner.

Instead of accepting this certified result, Democrat Rita Hart refused to go to the Iowa courts to present evidence of legal irregularities before a panel of impartial judges. Instead, she appealed directly to the only partisan actor with the power to overturn the results of a certified election: Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who is moving forward with a process in which the House may “exercise its discretion to depart from Iowa law.”

Speaker Pelosi should have declined to get involved and applied the same standard that she stated just a few weeks ago: certified elections need to be honored. Instead, Speaker Pelosi started the process to take the election away from the people of Iowa to allow the House of Representatives to vote on a party-line basis on who should fill the seat.

“This effort to overturn a free, fair, and certified election is an unacceptable attempt to undermine a legitimate democratic process. The people—not politicians—are responsible for electing their representatives. Our democracy depends on this,” the group of Senators wrote.

The businesses receiving the letter are Marriott, Hallmark, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Best Buy, Amazon, Dell, AirBNB, The Chamber of Commerce, AT&T, Verizon, Dow Chemical, Walt Disney, Intel, Cisco, Mastercard, Nike, and Edison.

Ernst said separately:

D.C. Democrats are working to unseat a duly-elected and certified winner of Iowa’s second congressional district election: Congresswoman Miller-Meeks. Let’s get the facts straight: Iowans elected Congresswoman Miller-Meeks; the votes were recounted and every county in the district canvassed; and the results were certified by a bipartisan board of Iowans. Rita Hart chose not to follow Iowa law and rather appealed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi to overturn Iowans’ votes and voices. This is a total power grab by Washington Democrats and a slap in the face to Iowans and the nonpartisan elections process that is best kept at the state level.

As reported by Breitbart News, the House Administration Committee, chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), is working on a partisan push to overturn Iowa’s state-certified Second Congressional District election where Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller-Meeks won against Democrat challenger Rita Hart.

Republicans are trying to regain the majority in both chambers during the 2022 midterm elections. The GOP is in the minority by a slim margin, only needing to win five seats back in the House and at least one seat in the Senate.