What Iowa congress member no longer lives in her congressional district? [View all]

[rurallib]

https://laurabelin.substack.com/p/miller-meeks-no-longer-registered?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email.

Miller-Meeks no longer registered to vote in IA-01

Sarah Watson had the scoop for the Quad-City Times: U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks no longer officially lives in Scott County, or anywhere in Iowa’s first Congressional district. In July 2025, she changed her voter registration back to the Ottumwa home she shares with her husband.

Aspiring candidates and campaign strategists could learn a lot from how Miller-Meeks has handled questions surrounding her residency over the past four years. It’s hard to believe an experienced politician could botch this issue so badly.

A SIMPLE PROBLEM WITH AN EASY FIX

Miller-Meeks was elected to Congress for the first time in 2020, in what was then Iowa’s second district. But the new political map adopted in October 2021 placed Wapello County in the third district, dominated by the Des Moines metro area. Most of the southeast Iowa counties Miller-Meeks was representing were part of the new first district.

That was not an unprecedented or complicated problem.

Although members of Congress are only required to live in the state they represent (not their U.S. House district), most would agree it’s a bad look not to have a home where you’re running for office. For that reason, Iowa’s nonpartisan redistricting process has often prompted U.S. House incumbents to move.

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