(Radio Iowa) – A top leader in the U-S House is urging Iowa Republicans to stay engaged to ensure G-O-P candidates in competitive races win in 2026. All four Iowans serving in the U.S. House today are Republicans — but Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer notes that at this time five years ago, the Iowa delegation was split 50/50 between Republicans and Democrats.

“It wasn’t that long ago that didn’t have all of this wonderful red that you see across Iowa…The worst thing you can do is just sit back on your laurels,” Emmer said. “…You win because everybody grabs ahold of the rope and does their part. Everybody’s got to be pulling every day.” Emmer, the assistant majority leader in the U.S. House, was the keynote speaker at a Friday night fundraiser for Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

“It’s great that all of you are in this room, but you’ve got to keep reminding Republicans: ‘Yeah, we hold it all right now, but we could lose it all tomorrow,'” Emmer said. “Republicans have a tendency that when they win they suddenly say, ‘All right, we’ve got it. It’s good,’ and they don’t show up. This time we cannot take that attitude.” Miller-Meeks won in 2020 by just six votes. Last year, her margin of victory was 800 votes.

She says Democrats have already spent two-point-eight MILLION dollars campaigning against her this year. “But we’re still standing. We’re still going and we are never going to give up. We never back down. I’m like the defensive line of the Iowa Hawkeyes,” Miller-Meeks said, to chcers. “Don’t come at me. Don’t after my family. Don’t come after my district.” Miller-Meeks faces a repeat challenge from fellow Republican David Pautsch, who finished 12 points behind Miller-Meeks in the 2024 G-O-P primary.

Three Democrats are running in the district, including Christina Bohannan of Iowa City, who has run against Miller-Meeks twice before.