A video of U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) addressing Johnson County Republicans in August has resurfaced this week amidst a federal government shutdown where one key Democratic demand has been the reversal of the drastic Medicaid cuts enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Donald Trump’s signature second-term tax and spending package.
As seen below, Miller-Meeks, who is running for re-election in her swing district in 2026, said: “I’m in a swing district. We have other members in swing districts. We took the hard votes on reconciliation. We’ve been beat to crap over what we did on Medicaid. You know because you all have seen it.”
(Note: Along with nearly every House Republican, Miller-Meeks voted for the OBBBA. Vice President JD Vance broke a tie in the Senate to put the bill on Trump’s desk.)
In the meeting with her county party membership, Miller-Meeks ranted about the pressure she was under, saying: “Bernie Sanders came here in February to attack me. Pete Buttigieg has been here to attack me. They’ve been on broadcasts, they’ve been on radio, there are billboards all across the district. They’ve had fake town halls all over.”
When the Congresswoman listed a few local publications that have run headlines including, ‘When is Miller-Meeks going to run a town hall?’, Miller-Meeks answered the question by saying “When hell freezes over,” which triggered laughter from the people in the room.
GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks says she’ll hold a town hall ‘when hell freezes over’:
“I don’t have to hold a town hall so you can come and yell at me” pic.twitter.com/5JazGNqYBc
— FactPost (@factpostnews) October 7, 2025
Miller-Meeks addressed the people who would likely show up at a town hall if she ever decided to have one and said: “I don’t have to have a town hall so you can come and yell at me. You can yell at me at the county fair, and you did, and you did…You yell at me at church, you yell at me at the county fair, I’m out in public all the damn time. Someone yelled at me at the Speedway. You have plenty of opportunities to yell at me and tell me that I should be ashamed of myself, and by the way, I am not.” When the Congresswoman paused, the people in attendance applauded.
Miller-Meeks is facing a primary challenge from David Pautsch, founder of the Quad Cities Prayer Breakfast. Democratic former Iowa State Rep. Christina Bohannan has also announced that she’s running again for Miller-Meeks’s seat. (Miller-Meeks beat Bohannan in the 2024 election by 799 votes.)
Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, a former prosecutor who’s running as a Democrat in the 2026 Iowa gubernatorial election, responded to Miller-Meeks comments: “…anyway, I had 5 town halls today and 4 tomorrow, hope to see you there!” He currently on a “100 town hall tour.”
Note: In the Democratic primary, Sand is running against Julie Stauch, former Iowa political director for the Pete Buttigieg 2020 presidential campaign.
On the road again… Going to be in Jones, Jackson, Cedar, Clinton and Dubuque counties today. Everyone is welcome. Would love to see you. pic.twitter.com/mBZDZjq00D
— Rob Sand (@RobSandIA) October 7, 2025