Rita Hart has dropped the challenge, as of March 31st - find updates here
The challenge to serve Iowa's 2nd Congressional District isn't over yet.
Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks was certified as the winner over Democrat Rita Hart back in November of 2020. Miller-Meeks won by six votes, after a recount of the district's 24 counties.
Since then, the Hart campaign has issued a challenge against the results. Her campaign claimed 22 legally-cast ballots weren't counted, which ultimately affected the outcome.
According to a report by KCCI, a committee in the U.S. House turned down a motion on Wednesday, March 10 that would have dismissed the Hart Campaign's challenge. The vote was 6-3.
KCCI's report included a statement from Alan Ostergren, the attorney for Miller-Meeks' campaign. It said the following:
"The committee's vote today was procedural. Congresswoman Miller-Meeks' motion to dismiss is still pending. The Congresswoman's legal team will prepare and file the answer to the notice of contest. In the meantime, the Congresswoman is focused on serving the needs of her constituents. Rita Hart's contest has no more merit today than it did when it was filed. Her refusal to put her claims before neutral judges in Iowa tells us everything we need to know about the weakness of her case. Hart ignored Iowa law during the recount and again when she failed to make her case before a contest court in Iowa. She hopes that her fellow Democrats in Washington D.C. will ignore Iowa law and the precedents of the House to grant her the seat in Congress that the voters denied her. Hart's power quest is wrong and damages our electoral system."
