Karen Rodriguez Professor: Dr. Kathryn DePalo POS 4072 10 November 2014 The Race for Iowa’s 2nd District: Dave Loebsack vs. Mariannette Miller-Meeks It has been three times that Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks has had to face off against her opponent Dave Loebsack a contest that has been dating back since 2008. Therefore as you can see Miller-Meeks is no stranger to her opponent and she clearly demonstrates that she is a fighter, who is not willing to go down so easily, even after facing off three times and having lost the previous races, Miller-Meeks has once again chosen to compete in the race for U.S. House Representative. Miller-Meeks’ father was a Master Sargent in the US Air Force, her mother did not finish her high school education and …show more content…
This was not the first rodeo for Miller-Meeks in fact this was her third time competing against Congressman Loebsack for the position of U.S Representative of district 2 in Iowa. I believe there were different factors that led to this outcome, one being that Dave Loebsack was the incumbent and had held this position since 2006. In all honesty it actually surprised me that Mariannette Miller-Meeks decided to run for the third time against the same opponent, many people would have easily given up the first try, but to go back for a second and even a third proves that she wasn’t willing to go down so easily without putting up a fight. Another important factor that I believe led to Miller-Meeks’ demise could have been the fact that she didn’t raise a lot of money for her campaign, a key factor that could easily make or break a person’s campaign. Miller-Meeks’ comments about the food stamp program also did not aid her very much, and instead ended up backfiring on her and leaving a sour taste on people’s mouths. Lastly, from my research as far as I could tell gender was not an important factor when it came down to this race, it was simply a matter of the female candidate facing off against an incumbent opponent who has been in this position since 2006 as well as running against the same person for a third consecutive time. Maybe sometime in the future for the next election Miller-Meeks will give it one more try, who knows it could finally be her lucky chance. After all we need more female candidates like Miller-Meeks who don’t easily give up even after losing previous times, which will hopefully pave the way for future women candidates to be just as strong and