Two Democratic candidates for office this fall made a stop in Pella Wednesday evening. Christina Bohannon for the U.S. House and Tyler Stewart for the Iowa Senate both spoke to a crowd at the Pella Memorial Building.

Bohannon is running against one-term incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the newly drawn U.S. House District 1, which encompasses most of southeast Iowa and Marion, Warren, Mahaska, and Jasper Counties locally. The Democratic challenger to Miller-Meeks was critical of the current representative’s record in Congress and how campaign contributions may have influenced her recent votes on legislation passing before the August recess.

“I think a couple of big things are what she is doing with inflation and health care,” Bohannon says. “I think what’s really interesting is that we are seeing a pretty direct line between campaign contributions from the gas and oil industry and pharmaceutical industry, and her votes in where she doesn’t hold oil and gas companies accountable for price gouging and she voted against letting Medicare negotiate for lower drug prices. I think people here want to see someone who is working for them and not for special interests.”

Stewart, a teacher in Newton, is running against Ken Rozenboom, who is moving from Oskaloosa to Senate District 19 after serving since 2013 in the previous senate seat including Pella and Mahaska County.