Iowa congressional candidate Mariannette Miller-Meeks gives an update on her House race.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ainsley Republicans declaring a
Ainsley Republicans, declaring a
victory in one of the closest
congressional races in our
country,
Mariannette, Miller, Meeks, leading
democratic challenger, Rita Hart
by only forty votes
thats in Iowas Second
District
Miller, Meeks Win, would add to
the growing number of republican
women elected to Congress.
Joining me now to talk to B. Her
race is Mariannette
Miller, Meeks
Good Morning to you
good morning, Ainsley.
How are you
Ainsley im doing well,
thank you so much.
I noticed on social media. Have
you declared a victory, but Fox
NEWS has not called that AP has
not called it yet.
Why do you think? Have you
already won?
Well, the races in Iowa are
very descriptive and very
detailed.
So, on election night we were
ahead votes, but there is a
process of provisional ballots
and absentee ballots that have
to be counted,
but there is also within our
code and our law that all of our
counties have to do their audit
and their canvassing, and that
has to be done by Monday or
Tuesday of this week
and then those canvass have to
be certified by their Board of
supervisors and turned into
secretary of state.
So yesterday all the official
canvass were completed or on
Tuesday all the official canvass
were completed.
We were ahead in votes, and so
that makes us the winner of this
election.
That doesnt mean there is not
processes that we still have to
go through
Ainsley. I know there were
questions about jasper, county
about Lucas, county
whats, the status on those
counties. Now because I
understand there have been two
recounts
well Jasper County was
that was a process by which we
made very restrained in our
public comments, because we
wanted information, transparency
and we wanted to know all the
votes were counted.
We had had ahead votes and in a
matter of hours, we were
subtraction of four hundred and six votes, which
then put us behind our opponent,
and we did not make any comments
about any malicious intent,
but we wanted to Noe what the
process was,
how that happened,
and we thought that the voters
of the second congressional
district needed to know that
too
every legal ballot should count.
That process took the let of
legal action in order to get
some plausible explanation for
why that happened, and we got
that on Monday
and then on Monday night, as that
was transpiring, while Lucas
County was doing their audit,
they found in one of their
precincts that if there were
ballots two hundred and seventeen ballots cast for me
that were not reported to the
Secretary of State on election
night
and fifty four ballots for my opponent.
That put me up ahead
with the absentee ballots that
were cured,
the provisional ballots that
were cured, and then this mistake
uncovered within Lucas County.
That then put us ahead,
Ainsley. Okay,
so you are running against Rita
harsh.
She did release a statement. She
is a Democrat she said given
multiple hours found in Jasper
and Lucas County, given at the
11th hour, the county should take
care to ensure they have counted
every ballot and the totals are
correct
all right.
Well, what do you plan to do in
Washington?
What I plan to do in
Washington is hit the ground
running
im, a person that I left home at
sixteen after being severely burned
in a fire to put myself through
medical, school and nursing
school, and so I am a person that
is a 24 year. Military veteran, a
doctor, former director of the
Iowa Department of Public Health
and the voters in the second
district voted for someone to go
to Washington in order to help
get us through this pandemic.
Prepare us for the next one
address healthcare, rising
healthcare costs,
make it affordable and portable,
tackle, prescription, drug
benefits and rising, prescription,
drug costs and then work on
getting jobs and reopening our
economy in the safe and
effective manner.
Part of that is infrastructure
bill for our area, and I have
done those things in our state
Senate as a state senator in a
bipartisan manner, working
together across the aisle to do
those things,
and I will do those things and
hit the ground running in
Washington, D, DOT, C,
Ainsley, okay,
we wish you all the best.
Thank you so much for coming on
with us.
Transcript generated on 2020-11-12.