Christina Bohannan, the Democratic candidate in a battleground district in Iowa, is facing scrutiny from Republicans for past remarks in which she said the state would be considered “backward” if schools did not provide diversity training and argued that America’s Founding Fathers were motivated by preserving slavery during the Revolutionary War.
Bohannan, a law professor and former Iowa Rep., is making her third attempt to unseat incumbent Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, who lost by less than a percentage point in 2024. The narrow margin sets the stage for a high-stakes rematch this cycle as Republicans work to defend one of their most competitive seats while highlighting Bohannan’s past stances on political issues. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
“DEI Queen Christina Bohannan believes George Floyd is a role model and that George Washington should be canceled,” RNC spokesman Zach Kraft said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Iowa will live up to the spirit of 1776 and once again reject the two-term loser so she can go back to her day job calling everyone and everything a racist.”
Bohannan is now under fire from Republicans after making the comments in a 2021 episode of the “Under the Dome” podcast.
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Bohannan, then a state representative, said she was “very concerned” about a bill in the Iowa Legislature that would ban public schools and colleges from teaching diversity training, including implicit bias training. Implicit bias, the unconscious attitudes a person may have toward someone because of their race, is “very real” and “serious”, she said.
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“I think if this bill passes, it’s going to be very divisive,” Bohannan said at the time. “I think it’s going to send a very bad message to Iowa and look like it’s a backward state that doesn’t understand that there are things like systemic racism.”
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law in June 2021.
Bohannan also said on the podcast that she was “glad” that a Republican-backed bill to ban the 1619 Project, a New York Times initiative that said slavery was central to the founding of the country, failed during the legislative session.
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The focus of the 1619 Project is that “some revolutionary leaders supported the revolution because they wanted to preserve slavery,” Bohannan said, noting that there were other reasons for the revolution, such as taxes.
Fox News Digital reached out to Bohannan for comment.
Bohannan has supported diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for years, as well as police reform and immigrant rights groups.
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While serving in the Iowa Legislature, she co-sponsored a bill requiring implicit bias training for health professionals, but the bill never made it out of committee.
As chair of the DEI committee at the University of Iowa School of Law, she urged students to support the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd. In a letter to students, she listed five different funds students can donate to, including the Minnesota Freedom Fund and the State Relief Fund, both of which support defunding the police.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on December 16, 2025 in Washington, DC.
(Getty Images)
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At a candidate forum during Bohannan’s first congressional campaign in 2020, she said she was “very active” in Eastern Iowa Workers for Justice, a group working to abolish ICE, the Washington Free Beacon reported. A year ago, Bohannan donated to the Prairie Freedom Fund, which helps illegal immigrants get out of jail. The Prairie Freedom Fund works to build a “world without police.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Miller-Meeks’ campaign for comment.
Original source of the article: ‘DEI Queen’ running for Congress criticizes her rural state as ‘backward’ on podcast
