Democrats narrowly avoid the Iowa election challenge they reportedly dreaded

Rita Hart, the Democratic candidate in the 2020 race to represent Iowa's 2nd Congressional district, announced Wednesday she was dropping her election challenge, meaning Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) will retain the seat after winning an incredibly tight contest by just six votes.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) already tweeted out a celebratory photo, but the GOP may not be the only happy party. There was reportedly quite a bit of concern about the challenge on the other side of the aisle, as well. Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman tweeted that Hart's announcement was what "many, many, many in [Democratic] leadership were privately hoping for," explaining that there was a belief the challenge would be "expensive and time consuming" and "was already dividing Democrats."

Politico's Melanie Zanona expanded on that last point, noting that "moderate" and "vulnerable" House Democrats were concerned about the "optics" of tossing out a state-certified victory. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.