Washington, DC – Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis (IL-13) released this statement after the Democrat candidate in Iowa's Second Congressional District, Rita Hart, released the official election contest she will file with the Clerk of the House today:

"Rita Hart had an opportunity to challenge each of these claims using Iowa's impartial judicial proceedings, but instead, she has chosen to sidestep Iowa law and ask Speaker Pelosi to decide this election for Iowa voters. Taking up this election contest would set a dangerous precedent that candidates do not have to exhaust all of their legal options through the state and can, instead, go straight to Congress if they don't like the outcome of an election.

"In 1985, the last time Democrats overturned an election, we saw how partisan of a process this was. Democrats decided that votes that were not legal under the state law were suddenly determined legal under new rules implemented by a partisan task force. They changed the rules of the game after the game had already been played and that is exactly what they are trying to do 35 years later. While running for election is partisan in nature, administering and determining the outcome should never be.

"Rep.-elect Miller-Meeks was certified the winner after 24 different bipartisan recount boards, which included a designee from both campaigns and an agreed-upon third party, did a thorough recount in every county. It will be one of the greatest mistakes this House makes to take up an election contest where the candidate sidestepped the courts and, instead, turned to a partisan process in the House because they knew they could not win any other way."