Mariannette Miller-Meeks. (RI photo)

Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa has kicked off her campaign for a second term with a fundraiser this weekend.

“We’re at a precipice in our country. Which pathway are we going to go down? Are we going to going on the pathway of Venezuela or are we going to continue to be the greatest nation on Earth?” Miller-Meeks asked the crowd gathered at a construction company in Coralville.

Miller-Meeks, an eye doctor who is an Army veteran, spent much of her 12-minute speech talking about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. “I know if I had been given an order to leave Bagram Air Force Base and put my soldiers at risk, I would have resigned rather than put their lives at risk,” Miller-Meeks said, to cheers.

Miller-Meeks drew even louder cheers from the crowd of 200 when she called for the resignations of top U-S generals and the U.S. secretary of state. Miller-Meeks also criticized the Biden Administration’s recent move to fine companies with more than 100 employees who do not ensure workers have had a Covid shot or are regularly tested for the virus.

“Make no mistake, I’ve given vaccine in all 24 counties. I talk to people about the vaccine. I try to persuade them for the vaccine, but I still believe there should not be a mandate and we should recognize natural immunity, which we still do not do,” she said, to applause.

Miller-Meeks currently represents 24 counties in Iowa’s second congressional district, but state legislators have yet to set district boundaries for the 2022 election. Democrat Christina Bohanan of Iowa City has announced she intends to run against Miller-Meeks and, a few hours after the Miller-Meeks campaign event, Bohanan blasted Miller-Meeks for saying elementary students don’t transmit Covid to adults or other children.

“We do not need leaders who tell lies,” Bohanan said. “We do not need someone who tells lies about a deadly virus that has killed thousands of Iowans.”

Bohanan was among the speakers at the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry on Saturday afternoon in Des Moines.