In great news that came on the morning of Wednesday, November 6, the day after the incredible election in which former president and now-President-Elect Donald Trump stormed to victory, dragging the GOP with him and winning the Senate as well, a critical House seat was held onto.

That is big news because it remains to be seen if the GOP can hold onto its House majority, or if it will lose the House and so lose its chance for at least two years of changing things up in the way Trump wants them changed, something generally impossible if there is a divided national legislature.

The set held onto is that of Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, an Iowa Republican whose razor-thin margin of victory puts the GOP one seat closer to obtaining the victory it needs to dominate the national government. Her race was within 0.2% points, so it wasn’t called until late in the morning on the day after the election.

In fact, the race in which Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks managed to hold onto her seat was not called until As of 10:10 am EST on the 6th, at which point Decision Desk HQ called the race for her and announced that she had managed to eke out a victory with 50.1% of the vote, defeating challenger Christina Bohannan, who managed to garner a just-shy 49.9%.

Announcing in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that Rep. Miller-Meeks has managed her nail-biter of an electoral victory, Decision Desk HQ said, Decision Desk HQ projects Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) wins the US House election in Iowa’s 1st congressional district. #DecisionMade: 10:10 AM EDT.”

Rep. Miller-Meeks was praised on X for her victory. For example, conservative writer Matthew Foldi wrote, “SHE DID IT @millermeeks destroyed Ann Selzer’s bogus “Iowa Poll” in #IA01, and posed for her own “Dewey Defeats Truman” photo. Selzer’s poll predicted that Miller-Meeks would lose by SIXTEEN PERCENT; she won.”

Rep. Miller-Meeks wrote about her victory on her own, personal account as well, saying, “First, thank you to all you voted. As veterans, we secured that right and privilege for you. Second, thank you to all those who supported, volunteered, poll watched, put up signs or donated. Couldn’t have done it without you. Third, I’m honored and humbled to serve you.”

She also wrote about Trump’s victory, saying, “Congratulations to President Donald Trump for his historic win in Iowa and the nation. First Republican to win the national popular vote in 2 decades. Incredible victory! I’m excited to get to work with a unified government on the America First agenda.”

Rep. Miller-Meeks is a 69-year-old who had a longtime career as a physician before winning her seat in Iowa’s First Congressional District in 2020, a similarly close race. She has focused particularly intently on healthcare reform, something about which she knows a great deal from having worked in the industry, and veteran issues.

Additionally, her seat is in a district that often oscillates between Republicans and Democrats, making her ability to hold onto it in nail-bitingly close elections important for the GOP in elections such as this one, where they aim to hold onto a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

Trump’s large margin of victory in the 2024 election, one that was much in contrast to Rep. Miller-Meeks’s re-election, set the left off. Watch show host Jon Stewart lose his mind about it here: