WASHINGTON, DC - Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is leading an effort to call on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to honor election results in the 2nd Congressional District.
Republican Mariannette-Miller Meeks won the election in November by six votes and was provisionally sworn-in while Democrat Rita Hart challenged the results in the House.
Hinson has led 123 other Republicans in a letter to Pelosi critical of a House committee's investigation of the election.
Meanwhile, the Capitol Dispatch reports Hart is asking the committee to do a hand recount of ballots to ensure all of the votes were properly counted.
Attention to the House committee's investigation is drawing increased attention in Washington.
Politico reported Tuesday that there's pushback from some Democrats who think it would be an overreach to award the seat to Hart.
The investigation is also drawing attention from other media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and The Hill.
Hart's campaign said it found 22 votes that should have been counted during a recount of the tight race, and claims she would have defeated Miller-Meeks had those votes been counted.
Hart then bypassed a legal process in Iowa and challenged the election results directly to the U.S. House, saying the process in the state would take too long.
Attorneys for Miller-Meeks subsequently asked the House to dismiss Hart's challenge. But the House committee looking into the issue voted two weeks ago to delay its decision on that proposal, and has been investigating since
It could take week or months before the House decides what to do about race. Monday marks the first day that lawyers for Miller-Meeks and Hart to have file briefs in the battle.
Also weighing in are nine of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump after the riots at the Capitol.
They sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressing intense dismay over the Democratic challenge and asked her to call off the investigation.
The letter says the investigation of the race serves to give cover to false claims by Trump and other Republicans of widespread voter fraud.