Pro-DEI University of Iowa law professor Christina Bohannan (D-IA), who opposed Iowa’s ‘Back the Blue Act,’ while defending Black Lives Matter protesters and sanctuary city policies, is months away from Iowa’s Democratic primary and could face Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks for a third consecutive time if she wins the nomination after losing to the Republican incumbent twice before.
Bohannon chaired the University of Iowa Law School’s DEI Committee in 2020, the same year nationwide riots and protests followed the death of George Floyd. Multiple officers in Iowa City suffered injuries after protesters shined lasers at them. In Des Moines, other officers were injured, including one who was reportedly placed in a chokehold.
At the time, Bohannon urged students and staff to “support the movement” by donating to the Minnesota Freedom Fund and National Bail Out Fund, two radical nonprofits that support defunding police.
That same year, Bohannon admitted to being “very active” in a group that worked to abolish ICE and establish sanctuary cities. In 2019, she donated to bail out illegal aliens through a group that dreamed of achieving a “world without police.”
Following the violent events of 2020, Iowa lawmakers passed the “Back the Blue Act” in 2021. The legislation increased penalties for rioting and other protest-related crimes, protected law enforcement officers from having personal information publicly disclosed, and expanded qualified immunity protections for police.
Bohannan opposed the legislation publicly and, while wearing a COVID mask, argued: “I really think this bill unnecessarily pits law enforcement against groups like Black Lives Matter and other protestors just at the time when we need to be bringing all of these groups together.”
Bohannan co-authored an op-ed calling parts of the “Back the Blue Act” “dangerous and disturbing” and attacked several of the bill’s central provisions. She objected to the measure making it “a serious misdemeanor to obstruct any street, sidewalk, highway or other public way with the intent to prevent or hinder its lawful use by others.”
She also criticized the bill’s provision making it a serious misdemeanor not to stop for an unmarked law enforcement vehicle driven by a plain-clothes officer, writing, “Those in the BIPOC community, women and others driving at night, would have to pull over for anyone with red or red/blue flashing lights, no matter how unsafe it may be. The penalty for failing to do so could be up to a year in jail.”
Bohannan further took issue with provisions targeting sanctuary city policies and requiring local governments and police departments to enforce state law without discretion. She argued that forcing law enforcement to carry out those mandates “is a recipe for increased tensions and conflict.”
The op-ed also challenged the law’s tougher penalties for riots and unlawful assembly, including increasing rioting from an aggravated misdemeanor to a class D felony punishable by up to five years in prison. Bohannan and her co-author argued the measure would “likely chill First Amendment speech and assembly, punish harmless activity, and escalate and immunize violence,” concluding that “this bill will make us both less free and less safe.”
Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft said, “Leave it to a DEI professor to say that backing the blue is racist. It is pretty easy to see why ‘Black Lives Matter’ Bohannan is a two-time loser, and she is well on her way to threepeating.”
Bohannan’s political record has also drawn scrutiny in previous campaigns. In 2021, the Washington Free Beacon questioned her description of herself as a former environmental engineer after public records showed that her work at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from 1991 to 1994 was listed under Florida license records as “Engineering Intern.” The report also said it could not find evidence that Bohannan worked as an engineer at any other point in her career.
Iowa Field Report also highlighted positions Bohannan had posted on an earlier campaign website before launching her congressional campaign. According to those reports, Bohannan described Iowa’s voter ID requirement as a “threat to democratic governance,” argued that prohibiting felons convicted of crimes including rape and murder from voting was also a “threat to democratic governance,” supported allowing Medicaid funding to pay for “gender confirmation surgery” for transgender individuals, and defended teaching critical race theory in Iowa schools, calling it “important work.”
In 2022, Hillary Clinton’s political action committee, Onward Together, contributed $2,500 to Bohannan’s campaign.
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