After losing his House Committee assignments over his defense of white supremacy last year, embattled Republican Rep. Steve King has officially lost his seat as well.
Embattled Rep. Steve King has lost his primary
King, who was censured for racist statements last year, is out of the running for his House seat.
Li Zhou is a former politics reporter at Vox, where she covers Congress and elections. Previously, she was a tech policy reporter at Politico and an editorial fellow at the Atlantic.
Tuesday night, King lost the Republican primary to represent Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District in the next term, putting an end to his long and controversial nine-term tenure in the House. State Sen. Randy Feenstra ultimately dwarfed him in both fundraising and support from key players in the Republican Party, emerging as the primary winner in the expansive northwestern district.
It’s a big win for the Republican party, which saw King’s tight win in 2018 against Democrat J.D. Scholten as a sign that Democrats had a real shot at winning against him in a presidential election year.
During the campaign this year, Feenstra’s main attack centered on King’s inability to effectively represent the district, since he likely would have been barred from committee work in the new term as well. “We have a congressman who was removed from the House Agriculture Committee and the Judiciary Committee by his own Republican colleagues,” Feenstra wrote in a Des Moines Register op-ed.
Unseating King has been a longtime goal of Democrats, who have heavily criticized his record of making racist and sexist remarks including endorsing a white nationalist in Toronto’s mayoral race and questioning the need for exceptions for rape and incest in anti-abortion laws. After King made a statement wondering why white supremacy and white nationalism were considered offensive last January, even Republican leadership censured him.
“If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the time.
Feenstra’s policy platform isn’t significantly different from King’s: Much like Trump, he’s anti-abortion and supports hardline immigration policies including building a border wall.
Former baseball player and paralegal Scholten is slated to go up against Feenstra in the election this fall. While he was less than 4 points behind King last cycle, Scholten may face a tougher fight this time around.
The seat is rated Likely Republican by Cook Political Report, a sign that it will likely be an uphill battle for Democrats in November.
