Rep. Steve King Defeated in Iowa Republican Primary

Rep. Steve King was defeated in his Iowa Republican primary on Tuesday by State Sen. Randy Feenstra.

King has represented the 4th Congressional district of Iowa in Congress for nine terms as a champion for the unborn and tough immigration policies, making him a primary target for the left.

King lost to his Republican challenger by six points, with 96 percent of the vote reporting.

In 2018, King barely defeated his Democrat opponent with a three-point margin in a conservative district he traditionally won easily.

King was a rhetorical firebrand, frequently shunning political correctness and the Republican establishment to press for tougher immigration policies and defend the pro-life movement.

But establishment Republicans were routinely embarrassed by King, including comments challenging Islam, birth control, and referring to illegal immigrants having “calves the size of cantaloupes” which corporate media repeatedly weaponized against the party.

In 2016, King chose to endorse Sen. Ted Cruz in the Republican primary, helping him beat Donald Trump in the state of Iowa. He later endorsed the Trump/Pence ticket in August of 2016.

Republicans bailed on King in 2019, after the New York Times reported that he questioned why the terms “white nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization” became offensive.

King disputed the characterization of his statement, noting that it was part of a discussion about the left assigning terms like “Nazi, Racist, White nationalist, and White Supremacist” to the Republican party and subsequently asked why the term “western civilization” was offensive.

But King did not record audio of the interview allowing him to make his case, and the New York Times did not release their audio of the conversation.

The embarrassed House Republican leadership subsequently stripped the nine-term congressman of his committee assignments and abandoned him politically.

King made his best argument for re-election in an op-ed submitted to the Sioux City Journal in May. “I have been lied about so many times that only God can keep track, but I have never gone back on my word. I have never let you down,” he wrote. “I have run to the sound of the guns in every important fight. I have walked towards the fire and through the fire.”