Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, will return to Congress, despite coming under fire after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting for his ties to white nationalists and those with anti-Semitic tendencies.
The Associated Press called the race for King Tuesday night, when he was ahead of Democratic opponent J.D. Scholten with 50.3 percent of the vote and 93 percent of precincts reporting.
King in June refused to delete a retweet from Nazi sympathizer Mark Collett and in August gave an interview to members of the Austria Freedom Party, an organization associated white nationalists. Last month, he endorsed Toronto mayoral candidate Faith Goldy, who appeared on a neo-Nazi podcast.
[More: Republicans in Washington have had it with Steve King. What about Iowa?]
King has come under greater scrutiny for his links to controversial people and groups following 11 worshippers being killed in a mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. The gunman had made anti-Semitic remarks before and during the attack.
Agricultural cooperative Land O’Lakes last week withdrew its support from the longtime GOP lawmaker because it wanted its political contributions “to be a positive force for good.”
King told the Washington Post in October that he is not anti-Semitic, but that has not stemmed the criticism hurled in his direction.
