SPENCER, Iowa — Rep. Steve King vowed nothing would keep him from seeking reelection in 2020 as he blamed Republican leaders, Democrats, and the media for the political peril he faces in an otherwise solidly conservative House seat.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner following a town hall meeting for constituents in this farming community in the heart of his northwest Iowa congressional district, King reframed his narrow 2018 reelection victory as a triumph over the opposition of turncoat Republican leaders and an energized Left. He said he expected to win a 10th term next year on the strength of grassroots support that he claims has not wavered.
“Thirteen days out we were up 18 points. Then, Republican leadership turned on me and Steve Stivers attacked me a week out and raised a million-and-a-half dollars for my opponent,” King said, referring to Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers, who last cycle was chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP campaign arm.
“Even with that, and millions of dollars of media that was poured against me, some of it strategized, some of it organic, I don’t think anybody has faced such a nearly perfect storm as I have faced,” King added. Asked if there was any possibility he might fulfill the wishes of GOP leaders in Washington and Iowa and retire in 2020 rather than seek a 10th term, King said: “No. Unless I’m dead. That’s the only circumstance.”
That is likely to satisfy King loyalists, who appreciate a politician they describe as refreshingly blunt, like President Trump, who won the district three years ago with 61% of the vote.
“Steve King is about as straightforward a shooter as you can get — no sugar coating. He reminds me of Donald Trump in a lot of ways,” said Phil Carlson, 57, a farmer who was clad in a Trump campaign “Keep America Great” hat. “We like him here; we’re glad he’s in Congress.”
King, 70, has a habit of irritating fellow Republicans with comments on hot-button issues such as immigration and abortion that some have described as racist and insensitive. But the firebrand congressman rejected those accusations, insisting that his words have been twisted, distorted, and taken out of context by the Democrats and a compliant liberal media. Republican leaders in Iowa and on Capitol Hill, King said, have fallen for it.
“Even the liberals don’t know what they’re supposed to be angry at until they’re told, often by the liberal press. I’ve watched it spring out of CNN and MSNBC, if they express indignation into a story, it’s picked up across the country,” King said. “None of my language was offensive.”
Last year, Stivers cut King loose ahead of the midterm elections over unhappiness with how the Iowan expressed his opposition to immigration and for questioning the value of ethnic diversity, and for appearing to lend support to figures who harbored racist and anti-Semitic views.
Earlier this year, the New York Times quoted King in an interview, saying: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King at first apologized, although it was not enough to satisfy House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who along with his leadership team decided to eject the congressman from his committees. The move had potentially disastrous political consequences in a largely rural, agricultural seat such as Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.
Then recently, King appeared to dismiss the trauma of rape and incest as he defended his position on the issue. King opposes abortion rights, even in the case of rape and incest.
Regarding his reported defense of white nationalism, King said flatly that he never uttered the quote attributed to him by the New York Times. He told the Washington Examiner that he refers to white nationalism as an “odious ideology” that he completely opposes. Regarding the controversy he stirred with his comments on abortion, King did not deny the veracity of the quotes, but said he was being taken out of context.
“The New York Times quote is wrong, it’s a misquote, I don’t know if it’s willful or whether it’s just accidental,” King said. Of his abortion comments, he added: “I don’t want to stigmatize the survivors of rape and incest. Those babies that are born are as sacred as … as my grandchildren, that we should not execute those innocent little babies almost always because of the sins of the father.”
King, who has generally cruised to reelection since winning his first congressional race in 2002, barely survived last fall, winning with 50.4% of the vote. He is bracing for a rematch with Democrat J.D. Scholten, but must first get past the GOP primary against state Sen. Randy Feenstra, as well as other challengers. Democrats, about a dozen of whom showed up in Spencer to protest King during his town hall meeting, are optimistic that his number is finally up, even though Trump is positioned to win Iowa and the 4th District again next year.
Why are Democrats nonetheless optimistic of picking off King after he went unscathed for years?
“His rhetoric has stepped up since Trump has become president,” said Anne Slattery, the Democratic activist who organized the King protest. “I feel like he’s emboldened to speak his mind. He’s never spoken his mind like this before, saying the things he’s said. And, I think people are taking notice.”
