Last night, Republican voters in Rep. Steve King’s district decided to punish the congressman’s legacy of white supremacist statements and racist sympathies. Nearly 37,000 primary voters braved a pandemic and nationwide unrest to give challenger Randy Feenstra an almost 8,000-vote win over King. In that heavily Republican district, it’s as good as a ticket to Congress.
King displayed a hand-sized Confederate flag in his office (he’s not even a southerner) and endorsed a neo-Nazi in a mayoral election in Canada. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was the January 2019 interview he gave to the New York Times.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
That was what prompted House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney to call for King’s resignation. Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Chris Stewart followed suit. Shortly thereafter, the party stripped King of all of his committee assignments, leaving him doddering around the Capitol as top party operatives such as Karl Rove threw their weight behind Feenstra, a state senator.
Perhaps just as importantly, crucial conservative media personalities and organizations turned the tide with eager coverage of King’s comments and the viability of Feenstra’s bid. Conservative radio host and columnist Ben Shapiro immediately urged people to donate to Feenstra after covering King’s comments in January 2019, which helped create some early buzz. Soon, endorsements ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Congress to local family values organizers rolled in, giving Feenstra enough clout with the conservative base that they could trust he was no Manchurian leftist.
Feenstra’s win ought to provide a bipartisan playbook for ridding one’s party of its most unpalatable figures.
Given the intensely partisan lean of their districts, fringe Democrats in Congress, such as Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, can only be beaten by Democratic primary challengers. That can’t happen by means of Democrats wringing their hands in private. To destroy an anti-Semitic incumbent consumed by hate and extremism, it takes a party and a movement.
If they are to be beaten, then top party leaders must not hesitate to denounce them. Prominent partisan media commentators have to convince grassroots donors and voters that upsetting the status quo and vetting and trusting a new candidate is worth the effort. It’s tough work, but King’s loss proves that it’s worth it.
