Randy Feenstra, a Republican leader in the Iowa Senate, will run against Rep. Steve King in the 2020 Republican congressional primary in northwestern Iowa on a promise of effective conservative leadership. Feenstra announced his challenge at the same time that King, who was only narrowly re-elected last November to his ninth term, said, “I am simply a Nationalist” and denied being a white supremacist.
As a member of the House Agriculture Committee, King is a longtime sponsor of legislation to curb animal welfare laws in California and Massachusetts. Both states require farmers to give food animals more space than is common on large livestock farms. California, the most populous state, bars importing eggs that are not produced under the same standards. Iowa is the top egg-producing state.
Feenstra is a third-term state senator, the assistant majority leader, and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. On his campaign website, he says he played a key role in cutting the state income tax last year and led the way on reducing property taxes. On social media, Feenstra said, “Our current representative’s caustic nature has left us without a seat at the table. We don’t need any more sideshows or distractions, we need to start winning for Iowa’s families.”
In a story about King’s “full-throated embrace of nativism,” the New York Times said, “King, a 69-year-old former bulldozer operator with a combative manner, who has been elected nine times, helped write the book on white identity politics that are ascendant in [President] Trump’s Republican Party.” King told the Times he is not a racist. The newspaper quoted him as saying, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”
King said in a statement on Thursday, “Today, the New York Times is suggesting that I am an advocate for white nationalism and white supremacy. I want to make one thing abundantly clear: I reject those labels and the evil ideology that they define. … Under any fair political definition, I am simply a Nationalist.”
J.D. Scholten, the Democrat who ran a strong campaign against King last fall, wrote in USA Today after the election that King was beatable by a progressive candidate. “Rural Iowans are struggling with a depressed farm economy, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and continued depopulation as young folks move to more thriving economies. I’m convinced that if we continue listening to their voices, we can eventually dethrone Steve King.”