State Sen. Randy Feenstra, who ran as “pro-Trump effective conservative,” easily defeated nine-term Rep. Steve King, a promoter of white identity politics, in the Republican congressional primary in northwestern Iowa on Tuesday. The victory should assure Republicans of holding the seat in the November 3 general election where Feenstra faces Democrat J.D. Scholten, who nearly beat King two years ago, said analyst Kyle Kondik.
Unofficial results said Feenstra took 46 percent of the vote and King 36 percent in the five-way race. It was the first defeat in King’s political career, said the Sioux City Journal. Feenstra said his victory was built on 17 months of working with grassroots conservatives in the district. In a congratulatory phone call, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “Hey, go out and win in November,” Feenstra recounted.
The northwestern Iowa district is staunchly conservative. Trump carried the district by 27 points in 2016. Kondik, managing editor of Saboto’s Crystal Ball, said the Feenstra-Scholten race will be rated “safe Republican.” With King, it was listed as “likely Republican,” a contest “that King’s mouth has made competitive,” said Kondik on social media.
Scholten, a paralegal who played minor league baseball, lost by 3 points to King in 2018, running a progressive campaign. His performance and his immediate decision to run again gave Democrats hopes of picking up the seat this fall.
In a demonstration of their repugnance of King’s record of nativism and anti-immigrant positions, House Republicans barred King in January 2019 from serving on any committees. They acted after the New York Times quoted King as saying, “White nationalist, white supremacy, Western civilization – how did that language become offensive?” Until then, King was a high-ranking member of the House Agriculture and Judiciary committees.
On his campaign website, Feenstra said he was anti-abortion, a supporter of President Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and a proponent of gun rights. “He’ll fight the liberal attempts to eliminate the Trump tax cuts,” said the campaign’s description of its policies.