It’s official: On June 2, amid protests against anti-Black racism in all 50 states, notoriously racist nine-term Iowa Rep. Steve King lost his Republican primary bid to Randy Feenstra, an Iowa state senator who harbors every noxious belief King does — he just says it the Iowa nice way.
King’s downfall was a long time coming. His history of racist comments was enough to make Democrats pour money into defeating him in 2018, and they came very close. When he barely won reelection in his deeply conservative corner of the state, Republicans also turned on him. But unseating an incumbent in a conservative corner of the state during a pandemic is no small task.
On May 11, five white men sat in the Clay County Fair & Events Center for the Iowa 4th Congressional District Republican Forum. “You’re all here because you believe the New York Times,” King shouted during his opening remarks. “No legitimate person believes the New York Times!”
King, who has represented Iowa’s 4th Congressional District since 2003, was removed by Republican leaders from his agriculture, small business, and judiciary committee assignments in January of 2019 after a Times interview quoted King as saying: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” (King later said his comments had been “completely mischaracterized,” but his long, long history of racist and vile comments meant few Republicans rallied to his side.)
King accused the other men in the Republican forum of being political opportunists who’d failed to defend him when he was smeared by the Times. He vowed he would be vindicated. Just like Michael Flynn, whose case was recently dropped by the Justice Department, “his time would come around,” King said.
Now the district has Feenstra, a self-described “constitutional conservative” who has been an Iowa state senator since 2009. Feenstra made a name for himself by sponsoring local legislation that undermined or reversed LGBTQ rights and abortion…
