In a nation in turmoil, it’s nice to have even a small bit of good news:
Representative Steve King of Iowa, the nine-term Republican with a history of racist comments who only recently became a party pariah, lost his bid for renomination early Wednesday, one of the biggest defeats of the 2020 primary season in any state.
In a five-way primary, Mr. King was defeated by Randy Feenstra, a state senator, who had the backing of mainstream state and national Republicans who found Mr. King an embarrassment and, crucially, a threat to a safe Republican seat if he were on the ballot in November.
The defeat was most likely the final political blow to one of the nation’s most divisive elected officials, whose insults of undocumented immigrants foretold the messaging of President Trump, and whose flirtations with extremism led him far from rural Iowa, to meetings with anti-Muslim crusaders in Europe and an endorsement of a Toronto mayoral candidate with neo-Nazi ties.
King, you may remember, was stripped of his committee assignments last year when he defended white supremacism. Two years ago, he almost lost his Congressional seat in the general. That is, a seat that Republicans have held since 1986, usually win by double digits and a district Trump carried by a whopping 27 points almost came within a point or two of voting in a Democrat. That’s how repulsive King had gotten.
Good riddance to bad rubbish. Enjoy retirement, Congressman. Oops. Sorry. In January, it will be former Congressman.
I’m hoping he fades away quickly. I have been mildly embarrassed for years that Rep. King and I share some (non-overlapping) years in the same small town in northwest Iowa.Report
Oh, hey, the GOP did something right…Report
Sadly he’s from a gerrymandered-white-supremacist district and the guy who primaried him is actually a WORSE racist.Report
What is your basis for this claim? Searching for “Randy Feenstra” and “racist” just gave me a bunch of hits about how Steve King is a racist.Report
History of his statements. Among other things Feenstra uses clinic bomber rhetoric like Trump (claiming democrats are up for legalizing “abortion up until birth”). His record on voting rights is actually worse than King’s, he supports racially biased “felon disenfranchisement” scams similar to Florida’s poll tax setup. His few statements on actual civil rights have been dishonest “all lives matter” sorts of statements like “special references to any specific race, creed, age, sex or national origin is not required.” He would literally strip away the protective language of laws like the Civil Rights Act if he could.
About the only difference between Feenstra and King is that Feenstra manages to not say the quiet parts out loud so often.Report
So you can offer up some links pointing to direct quotes, right?
If someone says a quick Googling shows nothing, it’s a good idea to follow up with links, not just hearsay.Report
https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/103301/randy-feenstraReport
Nine terms!!
But, no, it’s good that he didn’t make it to ten terms.Report
Eighteen years only ending this year, the republicans were totally ok with having a David Duke level bigot represent them. And there are still plenty of republicans who are just as bad; Mo Brooks, Richard Shelby, Martha McSally, Tom Cotton, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Devin Nunes, Dan Crenshaw, Louie Gohmert… Think about that.Report
And add another one in Georgia, a white supremacist and member of the Q-Anon Cult will likely be the next representative for the gerrymandered Georgia 14th Congressional District.
https://www.axios.com/marjorie-greene-georgia-qanon-congress-b4167e4b-e42b-4c27-812c-524ee2ec2715.htmlReport