Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who once wondered why the notion of white supremacy was offensive, was defeated by GOP challenger state Sen. Randy Feenstra (R) in Iowa’s primary race on Tuesday night.
King lost to Feenstra by nearly ten points, according to the New York Times.
The Iowa congressman was notorious for his blatant racism, which included mocking undocumented immigrants as having “calves the size of cantaloupes because they’ve been hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,” fretting about the declining birth rate in the U.S. because “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” and claiming that white people “contribute more to civilization” than “any other subgroup.”
King’s defeat was met with delight on Twitter, several of the cheers coming from his Democratic House colleagues:
Steve King continues to honor the Confederacy by getting just destroyed on his home turf
— John Ray (@johnlray) June 3, 2020
Goodbye, Rep. Steve King. You are certainly not the only white supremacist in federal government, but you were among the most prominent.
It’s a shame Republicans held you up as long as they did.
SEE YA ?? https://t.co/tymvh0hwLR
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 3, 2020
Pleased that Rep. Steve King was defeated.
One racist down. Many more to go. Vote this November. https://t.co/rOYGq3vbfT
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) June 3, 2020
Steve King got voted out of office during a national Black Lives Matter protest.
Poetry.
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) June 3, 2020
Rep. Steve King lost, which finally makes him a true nazi
— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) June 3, 2020
Today has started out really nice for me. My sister sent me a batch of homemade pumpernickel bagels and Steve King lost his primary.
— hend amry (@LibyaLiberty) June 3, 2020
President Donald Trump had enthusiastically endorsed King in 2014, praising the lawmaker as a “special guy, a smart person with, really, the right views on almost everything.”
Throughout it all, the GOP had declined to take action on King until early January 2019 after the congressman gave a New York Times interview on the merits of white supremacy.
“White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King asked.
The resulting backlash prompted GOP House leadership to strip King of his committee assignments.
