State Sen. Randy Feenstra’s GOP primary bid against white supremacist Rep. Steve King picked up an endorsement on Thursday from prominent Iowa social conservative Bob Vander Plaats. Vander Plaats, who leads an evangelical group called The Family Leader, used to be a King ally. However, he denounced the incumbent in January after King asked a New York Times reporter, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive?'”
King’s comments, which came just months after he only won his general election by a 50-47 margin in what’s usually a safely red seat, also convinced congressional GOP leaders that it was time to drop him. National Republicans had spent over a decade tolerating King’s vehement racism and alliances with international white supremacists, but they stripped him of all his committee assignments in January. King remains committee-less six months later, and he’s also nearly cash-less. The incumbent has been a weak fundraiser for years, but the $18,000 war chest he had at the end of June was terrible even for him.
Feenstra isn’t the only Republican campaigning against King, but he has by far the most money. Feenstra raised $138,000 during the second quarter of 2019, and he had $337,000 to spend at the end of June. Two other candidates, Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor and Army veteran Bret Richards each had less than $50,000 to spend, though they both still had more cash-on-hand than King.
However, Taylor and Richards, as well as anyone else who enters the GOP primary before next March’s filing deadline, could still help the incumbent if they can take some anti-King votes away from Feenstra. In Iowa, a candidate needs to win at least 35% of the vote to win the primary outright, and it’s very possible King could take a plurality with a split field. If no one hits this threshold, though, the nomination would be decided at a party convention.
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