Local GOP lines up to defend Steve King

Rep. Steve King

Rep. Steve King

Rep. Steve King is taking a lot of criticism from his party's leadership for his claims about cantaloupe-legged drug-carrying DREAMers, with Speaker John Boehner saying King's statement "does not reflect the values of the American people or the Republican Party," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor calling it "inexcusable," and Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad joining in the criticism. But when and where it counts, Steve King is speaking for his party.

In his own district, leading Republicans are lining up behind King:

Almost all the other GOP leaders contacted by the Register on Thursday defended King—and ridiculed Boehner.

Jake Dagel, 21, a social conservative activist from Sheldon, said he thinks many fellow Republicans “don’t see Speaker Boehner as a leader of the Republican Party.” So Boehner’s criticism is “a little ridiculous.”

Cerro Gordo County GOP Chair Gabe Haugland agrees with King’s overarching message that liberals “paint immigrant children in a light that’s extremely favorable to amnesty. Steve’s point is that they’re not all valedictorians.”

And in Congress, all but six Republicans recently voted for an amendment King introduced on, yes, immigration. So while Boehner and Cantor might wish King had been a little less memorably quotable, by the metrics that matter, he's speaking for his party at home and in the Capitol.