Iowa Republican Voters Finally Kick Neo-Fascist Congressman Steve King To The Curb

Tuesday evening, J.D. Scholten was the first guest on Marianne's week long down-ballot progressive summit. (Tonight, Hector Oseguera will be on with Marianne; here's the schedule.) Tuesday, while J.D. and Marianne were chatting, Iowans were voting in their primaries. J.D. wasn't challenged so, no drama there. But his opponent, GOP neo-fascist and arch-racist-- largely disowned by the DC Republican establishment-- Steve King had 4 primary opponents. And he lost-- very badly.

King is a poor fundraiser and he was badly outraised by the GOP establishment favorite, state Senator Randy Feenstra. This is what each Republican spent clobbering each other (as of May 13):

• Randy Feenstra- $799,306
• Steve King- $325,135
• Bret Richards (self funder)- $219,655
• Jeremy Taylor- $140,818
• Steven Reeder- $77,595

Most Iowa Republicans-- not to mention DC Republicans-- have been embarrassed over and over again by King and are more than happy to see him go. For a long-term incumbent to get only 36% in a primary is nothing short of astounding-- if not historic. This is what you call a rejection:

Iowa is a swing state that national Democrats have largely given up on. Hillary, angry Bernie had toed her in the caucuses, pointedly and stupidly ignored the state and it went for Trump 798,923 (51.8%) to 650,790 (42.2%), after giving it's 6 electoral votes to Obama both times he ran. More recently, establishment Democrats-- mostly from the failed Clinton campaign-- have said they would not be contesting Iowa this year, a state Bernie's campaign felt very optimistic about bringing back into the Democratic fold. The state legislature is controlled by the Republicans-- 32 Republicans in the state Senate to 18 Democrats and 53 Republicans in the state House to 47 Dems. In 2018, Democrats won 5 more state House seats and two of the 3 congressional seats the GOP held. The 4th district would have been won-- by J.D.-- had the DCCC supported him, something their hatred of progressives had not allowed. J.D. came far closer to defeating King than they expected when they were telling institutional Democratic donors to not contribute to his campaign.

COVID-Kim

Iowa's governor is a clueless Trump Republican, Kim Reynolds, largely to blame for the catastrophic Iowa pandemic (6,344 confirmed cases per million, including 318 new cases yesterday and another 5 deaths, bringing the total to 561. In terms of cases per million, the worst hit counties are:

• Buena Vista- 42,150 cases per million
• Crawford- 30,940
• Louisa- 30,830
• Woodbury- 27,210
• Tama- 23,630
• Marshall- 22,300
• Wapello- 17,270
• Wright- 14,680

The 4 horribly-stricken counties in red are in King's district. Reynold's lackadaisical, ideological anti-scientific response to the coronavirus has seriously sickened thousands of Iowans needlessly. She's been on the top 10 list of the worst governors in America since the pandemic began. In way of comparison, the current cases per million in the worst hit (non-postage-stamp-sized) countries:

• Spain- 6,139 cases per million
• USA- 5,697
• Chile- 5,689
• Peru- 5,310
• Iceland- 5,295
• Ireland- 5,081
• Belgium- 5,065
• Belarus- 4,774
• U.K.- 4,124

I'm predicting that Iowans' general revulsion to Trump and to COVID-Reynolds' failure will result in a clean sweep for Democrats in November, all 4 House seats and the Joni Ernst Senate seat (even with a remarkably awful Democratic nominee handpicked by Schumer). The Dems are also in position to win back control of the state House if the anti-red wave in big enough.

King didn't get much sympathy from the media after his massive rejection by IA-04 voters. Politico: "Iowa Republicans drove Steve King out of office on a primary day marked by civil unrest... The nine-term congressman with a history of racist and anti-immigrant remarks was ousted after the GOP establishment offered his opponent both material and symbolic assistance... They starved him of cash, deprived him of committee assignments, and plied his challenger with outside support. But to avoid antagonizing his legion of loyal supporters, King’s detractors largely ignored his decades-long list of remarks condoning white supremacists and demeaning immigrants. Instead, they cast him as ineffective and powerless in Washington, unable to achieve results for his constituents... Nearly every corner of the Republican Party came together to aid Feenstra when tightening polls indicated he could nab the seat. Feenstra’s backers included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, evangelical leaders, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, Karl Rove, five current Republican congressmen and longtime Iowa political operatives."

Just because he's not Steve King doesn't make Feenstra what's needed in the 4th district. The tired right-wing elixirs and bathtub remedies he's peddling have never been enough to revitalize rural communities or enough to ensure farmers get a fair price and can stay on their land or enough for families to afford healthcare and save for retirement. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Feenstra is lacking in vision and utterly devoid of the ability to bring people together, the way Scholten does. Feenstra takes every dime he can from corporations and special interests-- the same corporate system that's taking away power, opportunities, and wealth from Iowa communities. He already represents the D.C. swamp and everything that spells out real (not Trumpian) reform. Remember, his big complaint about King was that he was ineffective perpetrating policies like building a border wall. And in the state legislature he voted for the heartbeat bill and has always opposed all abortion exceptions beyond saving a woman’s life.

Not having King in the race, makes it tougher for J.D. in a red district like IA-04. But his 2018 campaign made him well-known in every county and he is very well-regarded by Democrats, independents and even many non-ideological Republicans. There is already talk about die-hard King supporters boycotting Feenstra, who is generally as conservative as King, but without the overt fascism and racist carryings-on. Now J.D. is going to need all the financial support he can get since there is no doubt that the GOP establishment will fight like dogs to hold onto the seat and spend immense amounts of dark money. Please help J.D. with transparent money by clicking on the Blue America 2020 congressional thermometer on the right-- and giving what you can. After the vote, J.D. acknowledged to his supporters that "This election is not going to be easy. But it wasn’t easy in 2018, and we came within 3 points of defeating Steve King. This time, we know we can win. That’s because 'not Steve King' isn’t good enough. It’s not enough to not be blatantly racist. We need someone who will fight for our farmers to get a fair price and for our families to be able to afford quality healthcare, put food on the table, and save for retirement. To do that, we can’t keep propping up the corporate system that is sucking wealth and opportunities out of our district like Randy does.We don’t need another representative who is already bought and owned by corporate interests and the 1%."

This morning he told me that "King set a low bar for a Member of Congress. We must do better than not being blatantly racist. We’re in an extraordinary moment in history: the vibrancy of rural America is declining while we’re facing a global pandemic and nationwide protests calling for justice, accountability, and long overdue changes to address white supremacy and systemic racism. Our next representative must be able to meet these challenges and have a vision for the future of rural Iowa. We can’t accept the status quo of another corporate-backed career politician and allow the rich, powerful, and well-connected to continue bleeding rural America and vulnerable Americans dry."