Despite a history of controversial rhetoric, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has easily won re-election to Congress. Jason Noble/The Register


Many of us have been scratching our heads in the wake of multiple sexual-assault allegations against prominent political figures. What voters would knowingly cast their ballot for someone who preys on children or women? How did the current president win election despite his own boasts about using his celebrity status to take advantage of women? What kind of person uses social media to feed his insatiable ego with caustic one-liners and shows an abject lack of concern for anyone outside of his immediate family?

But maybe in Iowa, we wonder less than in most other states. Because here, since 2001, we've continuously re-elected to Congress one of the leading white supremacists in the nation. His western Iowa voters keep voting him back into office without a hint of self-consciousness. And top officials in his party tiptoe around him, refusing to call him out by name. Some even reward him.

Steve King’s attacks on other races and cultures don’t have to be investigated or verified. He proudly shares them with whoever will listen. He presents as fact his contention that nonwhites have contributed less to civilization, that America can’t restore its civilization with “someone else’s babies,” that "mixing cultures will not lead to a higher quality of life but a lower one.” Last week he called for assimilation instead of diversity. In March he told CNN he wanted "an America that's just so homogeneous that we look a lot the same." Get it? An America of white people.

These are not just victimless words. They translate to policies that target minority groups. In the case of Abu Ghraib, King excuses torturing Muslim political prisoners. He hasn’t just kept a Confederate flag on his desk; he held up re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act. He has proposed an electrified fence to keep Mexicans out, saying, "We do that with livestock.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center has said the anti-Muslim hate group ACT for America has successfully lobbied members of Congress on legislation, and that King has introduced bills sympathetic to their cause.


Through the years, Steve King, a Republican congressman from western Iowa, has made several widely criticized remarks during his years in office. This is a brief history of some of those moments. Kelsey Kremer/ The Register

The congressman elevates racists at home and abroad, like Arizona’s Joe Arpaio after the Maricopa County sheriff was convicted of criminal contempt of court for ignoring a judge's order not to detain immigrants on the basis of ethnic profiling. (Trump pardoned Arpaio). King's heroes include Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban and Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who wanted to ban Muslims, mosques and the Koran from Holland. When America’s first black president was elected, King warned that terrorists would be celebrating.

He draws the blessings of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

More: Steve King trolled me on Facebook over diversity comments

More: Racist banter and Steve King's tweets make me ashamed for rural Iowa

Does his base share those attitudes or tolerate them because they feel well-represented by him in other ways? And if so, what other ways? What has he actually done for his district besides keep up the ugly rhetoric?

Everyone says Donald Trump owed his electoral victory to people who felt forgotten by mainstream politicians and left out of the economy. But many in King's district are doing quite well. I'm sure his voters see themselves as moral, decent church-going people who wouldn't hesitate to help a neighbor in need.

 And yet they keep a demagogue in office. Do they realize how much that hurts other people in their state? Do they wonder why some of their children grow up and leave town, get exposed to the larger world around them, have their minds opened to other ways of being, and are in no hurry to come back?

 And does Iowa’s Gov. Kim Reynolds, who prizes civility in dialogue, realize what it says to Iowa's African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Africans, Native Americans and Muslims when she names King to co-chair her re-election campaign? He may not wear a hood and white robe, but based purely on his rhetoric, it makes little difference. A vote for King has become synonymous with a vote for white supremacy, and he keeps winning.



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