Steve King loses Iowa Republican Primary

Steve King, the Republican congressman who openly embraced white supremacy, will not be the party's candidate in November's general election. Sen. Randy Feenstra defeated him in Tuesday's five-way primary race.

Republicans in northwest Iowa ousted Rep. Steve King in Tuesday's primary, deciding they've had enough of the conservative lightning rod known for making incendiary comments about immigrants and white supremacy throughout his nearly two decades in Congress.

The nine-term congressman, shunned by his party leadership in Washington and many of his longtime supporters at home, lost to well-funded state Sen. Randy Feenstra in a five-way GOP primary. The challengers argued that King's loss of clout, even more than his continuous string of provocative and racially-charged statements, was reason enough for turning on him.

Some on the left thought it would be better strategery for King to have won as he was so widely hated, but the district was unlikely to turn blue this November even with a white supremacist on the GOP ticket: the party still led 51%-40% on a generic ballot poll in March. So this can be seen simply as a slightly reassuring preference among Republicans for less blatant racists.