You've probably already heard, but this is for posterity.
Iowa congressman, secret border control agent, and "man who can't forget what he buried in that cornfield," Steve King, was defeated in Iowa's Republican primary election last night. But it wasn't the racism that got him.
From CBS News:
Congressman Steve King was defeated Tuesday night in his bid for a tenth term, losing the Republican primary to Iowa State Senator Randy Feenstra, the Associated Press projects. Many Republicans declined to back King during the primary cycle. [...]
Republicans who worked to unseat King jumped on his lack of a committee assignment, saying he doesn't have sway in Washington and can't deliver for his constituents. King claimed that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy would advocate for a return to his committee assignments, but McCarthy denied this and left the decision up to the Steering Committee.
"I've said from day one that Iowans deserve a proven, effective conservative leader that will deliver results," Feenstra said in a video. "I promise you I will deliver results in Congress."
Feenstra did not directly confront Steve King's racism and white supremacy as much as he said King's open racism made him a pariah who can't get anything done in Congress. And that's true enough, but it also means Feenstra's policy positions and votes may not necessarily be materially different than King's positions and votes at the end of the day.
In any event, King's long list of offenses dating back a decade or more are almost too many to list and I've personally probably forgotten half of them.
He famously declared that "not all" DREAMers are "valedictorians." Some even have "calves the size of cantaloupes" from carrying drugs across the border, he said. King once claimed he has personally patrolled the border at night. He was partially responsible for killing comprehensive immigration reform, both in 2007 and 2013. And he keeps a confederate flag on his desk. He has consistently been the most openly racist member of Congress and he didn't even try to hide it.
In fact, King thought everyone else was crazy.
A January 2019 interview with The New York Times cost King his committee assignments after his comments about white nationalism and white supremacy drew bipartisan condemnation. "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?" King told The New York Times.
When did white supremacy become a dirty word asks the soon-to-be former congressman.
King's only mistake, as far as many if not most other elected Republicans are concerned, was that he said these things out loud.