Hurrah! Political Tumor Called Steve King Gone–But Cancer Metastasized Throughout GOP

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Natural born loser Rep. King. Photo: Gage Skidmore.

Rep. Steve King lost his Republican primary for reelection to the House from Iowa’s 4th District last night.

While he will not return to Congress in January, his legacy of racism, ultra-nationalism and xenophobia is now the central organizing principle of the Republican Party nationwide and the message of most campaigns.

Good riddance, Steve King. You will not be missed. Your racism and xenophobia were too much for a political party that has embraced racism and xenophobia. You said the quiet part out loud, too many times. For that, you were drummed out of office.

But before we credit the GOP for purging one of their most outspoken and toxic standard-bearers for white nationalism, let’s be clear, while the tumor of King has been removed, the cancer of his worldview and politics has metastasized and spread throughout the Republican Party.

Stoking white grievance, sowing division, and inciting racial backlash are now the core themes of the Republican Party. Without a doubt, Donald Trump sets the tone and gives permission. But in almost every race at almost every level of government, Republicans are following suit, unapologetically. Many are running on xenophobia, fear of immigrants, fear of people of color and on exacerbating the divisions with American society.

Just click through our searchable database of GOP campaign ads (http://2020adwatch.com/ ) or read our report from Monday on the deployment of fear, xenophobia and division by Republican candidates across the country.

Let’s not kid ourselves, the President sees violence, chaos and racial strife as levers for his reelection bid, and no one in the GOP dare disagree with his approach.

They seem to have convinced themselves that this is their best shot at clinging to power. It’s not. The nation has changed. Racism and xenophobia were reprised in 2018, when Trump nationalized the midterms and made them all about MS-13, caravans and scary foreigners. The GOP suffered the largest defeat in mid-term history.

He doesn’t like to talk about it because it undermines his carefully constructed image as a political genius who knows something the rest of us don’t. He doesn’t. He led the party to a massive defeat. Here are the receipts. Most likely, the 2020 defeat will be even bigger.

Adios, Steve King. We look forward to saying the same to Trump and his many enablers come November.

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