Congressman Steve King announced this morning on Twitter that he did not vote for State Sen. Randy Feenstra, who beat King in the June primary and is the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress in Iowa’s Fourth District.
“I enthusiastically voted for Trump first thing this morning,” King tweeted. “But I couldn’t get my hand to fill in the oval for the Republican nominee for Congress.”
The primary election between King and Feenstra — and three others — was perhaps the longest primary election of the congressional cycle, with Feenstra announcing his campaign prior to King being sworn in.
There was animosity from the beginning as King’s campaign claimed that Feenstra told Jeff King he would never run against Congressman King.
Out-of-state money combined with the unusual circumstances due to COVID created a path to victory for Feenstra, who benefited from Secretary of State Paul Pate sending absentee ballot request forms to every voter in the district.
More than half of the primary voters who voted in the June primary had not voted in any of the last four primaries or had only voted in one of the last four.
Feenstra was the only candidate in the primary who did not say he believed Congressman King rather than the New York Times.
Hard feelings continued after the primary when, according to the former Sioux County GOP chair (Feenstra’s home county), Feenstra implied he, Sen. Joni Ernst and Gov. Kim Reynolds would not show up to the Sioux County GOP fundraiser featuring Sidney Powell if Congressman King was not uninvited.
Tammy Kobza, the former chair, announced her resignation from the role shortly after that. The Sioux County GOP did not end up hosting Powell for the fundraiser.
Instead, the event was hosted by Dickinson County Republicans. King spoke at the event and introduced Powell.
Feenstra, Ernst and Reynolds were not in attendance at the event.
