Rep. Steve King Loses Primary; Seat Moves to Safe Republican in November
By 270toWin Staff
June 3, 2020
Nine-term incumbent Rep. Steve King was defeated Tuesday in the GOP primary for Iowa's 4th congressional district. King, more-or-less abandoned by the party after a long history of controversial comments, was defeated by state Senator Randy Feenstra.
While Democrats are undoubtedly happy to see King go, his loss effectively takes the district out of play for November. Democrat J.D. Scholten - renominated on Tuesday - held King to a three point win in 2018. However, Donald Trump won this conservative district by 27% over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Feenstra will likely be its next member of Congress.
Most pundits updated their rating to Safe Republican, and that is also reflected on the Consensus 2020 House Map.
King is the second incumbent to lose a U.S. House primary in 2020. In March, Rep. Dan Lipinski was ousted in the Democratic primary for Illinois' 6th district. We've added King's district to the House Retirement Map, which now shows 39 current members leaving after this term.
