How does someone like Steve King manage to win re-election??

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,168
3,645
136
When I see this, my long term hope for the country fades. Regulars to this form know the history of this guy. Any explanations?? Maybe I'm overreacting but this bumbs me out.


Rep. King wins despite outcry over white supremacist support

http://www.dailyjournal.net/2018/11/07/us-election-2018-house-iowa-steve-king-2/

Doesn't matter.. He can go join Nunesybear in the corner on time out until he's voted out.

Consider the state he's from. It's the "you'll never be lonely as long as your sister's home.." State
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
24,802
9,004
136
Some awful weird shens wi5h that election. Like, how did all the other Iowan Rs lose but King win?
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Doesn't matter.. He can go join Nunesybear in the corner on time out until he's voted out.

Consider the state he's from. It's the "you'll never be lonely as long as your sister's home.." State

I think you're confused. This isn't the deep south.
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Some awful weird shens wi5h that election. Like, how did all the other Iowan Rs lose but King win?

They didn't. The (R) Governor won unfortunately. The county map in general was overwhelmingly red. Additionally the biggest county was overwhelmingly blue...yet she still won.
 
Last edited:

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
24,802
9,004
136
They didn't. The (R) Governor won unfortunately. The country map in general was overwhelmingly red. Additionally the biggest county was overwhelmingly blue...yet she still won.
I was talking about House reps--didn't the other 3 districts go blue or did I hear that wrong?
 

Bowfinger

Lifer
Nov 17, 2002
15,776
392
126
Simple answer: blind partisanship with a heaping side of anti-abortion.

King represents the northwest part of Iowa. This is by far the most conservative (and sadly least educated) part of Iowa. It's basically Iowa's Alabama. The only solidly liberal part of King's district is Story County, home to Iowa State University. It is on the SE edge of the district. Move the district line one country and King's district is as red as it gets.

This district has a high concentration of evangelicals and other ultra-conservative religious people. They hate abortion. Abortion is the single greatest factor in their votes. King hates abortion, too. The GOP is anti-abortion. That's all they need to know.

King hates illegal immigrants. Ironically, this district is chock full of farms that depend on illegal immigrant labor, especially dairy farms. But... King is a Republican who hates abortion, so the farmers shrug and vote for him anyway.

But, but, King's a racist. WTF? This is Fox :"News" country, and AM radio talk shows are hugely popular. On Fox and talk radio, King being a racist is fake news. It's all a giant smear campaign by liberals. But, "Republicans condemned King, too," you say. "Oh, well, it's all a giant smear campaign by liberals and never-Trumpers then. We know Steve King, and he's a fine man."

Someone above suggested King must really serve his district well. Strangely, that's not really true. Other than being an anti-abortion Republican, King's done almost nothing for his district. He's introduced something like 100 bills to the House, yet the only one that ever made it out of committee was one to rename a post office. That's it. He's been there 16 years IIRC, and passed exactly one bill. Sad.

Someone else suggested his opponent (J.D. Scholten) did a horrible job campaigning. Quite the opposite. The only reason Scholten made this such a close race is because he ran an extraordinary campaign. Probably the best the district has ever seen. Note the King usually wins with solid double-digit margins. The closest anyone got before Scholten was losing by 8 points.

Finally, all of the above notwithstanding, these election results are a bit strange. The other three Iowa House seats all went blue. The Democratic challenger for governor (Hubbell) had a substantial lead all night long... until the last few results came in from King's district. Everyone expected Hubell's lead would fall a bit due to demographics. But, this was over the top. Mathematically, it is only possible if an unusual number of Iowans voted split tickets, i.e, blue for Congress but red for governor. That's certainly possible, but odd. It is being investigated.
 

Bowfinger

Lifer
Nov 17, 2002
15,776
392
126
Sadly? The two are very much correlated.
I know. It seems not a coincidence that Republicans have become so anti-education. It's really sad. Iowa used to pride itself on having one of the best education systems and nighest-performing students in the nation. Years of GOP rule in Iowa have destroyed that.
 

Viper1j

Diamond Member
Jul 31, 2018
4,168
3,645
136
Simple answer: blind partisanship with a heaping side of anti-abortion.

King represents the northwest part of Iowa. This is by far the most conservative (and sadly least educated) part of Iowa. It's basically Iowa's Alabama. The only solidly liberal part of King's district is Story County, home to Iowa State University. It is on the SE edge of the district. Move the district line one country and King's district is as red as it gets.

This district has a high concentration of evangelicals and other ultra-conservative religious people. They hate abortion. Abortion is the single greatest factor in their votes. King hates abortion, too. The GOP is anti-abortion. That's all they need to know.

King hates illegal immigrants. Ironically, this district is chock full of farms that depend on illegal immigrant labor, especially dairy farms. But... King is a Republican who hates abortion, so the farmers shrug and vote for him anyway.

But, but, King's a racist. WTF? This is Fox :"News" country, and AM radio talk shows are hugely popular. On Fox and talk radio, King being a racist is fake news. It's all a giant smear campaign by liberals. But, "Republicans condemned King, too," you say. "Oh, well, it's all a giant smear campaign by liberals and never-Trumpers then. We know Steve King, and he's a fine man."

Someone above suggested King must really serve his district well. Strangely, that's not really true. Other than being an anti-abortion Republican, King's done almost nothing for his district. He's introduced something like 100 bills to the House, yet the only one that ever made it out of committee was one to rename a post office. That's it. He's been there 16 years IIRC, and passed exactly one bill. Sad.

Someone else suggested his opponent (J.D. Scholten) did a horrible job campaigning. Quite the opposite. The only reason Scholten made this such a close race is because he ran an extraordinary campaign. Probably the best the district has ever seen. Note the King usually wins with solid double-digit margins. The closest anyone got before Scholten was losing by 8 points.

Finally, all of the above notwithstanding, these election results are a bit strange. The other three Iowa House seats all went blue. The Democratic challenger for governor (Hubbell) had a substantial lead all night long... until the last few results came in from King's district. Everyone expected Hubell's lead would fall a bit due to demographics. But, this was over the top. Mathematically, it is only possible if an unusual number of Iowans voted split tickets, i.e, blue for Congress but red for governor. That's certainly possible, but odd. It is being investigated.


So I was right the first time. They DO sleep with her sisters over there!
Anyway, he still looks like He Who Walks Behind The Rows.
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
27,113
925
126
All of us question how certain people get reelected. For me, I question people like Maxine Waters, or how the socialist idiot got elected to congress.
 

soundforbjt

Lifer
Feb 15, 2002
17,785
6,032
136
Simple answer: blind partisanship with a heaping side of anti-abortion.

King represents the northwest part of Iowa. This is by far the most conservative (and sadly least educated) part of Iowa. It's basically Iowa's Alabama. The only solidly liberal part of King's district is Story County, home to Iowa State University. It is on the SE edge of the district. Move the district line one country and King's district is as red as it gets.

This district has a high concentration of evangelicals and other ultra-conservative religious people. They hate abortion. Abortion is the single greatest factor in their votes. King hates abortion, too. The GOP is anti-abortion. That's all they need to know.

King hates illegal immigrants. Ironically, this district is chock full of farms that depend on illegal immigrant labor, especially dairy farms. But... King is a Republican who hates abortion, so the farmers shrug and vote for him anyway.

But, but, King's a racist. WTF? This is Fox :"News" country, and AM radio talk shows are hugely popular. On Fox and talk radio, King being a racist is fake news. It's all a giant smear campaign by liberals. But, "Republicans condemned King, too," you say. "Oh, well, it's all a giant smear campaign by liberals and never-Trumpers then. We know Steve King, and he's a fine man."

Someone above suggested King must really serve his district well. Strangely, that's not really true. Other than being an anti-abortion Republican, King's done almost nothing for his district. He's introduced something like 100 bills to the House, yet the only one that ever made it out of committee was one to rename a post office. That's it. He's been there 16 years IIRC, and passed exactly one bill. Sad.

Someone else suggested his opponent (J.D. Scholten) did a horrible job campaigning. Quite the opposite. The only reason Scholten made this such a close race is because he ran an extraordinary campaign. Probably the best the district has ever seen. Note the King usually wins with solid double-digit margins. The closest anyone got before Scholten was losing by 8 points.

Finally, all of the above notwithstanding, these election results are a bit strange. The other three Iowa House seats all went blue. The Democratic challenger for governor (Hubbell) had a substantial lead all night long... until the last few results came in from King's district. Everyone expected Hubell's lead would fall a bit due to demographics. But, this was over the top. Mathematically, it is only possible if an unusual number of Iowans voted split tickets, i.e, blue for Congress but red for governor. That's certainly possible, but odd. It is being investigated.
Isn't that the same area the the Nunes family moved their dairy farms to?
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,099
146
Yeah that must be it.

It's either that, or the majority of Iowa voters were too stupid to realize that their representative isn't the author, Stephen King. They all thought they were voting for a cool guy.

So:

--are they too stupid to figure out the real Steve King?
--or do they just not care about elected an avowed Nazi that publicly supports Nazis because....hey! they are actually all Nazis?
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,099
146
It's entirely possible that the Iowans who voted for him are capable of more nuanced positions than, "white supremacist, must have no valuable political ideas, must not know how to represent his constituents". Perhaps it is possible that a white supremacist with his platform is actually better for Iowa than his opponent? Just throwing that out there.

Thing is, that is actually not possible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skooma

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
It's either that, or the majority of Iowa voters were too stupid to realize that their representative isn't the author, Stephen King. They all thought they were voting for a cool guy.

So:

--are they too stupid to figure out the real Steve King?
--or do they just not care about elected an avowed Nazi that publicly supports Nazis because....hey! they are actually all Nazis?

While I know you are trying to make a point, you are way off. This guy got 50% of the vote in his district. 3% went to wasted votes. What this means is he got 50% of 25% of the votes in the entire state since there are 4 districts. The rest were blue. Point being, it wasn't a state wide epidemic.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-iowa-elections.html

I agree it should have been zero, but let's be real...lots of racists in the country coming out of the woodwork.

What I find scarier is how evenly divided the numbers are.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,099
146
While I know you are trying to make a point, you are way off. This guy got 50% of the vote in his district. 3% went to wasted votes. What this means is he got 50% of 25% of the votes in the entire state since there are 4 districts. The rest were blue. Point being, it wasn't a state wide epidemic.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-iowa-elections.html

I agree it should have been zero, but let's be real...lots of racists in the country coming out of the woodwork.

What I find scarier is how evenly divided the numbers are.

OK, the majority of voters in that district. :D
 
Nov 25, 2013
32,083
11,718
136
Political leader who would put us in WW3 or an alleged pedophile? - not saying those 2 options exist but where do you go?

I think that you should stop digging and put the shovel down.

Does anyone have a ladder for the poor guy?
 

HomerJS

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
35,963
27,642
136
All of us question how certain people get reelected. For me, I question people like Maxine Waters, or how the socialist idiot got elected to congress.
I'd say white supremacist vs socialist decent people would take the socialist.
 

momeNt

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2011
9,297
352
126
I think that you should stop digging and put the shovel down.

Does anyone have a ladder for the poor guy?

Really great answer, but to Iowa, that was what they were faced with, but continue to shame them for having to make a difficult decision while you make quips about ladders and shovels.