Photo : J. Scott Applewhite ( AP )

Iowa Representative Steve King, last seen blundering into the truth that his version of the Republican Party looks a whole lot like neo-Nazis, may also now have to worry about his chances of reelection in November.




According to a new poll by Change Research, King’s challenger J.D . Scholten is only one point away from King in Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District. That’s huge! For reference, a month ago, an Emerson College poll had King up by 10 points over Scholten. That is nine more points than this poll, which has King at 45 percent and Scholten at 44.

The Change Research polling specifically focused on districts that Trump won heavily in 2016. The organization polled 631 likely voters in King’s district, and found a massive swing toward the Democrats and Scholten.


Scholten scored another win on Monday when King’s hometown paper, the Sioux City Journal, endorsed Scholten, following a trend of consistently Republican-leaning editorial boards flipping to House challengers (see: the Fresno Bee endorsing Devin Nunes’ opponent Andrew Janz).

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King was thought to be largely safe in this election, but wow, turns out, maybe being a fascist actually does have consequences sometimes! Scholten is still down, and this is only one poll, but it’s a hell of a lot more promising than the last numbers from Iowa.

Correction, 1:12 p.m. ET: This post has been updated with the correct name of Steve King’s challenger. He is J.D. Scholten, not J.S. Scholten.