Leonard defends the Confederates in the same way he defends his own people, the residents of Iowa’s Fourth District, who for 16 years have sent Steve King to Congress. The racist and xenophobic comments King has made in recent years have made him a pariah among Republicans and Democrats alike. Yet since 2003, the Iowa lawmaker continues to be reelected—a phenomenon that has perplexed many Americans and members of the political class. The left unfairly and erroneously targets King and his supporters, Leonard said, because it doesn’t know who they really are.

When King won his most recent reelection campaign, I reported that some Iowans backed him despite his racist remarks, that they were willing to look past them because of King's conservative positions on guns and abortion. But as became clear during my recent trip to northwest Iowa, many of his voters wholeheartedly agree with him—and they don’t think he’s said anything wrong.

When I asked Leonard about King’s 2017 claim that “we can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies , ” he said he felt the same way. “If we bring people from another culture here and overpopulate this place with people from a different culture, we won’t build up American culture,” Leonard said, a claim I heard from others in the district as well. “Most people aren’t going to have an appreciation for what these folks on my walls went through,” he added, gesturing to his Confederate paintings. “There’s nothing racist about it. It’s a truth.”

King is facing a difficult primary next year—probably the toughest he's ever had. He's lost support from the GOP establishment, he’s low on money, and he’s facing multiple Republican challengers. But his remaining supporters seem more devoted to him than ever as he’s under siege.

“It’s kind of the ‘Live free or die’ mentality,” said Art Cullen, the editor of a local newspaper, who has written column after column condemning King’s comments. “We get ignored by Des Moines, we get flown over, and nobody pays attention to us. The manifestation of that is Screw you, here’s Steve King.”

Geographically, at least, King’s district, where I lived for four years, is quintessential Iowa: rolling fields and wind turbines and sky stretching on for miles. Here, you can see a storm approaching long before it hits. The region is extremely red; its residents, who are predominantly Christian and socially conservative, voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2016. King has won each of his reelections here by sizable margins—although last year’s contest was his closest yet: J. D. Scholten, the Democrat who ran as a foil to King’s abrasiveness, lost to him by a slim 3 percent.

Iowa has seen an influx of Latino immigrants in the past two decades. The Latino population in the mostly white state grew by more than 130 percent from 2000 to 2017. Storm Lake—King’s birthplace in the district—has become one of the most diverse towns in the state. Nearly 38 percent of the town’s population identifies as Latino, and some 83 percent of children in the school district are students of color.