"He and I have fought time after time,” King said to one crowd in New Hampton, many of whom were his own constituents. “We fought together on immigration."

When President Obama announced new executive actions on immigration in late 2014, King and Cruz stood together at a press conference on Capitol Hill, calling on Congress to withhold funding for what they called a “lawless” order.

While King doesn’t like to point to just immigration as a top issue, he does say that the desire to "restore the respect for the rule of law” consistent with their shared “constitutional conservatism” is central to their viewpoints on immigration.

Rural Iowa is King’s territory, and Republicans here share his views on immigration. Cruz made sure to capitalize on that in his stump speech, praising King just as much as King praised him.

"We will finally, finally, finally secure the borders and end sanctuary cities," he said to rousing applause. "And I'll tell you, there has been no one more relentless, no one more tireless, no one more effective in stopping amnesty and fighting to secure the border, in fighting to keep this country safe than Iowa's own Steve King.”

Walking over to King’s chair a few feet away, Cruz gripped King’s shoulder and said, “I have been proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him in each and every one of those fights.”

In campaign stops in Oelwein, Waverly, and other small towns in northeast Iowa, Cruz repeated similar praise for King.

"Rather than say something nice about Steve King," he said to chuckles in the crowd, "let me instead say thank you to the men and women of Iowa. To the men and women all across this state, thank you for sending a strong, principled, constitutionalist knife-fighter like Steve King to represent Iowa and represent all of us in the United States Congress."

This political theater is perfect for campaigning in Iowa, where caucusing is personal for voters, often coming out to support candidates that made an effort to visit their small town and spoke to their values. While it may not be the case anymore across the country, former House Speaker Tip O'Neill's axiom that “all politics is local” thrives in Iowa.

"Having Steve King up there speaks volumes for his credibility,” said New Hampton resident Jane Collins after that town’s event. “Immigration is very important. There's people living here and getting benefits that we're paying for that they're not paying taxes or anything. It's taking away from those working hard and that maybe have had setbacks and have been less fortunate.”

New Hampton, a town of just 3,500 people, is 4 percent Latino, according to 2010 Census numbers, and is likely larger today. Just 10 years earlier, there were virtually no Latinos in that town. In the past couple of decades, Latinos have moved to small towns across the state, filling in job holes left by Iowa’s aging white population. The median age of an Iowa Latino is 23, which is 15 years younger than the median age of the rest of the state.