DENISON, Ia. — The retired men who gather around the big table in the corner each weekday at Cronk's Cafe invariably discuss politics over their eggs, hash browns and coffee.

So it was inevitable that Friday morning's conversation quickly drifted from next week's midterm election to the swirling developments surrounding U.S. Rep. Steve King and his bid for a ninth term.

No stranger to controversy, King has made waves in recent days after the Washington Post reported he met with a far-right Austrian group founded by a former Nazi — charges King vehemently rebuffed. The Kiron Republican drew more scrutiny Thursday when he shouted down a protester in Des Moines who compared King's views to those of a man charged with gunning down 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue last week.

But even as national pundits question whether King has finally gone too far, the folks at Cronk's Cafe seemed at ease with their congressman.

"He did fantastic throwing that instigator out," said Sonni Sonnichsen, who graduated from high school with King in 1967. "I support him all the way."

The other five around the table nodded in agreement. It was a sentiment that seemed to echo across King's vast northwest Iowa district, where few of his longtime supporters express concern that his latest actions would jeopardize his 16-year run in Congress.

Sonnichsen, a retired wine salesman, said King is facing one his toughest opponents yet in former minor league baseball player J.D. Scholten. But he's convinced King will still win Tuesday.

"This is Republican territory," he said. "I don't think he'll have a problem at all."

In downtown Denison, 24-year-old Mayor Jared Beymer shakes his head over King's continued success at the ballot box, even as he hopes that Scholten pulls off an upset.

"People are really frustrated that Congressman King just isn't representing how they feel or their interests," he said.

A registered Democrat, Beymer voted across party lines — he ticked the box for Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds on his early ballot this year after feeling uninspired by her Democratic opponent, Fred Hubbell.

But Beymer feels that King's anti-immigrant rhetoric and racially inflammatory statements are anathema to the vitality of the city of Denison, a town of about 8,400 where Latinos comprised nearly half the population in 2016, according to the U.S. Census.

King recently held a meeting with local governmental leaders where Beymer said he expected a discussion on challenges such as economic development and rural Iowa's housing crisis.

Instead, Beymer said King rambled on about the birth rates of Africans and blamed Democrats for societal problems, despite the GOP's control of government in Washington, D.C., and Iowa.

"I think people are realizing that we have a problem," he said from his second-floor abstract and title office overlooking the Robin's Nest Coffee Shop and the Thrifty White Drug Store downtown. "It's difficult when he's out there saying things that completely contradict how we feel in Denison."

More:Can Iowa's rising Latino population save some of its dying small towns?

'They've always voted for him and they always will'

Thursday night, in an empty downtown Spencer storefront about 90 miles from Denison, Democrat Linda Hoberg was preparing to meet with a dozen party members as she mulled whether voters will be swayed by the allegations against King.

"I think there will be people who will be energized by this, who it will make a big difference to," Hoberg said.

But, she thinks the district’s hard-core King supporters will "excuse that behavior."

"They’ve always voted for him, and they always will," Hoberg said.

Bob Whittenburg, the Clay County Democratic party chairman, said he talks with northwest Iowans who said they have had enough.

"There’s a backlash. But people aren’t shouting it from the street corner that they’re going to vote for Democrats,” he said.

"It's not just Steve King, but everything Steve King represents," said Whittenburg, an area lender. “It extends to the president. He foments dissent and chaos. It grinds on people."

Hoberg said immigration is important in northwest Iowa, where agriculture, manufacturing and other businesses struggle to find workers.

Yet, voters disconnect those concerns from national anti-immigrant rhetoric. “It’s just not part of the Republican discussion,” she said.

Early Friday morning, a half-dozen Republicans joined Spencer newspaper editor Randy Cauthron’s monthly meeting at Terrazzo Coffeehouse and Cafe.

Their discussion hit on the Clay Central Everly football team’s long losing streak, an area Iowa House race, and the strong turnout at a Spencer campaign event this week for Fred Hubbell, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

Asked about King, they said the state and national media reports don’t align with their experience with their longtime representative.

"He doesn’t have a racist bone in his body," said George Moriarty, a Spencer City Council member.

"The idea of racism disgusts me," Cauthron said. "But I struggle with the idea that they’re describing the same person."

"He’s rock solid legit," said William Kersting, a retired mental health worker. "He’s Catholic, Christian and pro-life."

That’s an issue that Cauthron cares about as well. "If you’re not willing to protect the most defenseless of us, why would I believe you would defend me."

Spencer Mayor Kevin Robinson said King’s supporters push back when the national media try to portray them as racists. "No one agrees 100 percent with what anyone says," he said.

What the media fails to report, Robinson and others say, is all the good work King has done for the district, such as resolving issues that jeopardized a local housing project and working with a local doctor to bring Muslim children involved in a Tanzanian bus accident to Iowa for medical care.

Moriarty, a retired farm financial consultant, said voters want candidates who are honest about how they will serve in office. That’s what they get with King.

"I think he’s the most transparent person in politics," he said.

'I've known Steve my whole life'

Signs for King's campaign dot both sides of Iowa Highway 39 leading into the congressman's hometown of Kiron, population 270.

Inside Lindstrom Farm Supply, employee Dale Larson said King still enjoys widespread support in his hometown.

"He stands his ground," said Larson, who said he leans Republican. "He ain't afraid to speak out."

The supply shop makes most of its money on farm chemicals, meaning fall and winter are inevitably slow. Surrounded by dusty battery displays and bottles of carburetor cleaner, Larson acknowledged hearing about the dispute over King's European trip but didn't make much of it.

"I've known Steve my whole life," he said. "You can't believe half the junk that's in the media anyway. So you just take it in stride and use your own judgment."

Just next door, Josh Burns, 42, took a break from replacing the tires on a blue Toyota Camry. Mikey, his half-dachshund, half-chihuahua, remained curled up in front of a glowing space heater on the floor.

The owner of Kiron Repair, Burns admits he's an outlier here. A Southern California native, he's urging locals to vote for Libertarian candidates this election because he believes the nation's two-party system is broken.

He doesn't believe King's neighbors here are dissuaded by controversy.

"I think it's just, 'Oh, that's Steve King,'" he said.

He lives next door to the congressman but has met him fewer than a handful of times. Looking over Kiron's pedestrian-free Main Street, he noted that the Quik Mart just closed, leaving Kiron with no gas station.

And the local Silver Dollar Saloon now is open only two days a week — a handwritten sign on the front door also warns that alcohol prices are going up.

"I think people are OK with the way things are," Burns said. "It just is what it is."

'I know for a fact that there are a lot more like me'

In Missouri Valley, nearly 60 miles from Kiron, men huddled outside Papa Joe's bar Thursday evening smoking cigarettes in between their after-work beers.

With about 2,600 people, Missouri Valley sits in the far southwestern corner of Iowa's 4th Congressional District, just a few miles from the Nebraska border.

Minnie Fisher, a registered Republican who owns a downtown flower and gift shop, said she supported President Donald Trump and Reynolds. But she has no patience for King or his recurring controversies, she said.

Fisher said she's frequently embarrassed when she hears from friends on the East Coast in the wake of King's perennial controversies.

"I'm like, 'Please don't put that on me,'" she said.

The 50-year-old wishes King were more disciplined and believes he's simply out of touch with regular Iowans after 16 years in Washington, D.C.

In each of the last few elections, she's left her U.S. representative box blank. This year, she did the same when she submitted her absentee ballot. But that was before she had met Scholten, King's Democratic opponent.

The more she learned about the former minor league baseball player, the more she liked him. She believes Scholten is moderate enough and understands Iowans. And she thinks he's winning over other conservatives in town.

"I just didn't know enough about him at the time. I could kick myself for it now," she said. "I know for a fact that there are a lot more like me."