WASHINGTON _ Steve King, first elected in 2002, won re-election to his U.S. House seat in Iowa's 4th Congressional District, according to projections from NBC and CNN. Democrat J.D. Scholten, a former professional baseball player and paralegal, ran against King in the traditionally deep-red, rural district.
The victory comes after King was abandoned by some Republican leaders and donors over his embrace of white nationalists and for rhetoric that had been denounced as racist. King had also lost financial support from dairy giant Land O'Lakes, telecom giant AT&T, and pet food company Purina.
King, an original face of the tea party, will be the only Republican representative from Iowa in the next Congress. As a lawmaker from the state holding the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, his support was hotly sought by GOP presidential candidates in the 2016 election.
