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Steve King (R-Iowa)

U.S. Representative (since January 2003)

(House web site)

Why He Matters

A senior member of the Judiciary Committee's Immigration subcommittee, King occupies a prominent position from which to influence immigration policy, his longtime legislative focus. While serving in the Iowa legislature, he was the driving force behind an English-only law.

He has since urged a ban on bilingual ballots at polling places and tougher law enforcement. He also serves on the Agriculture Committee, a major concern in his predominantly rural district.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Iowa Senate (1997-2002), Construction contractor, King Construction Company (1975-1996)
Birthday: May 28, 1949
Hometown: Kiron, Iowa
Alma Mater: NorthWest Missouri State University (1967-1970)
Spouse: Marilyn King
Religion: Catholic

Committees: Agriculture Committee , Judiciary Committee , Small Business Committee
DC Office: 1609 LHOB:202-225-4426
District Offices: Council Bluffs: 712-325-1404; Creston: 641-782-2495; Sioux City: 712-224-4692; Spencer: 712-580-7754; Storm Lake: 712-732-4197;
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Path to Power

Born in 1949, King grew up in Storm Lake, Iowa. He attended public high school and then Northwest Missouri State University, though he did not graduate. After college he returned to Iowa and in 1975, he started his own land excavation business, King Construction. He grew the company from a single tractor, and more than 20 years later, he turned it over to his son.

King later traced his strongly-held conservative views to his days out on the tractor in a job that gave him seemingly endless amounts of time to think. "As I got out on that machine every day on a hill, I developed a philosophy for life," he said in 2002.

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Iowa State Senate

King brought his conservative philosophy to the hustings for the first time in 1996, when he ran for and won a seat in the IowaSenate. He defeated an incumbent Republican in the primary, campaigning heavily on his opposition to abortion rights.

As a state legislator, King worked on many of the issues he would later emphasize in the House. He sponsored bills promoting English-only rules in the state and a so-called "God and Country" law that required Iowa schools to teach that the nation had "derived its strength from biblical values."

He also pushed for repeal of the state income tax and the estate tax, and other tax reductions. King gained attention statewide for suing then-Gov. Tim Vilsack (D) after the governor signed an executive order extending anti-discrimination protections to individuals based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Run for U.S. House

In 2002, King and three other Republicans jumped into a wide-open race for a newly-created 5th district House seat. The district spanned 32 counties in western Iowa, and King ran as the rural candidate while trying to outflank his opponents on the right. He touted his staunchly conservative social views and campaigned to replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax.

King won the GOP primary with 30 percent of the vote, but because he fell short of the 35 percent threshold needed to clinch the GOP nomination, the contest went to a party convention. He likened the battle to a "political Survivor island" and after three days of backroom dealing, he emerged with a victory by 19 votes on the convention's third ballot. In a heavily Republican district, King had a much easier time in the general election and won with 62% of the vote. He has been re-elected three times since without a serious challenge.

An Outspoken Style

On the night of his election to the House, King vowed, "I'm not going to be an anonymous congressman."It's a promise he has certainly kept. King has made headlines most often with his provocative and occasionally incendiary comments, along with a take-no-prisoners attitude toward advancing the conservative agenda.

In 2004, King drew criticism for downplaying reports of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, which he compared to fraternity "hazing." In 2005, he defended fomer Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) as a "hero for America" during a House floor debate over the naming of a post office.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, King warned on his radio show that terrorists would be "dancing in the streets" if Barack Obama was elected president, citing Obama's middle name, Hussein, and his support for withdrawing American troops from Iraq. The comments ignited a political firestorm and drew widespread rebuke, including from Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) campaign. King refused to apologize. "I don't see that I've made a factual or judgment error," he told the Des Moines Register. "What I see are some people are super-sensitized and it appears I have touched their nerve. No one has rebutted my argument, so I have to say I must be right."

In 2009, King has had three principal targets: Obama, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and ACORN (headed by Bertha Lewis). King jumped to Rep. Joe Wilson's defense after Wilson shouted "You lie!" at the president during his September 2009 speech to a joint session of Congress. King circulated a letter addressed to Wilson urging him to "hold your ground against those who seek partisan advantage and reject all demands for additional redress." King proceeded to accuse Obama of being dishonest about the impact of his health-care proposals and to reassert the claim that illegal immigrants would be eligible for benefits under the plan.

The congressman went after Pelosi after she accused the CIA of lying to Congress in May 2009. He said the speaker's comments undermined national security, called for her resignation, and introduced a resolution to strip Pelosi of her security clearance.

In September 2009, King set his sights on ACORN, the advocacy organization that has come under attack for allegations of voter fraud and embarassing video footage in which its employees appeared to encourage criminal behavior and tax evasion. Calling ACORN a "partisan criminal enterprise," King has pushed not only to strip the group of federal funding but for congressional hearings and federal investigations by law enforcement.

The Issues

King's record through seven years in the House has been uniformly conservative. He has earned near-perfect ratings from right-leaning groups such as the American Conservative Union and the Family Research Council. During the 111th Congress, he has voted with Republicans 89.5 percent of the time.

King opposes abortion rights and same-sex marriage, and he has been a strong supporter of gun rights. He has called affirmative action "the last vestige of institutional racism" in America. On foreign policy, the congressman supported both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has repeatedly criticized the Obama administration's foreign-policy decisions as weak. In September 2009, he said the president's decision to scrap plans for a missile shield in Eastern Europe was "another plan straight out of the Neville Chamberlain foreign policy playbook."

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Health-Care Reform

King opposed many of the major planks of the Democratic health-care overhaul, including mandates for individuals to carry health insurance.

King also disputes the rationale most frequently cited by supporters of reform: that America's health-care system is in crisis. Referring to a Senate Republican Conference report, King contends that the number of uninsured Americans is much lower than many advocates assert and that as many as 10 million of the uninsured are legal or illegal immigrants. The remaining number of "chronically uninsured," he has said, is less than four percent of the population and "hardly a crisis."

Proposals that King does support include tort reform, allowing individuals to purchase insurance across state lines and making medical expenses fully tax-deductible.

The Economy and Taxes

Throughout the 2008-2009 economic downturn, King has stuck tofree market principles. He has opposed almost every government intervention into the markets, including efforts to rescue the auto, housing and financial sectors. He voted against the fall 2008 $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan and called then for the privatization of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "I'm watching the nationalization of America's industries and the socialization of our economy," King said then.

He also strongly opposed the February 2009 $787 billion economic stimulus package. He called the measure a "massive grab-bag of taxpayer-funded subsidies, pet projects and added bureacracy" that would "prolong our economic turmoil and delay our recovery."

On taxes, King has been a relentless advocate of the "Fair Tax," which would replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax. He campaigned on the measure during his first run for Congress and introduced it repeatedly in the House. As a remedy for the 2008-2009 economic recession, he has also pushed for a two-year suspension of the capital gains tax.

Immigration

Though he is outspoken on many conservative causes, the issue that has defined King's political career more than any other is immigration. He has campaigned for tougher border security and a crackdown on illegal immigrants since his first run for the House. As vice chairman of the Judiciary Immigration subcommittee in the 112th Congress, he has become a top spokesman for the conservative immigration stance, particularly following the 2008 retirement of Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.).

King argues that the influx of illegal immigrants threatens U.S. sovereignty, increases crime and takes jobs from American citizens. He opposes as "amnesty" proposals to provide a path to legal status for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants now in the country - one of several reasons he spoke out against the comprehensive immigration reform plan backed by President George W. Bush in 2006 and 2007. Along the nation's southern border, King has pushed for the construction of a fortified-concrete wall topped with electrific barbed-wire that he personally designed; in 2007, King displayed a model of his design on the House floor and suggested that his construction company could help build the fence.

King is also one of the most forceful advocates for designating English as the official language of the U.S. He successfully helped to pass an English-only law in Iowa, and he calls English a "uniting force" in America and essential to his belief in encouraging "cultural continuity."

The Network

King was a close ally of former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who had become the House's most vocal advocate for a crackdown on illegal immigration. King endorsed Tancredo's longshot presidential bid in 2007 before switching his support to former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) after Tancredo dropped out of the race.

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