By A former congressman pushed out of office by his political party for remarks about race and ethnicity is heading to South Dakota to campaign.
But this time, Steve King won’t be campaigning for his own political office — something he hasn’t done since losing a Republican primary in 2021. Instead, King will be campaigning for Referred Law 21 and the anti-Senate Bill 201 campaign.
King
Landowners for Eminent Domain Reform, in a news release Monday, Sept. 23, announced that King, along with pipeline industry expert and geologist Tim Kenyon, would be headlining an event in Sioux Falls on Sept. 29, giving the public an opportunity to “ask questions about RL 21 safety, property rights, and local control.”
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The release calls King “a dedicated property rights advocate who has been working tirelessly across Iowa and elsewhere to defend the rights of landowners.”
“Congressman King has been at the forefront of opposition to CO2 pipelines, making a stand against projects that threaten private land ownership,” per the release.
King served in the Iowa State Senate from 1997 to 2003 before becoming a congressman in 2003. He represented portions of north-central Iowa, stretching to the western border of the state, where it touches South Dakota.
Steven King frequently criticized for comments about race, nationalism
The 75-year-old was a frequent recipient of criticism for remarks made about race and his defense of nationalism. As early as the late 2000s, mainstream national media outlets targeted King for his stances on issues ranging from immigration to gay marriage.
Over the course of his last years in Washington, D.C., in particular, King and his remarks came under scrutiny. A 2019 interview with The New York Times led to accusations of defending white nationalism. King rejected depictions of him as a racist and claimed that the paper had misconstrued his words — but it was too late. Mainstream Republican figures like Tim Scott and commentator Ben Shapiro called for him to be censured and face a primary. In 2019, he was removed from all his congressional committee assignments amid bipartisan backlash to various remarks on race. The next year, he was defeated in the Republican primary by current Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra.
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Despite his unceremonious exit from public office, King has remained active in the political scene. He endorsed former GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for president earlier this year and attended one of his campaign events in Iowa.
King has been working against carbon capture pipelines since at least 2023. Iowa is one of five states that Summit Carbon Solutions hopes to build its pipeline through.
In a statement, Landowners for Eminent Domain Reform deflected criticism of King, instead focusing on the issue at hand.
“Our focus remains on protecting constitutional private property rights, central to our American freedoms,” Joy Hohn, the state Senate-elect emceeing the event, said in a statement. “This is a nonpartisan issue, where South Dakota and Iowa property owners are aligned and working to prevent the misuse of eminent domain for a hazardous project that is not for public good.”
RL 21, which will appear on the 2024 ballot, gives voters the opportunity to overturn Senate Bill 201, legislation that critics argue grants private companies too much leeway to use eminent domain to acquire private land for carbon capture pipelines. Proponents of the bill claim it is necessary to sustain the ethanol industry.