DES MOINES, Iowa – The re-election campaign of U.S. Representative Steve King, R-Iowa, released an internal poll that shows a strong lead among the five-way Republican primary field.
King leads the field by 44 points in a poll among a sample size of 400 likely Republican primary voters. The poll was conducted on October 1-3, 2019 by G1 Survey Research and has a margin of error of -/+ 4.89 percent. State Senator Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, came in second place, followed by Woodbury County Supervisor and former State Representative Jeremy Taylor, former Irwin Mayor Bret Richards, and Arnolds Park real estate developer Steve Reeder.
- King – 59 percent
- Feenstra – 15 percent
- Taylor – 6 percent
- Richards – 2 percent
- Reeder – 0 percent
According to the poll, King also enjoys a 72 percent approval rating among Republican voters.
The poll also asked voters who they would vote for in the event of a two-way race against and King tops both Feenstra (64 percent to 24 percent) and Taylor (64 percent and 19 percent) by large margins.
The poll also addressed King’s controversial interview with the New York Times that led to a media firestorm, the House voting for a resolution of disapproval and his removal from his committee assignments.
The pollsters asked Republican voters, whether they believe the media portrayal of King as a white nationalist and racist or believe King who said he was misquoted and that the article was another example of fake news. Only 15 percent of those polled said they believed the media portrayal of King, while 74 percent said they believe King was misquoted.
Of those polled 54 percent identified themselves as “very conservative” while 24 percent said identified as “somewhat conservative” and 18 percent said they are “moderate.” Only two percent identified as liberal.
Also, 39 percent identified as a “traditional Republican” while 34 percent called themselves a “Trump Republican,” 10 percent said they are a “Libertarian Republican,” and 10 percent said they are a “Tea Party Republican.”
Note: As with any internal poll released by a campaign I offer a disclaimer, it’s an internal poll. I’m not sure how the demographics represented in the poll accurately reflects Republican voters in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District. For instance, 46 percent of those polled are 65-years-old or older and almost a quarter of the recipients (24 percent) say they are 75-years-old or older.
Yes, it’s a rural district by and large, and yes there are more elderly voters who vote Republican than Democrats, but it still seems higher than it should be. I don’t know that for certain nor do I know how accurate this is because I’ve not seen exit polling from the district in previous elections. It just seems pretty high.
Knowing the district I suspect the political ideology in the district is probably pretty close to reality.
Read the poll below: