J.D. Scholten Taking on Iowa's Steve King Again in 2020

Steve King

You might think that because Republican representative Steve King, from Iowa's 4th Congressional District, has been ostracized by the Republican caucus in Washington for his outspoken racism, you'd think that the voters of the 4th District might want to replace him with someone who's welcomed in the club house and who can do good things for his district. Those voters will have the chance -- again -- next year with the Democrat J.D. Scholten, a former professional baseball player who ran against King in 2018 and came within 3.4% of beating him.

The Iowa 4th is heavily Republican, which is why a toxic spill like Steve King has been reelected over and over. There are some 70,000 more Republicans than Democrats in the district, but Scholten only lost to King in 2018 by 10,430 votes. Now, that's some margin-cutting!

After a career playing professional baseball in Canada for the Saskatoon Legends, in Sioux City for the Explorers, and finally in Europe, Scholten changed careers to work as a litigation para-legal specializing in intellectual property. For the 2018 campaign against King, Scholten travelled to every one of the 39 counties in the 4th district at least three times, putting over 35,000 miles on his personal vehicle and an additional 24,000 miles on the now-famous “Sioux City Sue” — his Winnebago RV which was actually made in the district.

His 2020 announcement video (below), released on Monday this week, has gotten a good deal of attention. And, yes, that's Kevin Costner doing the narration.




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Racist House Member Steve King May Get His Comeuppance

Steve King, popular among white supremacists

We wrote about the unlikely J.D. Scholten back in the middle of June. Scholten, a former professional baseball player, is running hard in Iowa's 4th Congressional District against toxic spill, Rep. Steve King. Odds are totally against Scholten because Republicans out-number Democrats in that district by 70,000 voters.

But lookee here! Scholten's own polling shows him down by just 6 points (and, yeah, I know about internal polling), and he appears to be closing fast on King.

Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants?

Movement Is All in the Democratic Direction

Political prognosticator Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia issued new Crystal Ball ratings yesterday. They show movement, and all of it is in the direction of the Democrats. Here's the chart I found most interesting because we've focused on WatWatch on some of these Republican incumbents and their Democratic challengers. See discussion below the chart.

Crystal Ball House ratings changes

Member/District	Old Rating	New Rating
French Hill (R, AR-2)	Likely Republican	Leans Republican
Vern Buchanan (R, FL-16)	Likely Republican	Leans Republican
Charlie Crist (D, FL-13)	Likely Democratic	Safe Democratic
Steve King (R, IA-4)	Safe Republican	Likely Republican
David Young (R, IA-3)	Leans Republican	Toss-up
Peter Roskam (R, IL-6)	Leans Republican	Toss-up
Trey Hollingsworth (R, IN-9)	Safe Republican	Likely Republican
Jackie Walorski (R, IN-2)	Safe Republican	Likely Republican
Andy Barr (R, KY-6)	Leans Republican	Toss-up
Mike Bishop (R, MI-8)	Leans Republican	Toss-up
NM-2 Open (Pearce, R)	Likely Republican	Leans Republican
Steve Chabot (R, OH-1)	Leans Republican	Toss-up
OH-12 Special (Tiberi, R)	Leans Republican	Toss-up
Mike Kelly (R, PA-16)	Safe Republican	Likely Republican
John Carter (R, TX-31)	Safe Republican	Likely Republican
John Culberson (R, TX-7)	Leans Republican	Toss-up
WV-3 Open (Jenkins, R)	Leans Republican	Toss-up

*The movement in notorious Steve King's 4th Iowa District might startle the horses, unless you've been paying attention to his Democratic challenger J.D. Sholten. We wrote about him on June 16.

*Andy Barr's seat in Kentucky's 6th District has moved to a toss-up between him and Amy McGrath, about whom we've written several times. She's one of the stand-out stars of 2018.

*In the 12th Congressional District of Ohio, with a special election coming on August 7 for an open seat, Democrat Danny O'Connor is now rated a toss-up to take the seat.

*The movement in John Carter's Texas District 31 is especially noteworthy, because one of the most electrifying Democrats we've observed all year, M.J. Hegar, is getting national attention with her introductory video.

*John Culberson's 7th Congressional District in Texas is now rated a toss-up. We took quick note of his Democratic challenger Lizzie Pannill Fletcher way back on December 19 of last year. She's obviously making waves.

*Finally, the open seat in West Virginia's 3rd District is suddenly now a toss-up. We took notice of the Democratic challenger, Richard Ojeda, on June 19. There hasn't been a viable Democrat in that district of West Virginia in many years.

Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) Has a Credible Democratic Opponent

Noticing white supremacist and eight-term Congressman Steve King's recent approving retweet of an avowed admirer of Adolph Hitler, I began to wonder about his 4th District of Iowa (which contains the university town of Ames) and about what Democrat is running against him.

This is the Democrat, J.D. Scholten, who's actually out-raised King by a substantial amount.



Scholten is an ex-professional baseball player and is working now as a litigation paralegal. He's a fifth generation Iowan, and he certainly looks like he "fits" the district.

Never mind, though, because the experts say Steve King can't be beaten (just as they say Virginia Foxx can't be beaten). Steve King is so smug about easily winning every time, he hardly bothers to raise campaign money, and he's very comfortable spouting Trumpist racism about how white civilization is endangered by the invasion of brown people over our borders.

The Republican Party under Trump has become very comfortable with open hostility toward non-whites, and perhaps the 4th District of Iowa will continue that embrace, but it's heartening that a man of Scholten's qualities is willing to stand up against that.