Yesterday I attended a town hall by white nationalist congressman Steve King in Clear Lake, Iowa (disclosure: I fundraise for King's opponent). This is a thread for anyone interested in how such a politician talks to constituents in 2020, and what kind of questions he gets. 
For those not familiar, Wikipedia has a summary of King's many controversies (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_King). King has been in Congress since 2003, and was warmly embraced by Republican leadership until remarks last June forced McCarthy to strip him of committee memberships
There were about 23 people in attendance. The event (like Biden's town hall earlier that day) opened with the pledge of allegiance, followed by a brief introduction by the mayor of Clear Lake, who talked about a visit he had made with Congressman King to Ground Zero in NYC.
King began with his own reminiscence of that souvenir-hunting trip (they each brought back a piece of slag), describing the period since the attacks as America being reborn from out of that smoking crater. His tone throughout this event was conversational, warm, avuncular.
He quickly moved to a discussion of USMCA, the successor agreement to NAFTA, which he said would bring ten dollars a ham to pork producers in Iowa, due to the strong Mexican market. He then discussed the China trade agreement recently announced by President Trump
[Parenthetically, IA-4 was extremely hard hit by Trump's trade conflict with China. At one point farmers didn't know what crop to put in the ground. The soybean market may be permanently lost to producers in South America.]
King discussed the progress of trade negotiations and went into some detail on "Chinese theft of our intellectual property", which has been a signature issue for him. "Chinese don't have the creativity or American-style ingenuity, so they steal it from us", demanded indemnity
He talked about the upcoming trade negotiations with a post-Brexit United Kingdom, describing a talk he'd had with Theresa May. This trade deal should be a priority, as it will allow the sale of Iowa-grown GMOs to Britain, and from there pry open the protectionist European market
Then followed a long discussion of an issue that is huge in Iowa but invisible on political Twitter, changes in EPA rules around ethanol in gasoline and small refinery exceptions (SREs). King described his attempts to use Trump to hold the EPA administrator's feet to the fire
The dynamic King described with Trump was fascinating. There are regular phone calls (which King won't discuss in detail because he wants to keep his access). Reading between the lines, Trump is all in on oil and coal, with a complete contempt for renewable energy.
This is a problem for King! Iowa is big on biofuels, wind energy, and now increasingly solar energy. King explains his dilemma—does he correct the president on the fly during one of his phone tirades on energy, or hope that a teachable moment arrives later? The republican dilemma
King concludes his remarks with a few words on Iran. He appreciates the irony that Suleimani was killed by drone (as retaliation in part for an Iranian attack on drones). Sees echoes of Benghazi (meaning, highly organized false flag attack) in the break-in to a US embassy in Iraq
Having spoken ~15 mins, King takes questions. First one is from the man directly in front of me. "This is more of a comment than a question. Keep building the wall". Applause from the room. [I was an illegal alien in the US for five years and stare at the back of the guy's neck]
King loves to talk about the wall. He's a builder and goes into the technical fine points. Describes how he built a mock-up on the House floor that he still has in his office, decries the environmental and other objections, and the ridiculous per-mile cost. He could do it cheaper
Big advantage of the wall is "it doesn't have prosecutorial discretion," referring to Obama's selective prosecution of immigration cases. The questioner follows up on ICE and sanctuary cities; King boasts that he introduced the "sanctuary city" language to Congress
Next question is from a non-supporter about abortion. King famously believes in no exceptions in an abortion ban; she brings up a local case where the life of the mother was in danger, had asked King about it at a previous town hall, he had promised to research and have an answer
King demurs, saying the topic is too painful to talk about in this setting given that it involves specific local people. Asked to speak more generally, he talks about 60 million lost American lives, and the babies those aborted babies could have had, solving our labor shortage
I am unable to follow his answer about cases where a mother's life is in danger from a pregnancy. He says those are extraordinarily rare, and that if you leave loopholes in the law, everyone will evade it. Also says something about that not being too hot a topic for legislation.
Not having understood King's answer here, I don't want to mischaracterize it. But he certainly believes that 20% of the American population is missing due to abortion, reasserts his belief that life starts at the instant of fertilization.
Next question is about commercial hemp! Iowa farmers want to grow it, it has high BTU (thermal) content per acre, is friendlier to the soil. Iowa allows 40 acre test plots for now, but no more. The farmer asking the question wants to know King's position on expanding hemp growing
King explains that a problem with hemp is it is visually indistinguishable from THC-containing marijuana, and would mean de facto legalization, turning Iowa into Colorado. He doesn't want to go there yet. Promises questioner to look further into the issue of hemp as biofuel
Hemp farmer won't give up easy. He explains high BTU content of hemp oil, that it's a less thirsty crop than corn. This leads to a discussion of ethanol; for every 100 bushels of corn grown in the United States, 38 go to ethanol production
The next question is about King's stance on ag-gag laws. These are laws that prohibit the undercover photography of animal cruelty in concentrated feeding operations. Questioner is torn; he wouldn't let strangers skulk around his business, but some of the animal cruelty is awful
King also deplores animal cruelty, but accuses the Humane Society of the United States of "trying to take the meat off our plate". Iowa is #1 in egg and pork production. People don't want California regulating Iowa meat, or telling Iowans how to make their ethanol
"We have Californians going into our hen houses with measuring tape," King says. Sees the attempts by California and other states at enforcing certain production methods as an unconstitutional violation of the interstate commerce clause.
Next question is by a wind farmer. Many Iowa farmers put up a wind turbine on their land, it pays tens of thousands to the farmer, and same in taxes. Asks for Kings's support for that, and solar. King again explains the difficulty of talking to Trump about renewable energy.
The discussion veers off into one of anhydrous ammonia. The problem with wind power is that there's no good way to store a surplus; one scheme is to use it to produce anhydrous ammonia. King is for "clean coal" but also for Iowa being a net energy exporter from wind and biofuels
Someone else asks King about repeal of the ACA, and what his plans are for the 22 million it would leave uninsured. King wants health insurance sold across state lines, pharmaceuticals imported from Canada to lower prices, expand HSAs so people can afford Medicare alternatives
He says Republicans are deeply committed to protecting people with pre-existing conditions, talks about the plight of people who are forced now by the law to pay health insurance premiums that they cannot afford. Hopes there is time left for reform in the current administration
Last questioner is on energy again. He is all for green energy, biofuels, but wants balance so that we're not forced to buy our oil from Russia and Iran. "We can't fly our planes on wind; we don't want to be beholden to the Saudis". On this eloquent note the event wraps up.
King makes his closing remarks. We have the best place in the world to raise a family, people recognize that when they come to Iowa. We shape the presidential platform, because candidates field-test their political ideas here. Then New Hampshire breaks it, South Carolina fixes it
The Presidency is not about any individuals but about ideas and values. When he first visited the White House in 2017, he thought "my gosh, we actually got Iowa values into the Oval Office. The promises are all up in the War Room, with check marks next to the ones fulfilled."
With that, the event is over. King stays around to talk to whoever wants to speak with him, the rest of us leave. I come away from this event impressed with King as a political actor, and with a clearer understanding of why he will win his primary despite raising almost no money.
I would especially like to point out the cross-cutting issues brought up at this event that don't break cleanly on party lines: marijuana legalization (and hemp production), health care access in rural places, free trade, renewable energy, and of course immigration policy.
Thank you for enduring this long thread! My sole request is, please don't reply to this thread with political opinions; we probably share them, no one will convince anyone here on Twitter if we don't, and it makes the discussion tiresome.
You might also be interested in seeing the (very good!) political ad that King, one of the worst fundraisers in Congress, dusts off and re-runs every four years. I think of King's lack of fundraising as another manifestation of his intellectual vanity.
One footnote to this event: there was a town hall with Joe Biden in Mason City earlier that morning, where press nearly outnumbered attendees. But no national reporters came to Steve King's town hall that afternoon, six miles away, though it was politically far more interesting
The event was instead covered by the Iowa local press. Iowa has some of the best regional and local reporting in the country, and events like this highlight why it is so vital to keep local journalism alive. siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and…
