United States Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was elected to a ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
King is the author of the Protect Interstate Commerce Act (PICA), informally known as the King amendment, which calls for the end of laws such as California’s just-approved Proposition 12 on the basis that such laws allow one state to regulate agriculture production practices in other states, which King says is unconstitutional. Proposition 12 calls for the end of cages in egg production in California, as well as the sale of eggs produced elsewhere that use cages.
PICA is under consideration for inclusion in the 2018 farm bill, although a largely Democratic group of senators wrote to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow, urging them to not support the King amendment, urging them to not include the amendment in the farm bill.
King wrote a similar amendment for the farm bill four years ago, but that amendment did not make it into the final and existing farm bill, signed by then-President Barack Obama.
King survived a close challenge from Democratic candidate J.D. Scholten, having gained 50.33 percent of the vote compared to Scholten’s 46.96 percent, according to the Iowa Secretary of State’s website. Two other candidates in the race, Libertarian Charles Aldrich and Independent Edward Peterson ended up being immaterial to the race, as the two collectively garnered less than 3 percent of the votes.
Controversy around King
While King’s legislation has been viewed as pro-Iowa agriculture, he found himself under criticism for recent comments and tweets that have been viewed by many as racist and homophobic. That controversy led several companies, including Land O’Lakes, second-largest American farm cooperative, to end its support of King.
“The Land O’Lakes, Inc. PAC has traditionally contributed to lawmakers of both parties that represent the communities where our members and employees live and work and are also on committees that oversee policies that directly impact our farmer owners. We take our civic responsibility seriously, want our contributions to be a positive force for good and also seek to ensure that recipients of our contributions uphold our company’s values. On that basis, we have determined that our PAC will no longer support Rep. Steve King moving forward,” the company said in a statement.
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