The reign of the 20-year Congressman Steve King has come to an end after Randy Feenstra won the nomination for the 4th Congressional District in the Iowa Republican primary. 

Feenstra won with 45.6 percent of the votes, while King received 36 percent. Following King was Jeremy Taylor pulling in 7.8 percent. After winning, Feenstra tweeted a thank you to his followers and delivered a speech on Facebook. 

“I just want to thank all the voters in the 4th District who placed their trust in me,” Feenstra said in a Facebook livestream. “I said from day one that Iowans deserve a proven effective conservative leader that will deliver results. […] I promise you I will deliver results in Congress.” 

Feenstra is a politician and businessman, having served as an Iowa State senator for the 2nd District since 2009.

Raised Christian, Feenstra graduated from Western Christian High School and went on to receive his bachelor’s degree from Dordt University and his master’s in public administration from Iowa State University.

After his business career for Foreign Candy Company, Feenstra started work in local government until he was elected to the Iowa Senate, where he served on the Capital Projects, Tax Expenditure, Transportation, Ways and Means and State Government Committee.

According to Feenstra’s campaign website, he will work toward ending illegal immigration, protecting Christian values — such as defending the right to life — and supporting the Second Amendment. 

Chuck Klapatauskas, junior at Iowa State majoring in mechanical engineering, said he supported Feenstra over King.

“I think his campaign demonstrated a true movement forward and they capitalized on things Steve King did not,” Klapatauskas said.

Feenstra will go head to head with Democratic nominee J.D. Scholten. Scholten ran and lost against King in 2018 by three points. 

Scholten said regardless of who the Republican nominee is his campaign plans will stay the same moving forward.

“No matter who we are facing, our campaign is about what we stand for and we are going to go out to all 39 counties and try and earn votes,” Scholten said. “It doesn’t matter if you are white, black or brown, Democrat, independent or never voted before, we are going to go out and try to earn your vote. It is not so much who we are running against it is who we stand for.”

Teagan Wilcox, sophomore at Iowa State majoring in linguistics and director of social media for the College Democrats, said a race against King would be an easier win for Scholten due to his past, but she still has plenty of faith Scholten can beat Feenstra.

“I do think it is a harder fight for Scholten, but that is just when Dems have to come out even more and find other votes, independent voters and really do an even better job of getting all our votes out there,” Wilcox said. “I know that I am really looking forward to volunteering with J.D.’s campaign either way because I would really like to see him representing Iowans and I would love to have him represent my district.”

Klapatauskas said he thinks Feenstra will better represent Iowans than King since King had his committee stripped.

“We lost an important voice in the Judiciary and Ag Committee and I hope that Feenstra can help replace those and be a voice for Iowans,” Klapatauskas said.