King ousted as District 4 senator

(Above) Poll worker Becky Butz used a lag time at the City Hall voting site to wipe down the table where voters checked in. Special precautions were taken to address COVID-19 concerns at the Tuesday vote.  The number of polling sites in the county was reduced by about half.  Voter turnout was characterized as good, with about 20 percent of eligible voters taking part, many by absentee ballot.-Reporter photo by Chris Barragy.

by Marianne Gasaway

Clear Lake voters were in lock step with those throughout the State Tuesday, June 2, as they strongly favored challenger Randy Feenstra in his attempt to defeat nine-term Republican Senator Steve King in his bid for re-election as the District 4 representative to the U.S. Senate.  Voters from Clear Lake’s three wards gave Feenstra a 327-182 victory over King and helped him to a 36,806 (45.7 percent) to 28,977 (36 percent) win district-wide.

Three others in the race garnered significantly fewer votes in the three local wards.  They were Bret Richards, 47 (5,983, 7.4 percent); Jeremy Taylor, 25 (6,295, 7.8 percent); and Steven Reeder, 23 (2,507 (3.1 percent).

Feenstra will face off against JD Scholton, who earned 582 votes in Clear Lake’s three wards and 45,272 in his uncontested District 4 run.  Scholton lost to King in a close race two years ago.

Also on the Republican side, Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), running uncontested, collected 581 votes from those in Clear Lake.  She will face Democrat Theresa Greenfield in the November election.  Greenfield won her party’s primary with 129,706 votes (47.7 percent).  She was the top vote-getter at the three Clear Lake polling sites with 368 votes.  Just as he did statewide, Michael Franken finished second with 120 local votes; he had 67,862 statewide.  Kimberly Graham (15 percent), Eddie Mauro (11 percent) and Cal Woods (1.23 percent) also appeared on the ballot.

In the race for State Representative District 54, Shannon Latham, running unopposed for the  Republicans, received 575 votes from Clear Lake voters.  She earned 2,767 votes in the district.  On the Democratic side, Karen Koenig was the clear choice over Kai Trevor Brost.  Locally she won, 502-57.  In the district she received 1,456 votes (87.8 percent), compared to 183 (11 percent) for Brost.

About 21 percent of eligible Clear Lake voters cast ballots in the June 2 primary election.