Poll: Iowa voters favor Democrats for control of the House

A new poll by Iowa’s largest state newspaper could spell trouble for Rep. Steve King (R).

The Des Moines Register poll asked likely midterm voters across the state whether they would support a Republican or a Democratic candidate in their local elections, and found that 45 percent said they would support a Democratic candidate for the House on Tuesday. Just 39 percent said they would vote for a GOP candidate.

{mosads}When broken down by district, the poll shows King on shaky ground.

King has faced criticism in recent months for his rhetoric related to immigration and diversity and for his support of an accused white nationalist in Toronto’s mayoral race.

In Iowa’s 4th district, voters selected an unnamed Republican candidate over an unnamed Democrat by just 4 points, well within the by-district margin of error for the poll.

Those numbers come amid another poll that found King’s Democratic challenger, J.D. Scholten, trailing the Republican incumbent by just one point. King lost the support of donors including AT&T this week over his past comments, while Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake (R) publicly endorsed King’s opponent during a CNN interview.

Scholten was also the recipient of a major late-game fundraising boost this week as more than 30,000 individual donors contributed just under $1 million in a week to the House candidate’s campaign.

The Des Moines Register campaign was conducted between Oct. 30 – Nov. 2 between 801 likely Iowa voters. The general margin of error is 3.5 percentage points, while the margin of error for the sample of voters in the 4th district is 6.6 percentage points.