GOP Insider Doesn’t Think Steve King Will Run In Iowa Senate Race

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A top Republican insider from Iowa doesn’t think Rep. Steve King (R-IA) will run in the state’s open U.S. Senate race next year.

In fact, Doug Gross, a former chief of staff to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R), said he doubts that any of the Republicans considered to be top contenders in the 2014 contest — King, Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey — will throw their hats in the ring.

“So I don’t think we know who the candidate is going to be right now,” Gross, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2002, told the Des Moines Register.

King, a tea party champion, has been pegged as a likely candidate for quite some time. It was the prospect of a King run that prompted Karl Rove to spearhead an effort to target unelectable candidates in Republicans Senate primaries. A poll from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling in February showed King as the overwhelming favorite in the race among Hawkeye State Republicans. Earlier this month, King seemed to suggest that he was gearing up for a Senate bid, telling a group of a Republicans that he “can see a path to victory.”

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