The Democrat who’s challenging Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said Tuesday that comments made by the Republican incumbent about young undocumented workers don’t reflect the views of voters in Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District.
In a statement provided to TPM, Jim Mowrer said that King’s comments “misrepresent the views of Iowans to the world.”
“My neighbors in the 4th district do not agree with the statements of Mr. King,” Mowrer, an Iraq War veteran, said in the statement. “They understand that we need to fix our immigration system which remains an economic and national security issue.”
King, an immigration hard-liner, said in an interview last week that for every immigrant who grows up to be a valedictorian, there are 100 more who are smuggling drugs across the border.
In a post Tuesday on the liberal blog Daily Kos, Mowrer said King made “some of the most horrible and offensive comments about immigrants that I’ve ever heard.”
The remarks also drew pushback from House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who said in a statement Tuesday that King was “wrong” to use such “hateful language.”
