Congressman Steve King spoke to a gathering of more than 500 eastern Iowa Republicans Friday night and explained his decision not to run for the U.S. Senate.
“I will tell you that one of the reasons that I said no on the race of the United States Senate was I cannot take myself out of the arena of the United States House for the next 18-20 months,” King said.
King said he’ll stay in the House to fight Democrats and other Republicans who are pressing for “amnesty” for illegal immigrants. King said he is “dedicated” to helping elect another Republican from Iowa to the U.S. Senate.
“Puts an end to this Tom Harkin cancelling out Chuck Grassley’s vote for a generation of a time,” King said. “What sense did that ever make?”
Senator Chuck Grassley also talked with the crowd about the “once-in-a-generation” opportunity Republicans have at an open U.S. Senate seat after Democrat Tom Harkin announced he won’t run again in 2014.
“Washington is long, long overdue to get its fiscal house in order and gettin’ rid of a liberal U.S. Senator and getting us a Republican senator will go a long ways to change that,” Grassley said.
Listen to the speeches from Grassley and King here.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, was the event’s main speaker.