Republican Congressman Steve King says his recent travels to states that will host early voting events in the 2016 presidential race aren’t about his own White House aspirations, but about his desire to influence the campaign.

“I’ve traveled to New Hampshire and South Carolina multiple times, done political events in both of those states and plan on doing more. Now that all sounds like I’m positioning myself to run for president. In truth, what I’m doing is positioning myself as best I can to help us get the best ee we can,” King says.

“…I want to have a good, solid, full spectrum constitutional conservative emerge so they can lead this country down a solid fiscal path and restore our foreign policy and put some pride back in us again so Americans will get up every day and go out and contribute and feel good about it.”

However, King says there might come a day when he will seek the G-O-P’s presidential nomination.

“What I can’t do is just rule it out because you never know what happens in life,” King says. “There’s nothing very predictable in this business.”

King was elected to congress in 2002. He considered running for the U.S. Senate in 2014, but decided to seek reelection to the House instead. Jim Mowrer of Boone will likely be King’s Democratic opponents. Vice President Joe Biden will appear at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. for Mowrer on September 24th. A spokesman for Republican candidates for congress ridicules Mowrer for “showing his loyalty to President Obama and Vice President Biden.”

(Reporting by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)