The Des Moines Register reports:
The president of The Family Leader, a prominent conservative Iowa organization, endorsed Rep. Steve King’s primary opponent Thursday.
Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO for the evangelical group, announced his support for Iowa Sen. Randy Feenstra in the 4th District Republican primary. Vander Plaats’ endorsement is personal and not on behalf of the organization.
Vander Plaats has been a long-time supporter of King, but his position changed after seeing the Kiron Republican’s comments in the New York Times on white nationalism and white supremacy.
Vander Platts earned national headlines in 2011 when he was accused of offering to sell his presidential endorsement. His early 2016 endorsement of Ted Cruz earned him the traditional reaction from Glorious Leader.
Why doesn’t phony @bobvanderplaats tell his followers all the times he asked for him and his family to stay at my hotels-didn’t like paying
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016
@realDonaldTrump Still consider you a friend and you still can’t have my endorsement. My friendship isn’t phony.
— Bob Vander Plaats (@bobvanderplaats) January 26, 2016
.@bobvanderplaats begged me to do an event while asking organizers for $100,000 for himself—a bad guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2016
@realDonaldTrump you know that’s not true. I gave you an introduction and opportunity and you charged the guy $100K. May work in NY not IA.
— Bob Vander Plaats (@bobvanderplaats) January 26, 2016
RELATED: As longtime JMG readers will know, I reported on Vander Platts and Family Leader many times during the battle for same-sex marriage. In one of their SCOTUS briefs, Family Leader argued that same-sex marriage will cause girls to become more promiscuous and boys to become more violent. Because reasons. Vander Platts has said that it’s better to die than live in a gay-friendly world and in 2014 linked LGBT rights to terrorism.