备受争议的爱荷华州前众议员。史蒂夫·金在家乡的党团会议上支持共和党人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米，拉马斯瓦米告诉美国广播公司新闻，共同反对提议的二氧化碳管道是“让我们走到一起的”

在一些活动中介绍拉马斯瓦米的金周三在拉马斯瓦米市政厅发表讲话时引用了他们的共同观点。

“我打算为一个强烈捍卫我们的财产权和反对二氧化碳排放的候选人举行党团会议，”他说。“今天做得最好的人就在这里——我想向大家介绍维维克·拉马斯瓦米。”

在波卡洪塔斯，金告诉潜在的选民，“美国需要一个声音，一个像维维克·拉马斯瓦米那样的声音。”

拉马斯瓦米、他的竞选团队和金本人坚持认为，金的支持性言论不是正式的认可，但金在一些共和党选民中仍然是一个受人尊敬的人物，他在众议院代表了八年，然后在2020年输给了兰迪·芬斯特拉的第四个国会选区席位。

那时，金已经成为有效避开在一次演讲中说2019面试:“白人民族主义者、白人至上主义者、西方文明——这种语言是如何变得具有攻击性的?”

他后来澄清说，他“拒绝这些标签和它们定义的邪恶意识形态”，并称自己为“民族主义者”

然而，金面临着像参议员米奇·麦康奈尔这样的主要保守派的口头指责，他很快就从他的委员会中除名，大大降低了他在国会的影响力。

Ramaswamy -一个商人和保守的评论员，有他自己的挑衅风格，包括浮动阴谋论-告诉ABC新闻，他不担心金的支持是否会影响公众对他的看法。

“我不做那种微积分。...在这个问题上我说的是实话。这影响了我对这个国家破碎的共和党机构的看法，甚至越来越多地影响到这个州，”他说，然后转向他对爱荷华州潜在管道的反对。

拉马斯瓦米一直直言不讳地批评遏制气候变化的政策，科学家认为，在其他环境变化中，气候变化正在导致更致命的天气事件。

拉马斯瓦米称碳捕捉管道是“对财产权的最大侵犯”。...这对爱荷华州人来说至关重要，我是唯一能够支持这一点的候选人。”

拟议中的管道旨在捕获加剧气候变化的二氧化碳，这种二氧化碳是由爱荷华州广泛的玉米种植和乙醇工业产生的。

但是管道遭到了反对，不仅仅是国王和拉马斯瓦米该州的一些环保主义者和土地所有者也不想要这些管道，他们认为相对于其他气候变化解决方案来说，这些管道会造成巨大的破坏。

拉马斯瓦米告诉记者，“我不希望人们告诉他们的孩子，因为他们不同意他们可能曾经说过的话，就试图判断或脱离某人。...我更喜欢按照他们自己的方式去了解一个人，到目前为止，我只是最近才开始了解史蒂夫·金，但我认为他是一个关心这个国家宪法的可靠的人。”

周二，拉马斯瓦米告诉诺斯伍德的一名选民，他不相信金“是白人至上主义者。我不认为他有任何接近。”

Ramaswamy being supported by controversial former Iowa Rep. Steve King

Controversial former Iowa Rep.Steve Kingis backing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in his home state's caucuses -- with Ramaswamy telling ABC News that shared opposition to proposed pipelines to capture carbon dioxide is what "brought us together."

King, who has been introducing Ramaswamy at some events, cited their mutual view during remarks at a town hall for Ramaswamy on Wednesday.

"I intend to caucus for a candidate that's a strong defender of our property rights and against the CO2 boondoggle," he said. "And the man that does that the best right now today is right over here -- I'd like to introduce Vivek Ramaswamy."

In Pocahontas, King told potential voters that "America needs a voice, a voice like Vivek Ramaswamy."

Ramaswamy, his campaign and King himself maintain that King's supportive remarks were not a formal endorsement, but King remains a respected figure among some Republican voters in the region he represented in the House for eight years before losing his 4th Congressional District seat to Randy Feenstra in 2020.

By then, King had becomeeffectively shunnedby the larger Republican Party after saying in a2019 interview: "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization -- how did that language become offensive?"

He later clarified that he "reject[ed] those labels and the evil ideology they define" and called himself a "nationalist."

Still, King faced vocal rebuke from leading conservatives like Sen. Mitch McConnell and he was quicklyremoved from his committees, drastically reducing his influence in Congress.

Ramaswamy -- a businessman and conservative commentator with his own provocative style, includingfloating conspiracy theories-- told ABC News that he's not worried about whether King's support will affect the public's perception of him.

"I'm not doing that calculus. ... I'm speaking the truth on this issue. It affects my perception of the broken Republican establishment in this country and, increasingly, even in this state," he said before pivoting back to his opposition to the potential Iowa pipelines.

Ramaswamy has been a vocal critic of policies to curb climate change, which scientists believe is leading to deadlier weather events among other environmental changes.

Ramaswamy called the carbon-capture pipelines "the greatest violation of property rights. ... And it matters to Iowans here in their backyard and I'm the only candidate who's able to stand for it."

The proposed pipelines are intended to capture carbon dioxide that fuels climate change and which is produced by Iowa's widespread corn farming and ethanol industries.

But the pipelines have drawn opposition,and not just from King and Ramaswamy: Some environmental activists and land-owners in the state don't want them either, contending the pipelines will be hugely disruptive relative to other climate change solutions.

Of King, Ramaswamy told reporters that "I don't want people to tell their kids to try to judge or disassociate with somebody because they disagree with something that they might have once said. ... I prefer to get to know a person on their own terms and so far, it's only been relatively recently I've gotten to know Steve King, but I think that he is a solid person who cares about the Constitution in this country."

On Tuesday, Ramaswamy told a voter in Northwood that he didn't believe King "is a white supremacist. I don't think he's anything close to that."