Probably our strongest general-election candidate would be Congressman Tom Latham of IA-03. Latham got screwed over in redistricting in both 2000 and 2010, each forcing him to run in a district that was almost entirely new to him and less Republican than the previous one, yet was able to win rather comfortably each time. Over his 15 years or so in the House, he has represented nearly half the state, and his current district is based in Des Moines (the state’s largest city) and was carried by Obama 51.24%-46.97% last year, which was only 0.76% less Democrat than the state as a whole. Latham is an experienced campaigner, has a conservative voting record without being polarizing, and has a history of winning independent and Democrat votes. While I’m a big fan of Congressman Steve King, he has only won in comfortably Republican districts, and I don’t think he’d fare very well running statewide in a state where McCain and Romney only got 44% and 46%, respectively.
Well, it looks like you and I have this analyzed the same.