White nationalists and other extremists have long praised Iowa Rep. Steve King (R) as their champion and public-facing megaphone hes a white supremacist himself and openly promotes them, so its no surprise the congressman is celebrated in those circles.

But newly leaked chat logs linked to a prominent hate group reveal that white nationalists have actively worked to keep King and his racist ideology in office by donating to his campaign, calling members of Congress to show their support when King stumbles or by attempting to reach the congressman directly.

On Wednesday, an independent media organization called Unicorn Riot released a searchable database containing what the company says are more than 770,000 messages from chat servers associated with Identity Evropa, a white nationalist collective designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center that prides itself on its college campus recruiting campaigns.

Part of Unicorn Riots goal in the leak was to cast light on Identity Evropa members involvement in the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the groups attempts to sanitize its own image to stay legitimate. (Unicorn Riots previous leaks have been instrumental in cases surrounding Unite the Right, too).

But a search for Kings name in the database reveals that Identity Evropa also concerns itself with sanitizing the congressmans image for the stated purpose of keeping white supremacy in government.

On Jan. 15, a few days after King infamously wondered aloud why terms like white supremacist used to describe him are offensive , someone on Identity Evropas Discord chat server worried that King was jeopardizing his seat.

Steve King is more useful in Congress than as a nobody, wrote user TMatthews. He needs to be more careful about who he talks to and to not make tactless statements to the media.

Kings quote must have also worried Identity Evropas leader, Patrick Casey (aka Reinhard Wolff). As GOP leadership was stripping King of his committee assignments over his comment, Casey ordered his followers to call the office of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and voice their support for King. Casey wrote:

Attention @everyone:

Your task for today is to call Kevin McCarthys office and let them know that you stand with Steve Kingthat you take issue with McCarthys kowtowing to the left. Call both of these numbers ... Lets get to work.