The Hill News

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Tuesday evening that he'd be hard-pressed to recommend to Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) that she not run for president.

King, a longtime leading conservative figure in the Hawkeye State whose support could be especially important among social conservatives, said he thought that Bachmann was best-positioned to pick up their supporters.

"She's not only the Tea Party darling, but she is a full-spectrum constitutional conservative and is in the best position to step up and capitalize on some of the dropouts that we've had along the way," King said on the Fox Business Network. "So I think now it would be pretty hard to recommend to her not to run when she has this platform to run from today."

King's known for having a close relationship with Bachmann, both of them often voting in lockstep on bread-and-butter conservative issues. The Minnesota congresswoman has acknowledged that she's thinking about running, and! has said she'll make a decision in early June. The founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, Bachmann could sense an opening for a candidate to appeal to the GOP's activist base.

Iowa's caucuses, which are the first nominating contest of the 2012 cycle, are seen as a wide-open competition following the decision of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), the winner of the 2008 caucuses, not to run for president against next year.

King said he didn't know for sure whether Bachmann had picked up Huckabee's supporters, but he believes that will be the case and "it is likely it is coming through."