COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — More than halfway through a tumultuous primary season, voters have delivered verdicts in a number of races, many featuring candidates they say best represent a continuation of policies favored by former President Donald Trump.
Although he is not on the ballot himself, Trump has played a role in several races, with the candidates he supports achieving mixed results. There were also upsets by several incumbents, some unseated by Trump-backed challengers and others defeated by fellow representatives in runoffs forced by redistricting.
Here’s what’s happened so far in the statewide primaries:
FALLEN HOLDERS
Eight sitting presidents — three Democrats and five Republicans — have lost their seats in the US House of Representatives this year already after being defeated in primaries.
Four of those losses came in incumbent races, the result of the once-a-decade redistricting process. But the other four were defeated by insurgent challengers after finding themselves vulnerable as a result of scandal, investigation, irritating progressives or crossing Trump.
Seven-term centrist Democratic U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon lost to progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner in his May 17 primary. Schrader has angered many Democrats by opposing some of President Joe Biden’s priorities, including a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, because he did not support a minimum wage increase.
Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorne of North Carolina was defeated by state Sen. Chuck Edwards after a whirlwind of scandals, including Cawthorne’s claim that he was invited to orgies and saw anti-drug addicts using cocaine, being caught twice with guns at airports and appearing in videos showing him in sexual positions.
On June 14, five-term Republican Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina lost his re-election bid to state Rep. Russell Frye after voting to impeach Trump over the January 6 Capitol riot. And on June 28, six-term Mississippi Republican Stephen Palazzo lost a runoff to Sheriff Mike Ezell after he was accused in a congressional ethics report of improper campaign spending.
COLLECTED MEMBER I AM A MEMBER
Redistricting ensures that some incumbents of the US House of Representatives will be removed.
The first to fall was Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia, who voted with Democrats to support Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, betting that West Virginians would reward him for prioritizing such funding in one of the poorest states of the nation. Instead, they dropped it because of Rep. Alex Mooney, who opposed the infrastructure bill. Mooney won Trump’s endorsement the day Biden signed the measure into law.
In Georgia, Democrat Lucy McBath, a gun safety advocate, went shopping in the area after the GOP-dominated legislature turned her home district into a Republican stronghold. She defeated fellow Democrat Carolyn Burdeau, who said she considered McBath a “sister.”
Two Illinois incumbents lost their seats last week when Rep. Mary Miller defeated five-term Rep. Rodney Davis and Democrat Sean Caston defeated one-term Democrat Marie Newman.
Miller won days after calling the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade a “historic victory for white life” during a rally with Trump. Calling it a “mixing of words,” Miller’s spokesman told The Associated Press that she had intended to say the ruling was a victory for the “right to life.”
TRUMP’S GOALS
Still reeling from his loss to Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Trump vowed to exact revenge on Republicans who opposed him.
He turned to Georgia, recruiting challengers to Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who rebuffed his efforts to overturn his narrow defeat in the state. But he fell short, with Kemp easily returning former Sen. David Perdue and Raffensperger defeating Rep. Jody Heiss.
Trump also directed his anger at the 10 House Republicans who voted with Democrats to impeach him for his role in the Jan. 6 riot. Four decided not to run for re-election.
But of those who remained to fight, Rice became the first to lose, a result he admitted was possible in a vote he said his conscience had forced him to take. Another, Congressman David Valadao of California, finished second in his primary, meaning he advanced to November’s general election as one of the top two finishers.
Four of the House Republicans are still awaiting their primaries.
In South Carolina, Trump targeted another GOP incumbent, Congresswoman Nancy Mays, after her criticism of his role in the Jan. 6 attack and her vote to certify Biden’s victory. Mays held off a challenge from Katie Arrington, a Trump-backed opponent.
TRUMP: KEEP THE SCORE
Trump helped win some candidates for the US Senate. In Ohio, he endorsed “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance after a fierce push by Vance’s opponents to curry favor with Trump. The endorsement just three weeks before the election propelled Vance to victory.
Dr. Mehmet Oz received Trump’s endorsement about five weeks before the Pennsylvania primary, a blow to former hedge fund CEO David McCormick, whose wife, Dina Powell, served in the Trump administration. Oz pulled out a narrow victory over McCormick by countout.
In North Carolina, Trump endorsed Congressman Ted Budd a year before the primary, lifting the little-known congressman from a field of 14 candidates to win the GOP Senate nomination.
Trump also intervened in statewide races, endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against primary challenger George P. Bush. Trump was rewarding Paxton for petitioning the US Supreme Court to overturn the 2020 election, an effort the state bar called “dishonest” as it sought to punish him for it.
Katie Britt nearly won the GOP primary to replace her boss, retiring Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, but ended up in a runoff with longtime Rep. Mo Brooks, whom Trump initially endorsed before withdrawing his support as Brooks’ polls dipped. worsened. Trump only endorsed Britt after she finished first in the primary.
Republican voters in Nebraska rejected Trump’s choice for governor, businessman Charles Herbster, who was accused late in the campaign of groping multiple women, choosing instead University of Nebraska regent Jim Pilon as their running mate. In Georgia’s U.S. House race, GOP voters chose trucking company owner Mike Collins over Vernon Jones, a Trump-backed Democrat-turned-Republican.
DENIAL CHOICES
Voters gave primaries to some candidates who supported Trump’s claims that Biden’s election victory was illegitimate. These false claims have been roundly rejected by election officials, Trump’s attorney general and the courts, including his appointed judges.
Regardless, state Sen. Doug Mastriano won the crowded Republican primary for governor of Pennsylvania. He was subpoenaed by the House committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol for his role in a plan to organize an “alternative” list of Pennsylvania voters for Trump after the 2020 election.
Trump’s pick for Nevada secretary of state, former state Rep. Jim Marchant, won the primary after spending months arguing that Nevada had not had a legitimate election in years and that Trump’s victory was stolen.
In Idaho, Trump’s insurgent candidate, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeechin, lost her bid to unseat Gov. Brad Little. McGitchin said he would “bring integrity to Idaho elections,” without citing any improprieties. She also said she would push for a forensic audit of the 2020 elections in all 50 states.
In Colorado, GOP voters chose Pam Anderson as their candidate for secretary of state over Tina Peters, an accused county clerk who gained national notoriety by promoting conspiracy theories about voting machines. Anderson has vowed to keep politics out of the election, while Peters was indicted on seven felony counts accusing her of participating in a “fraudulent scheme” to disrupt voting system technology.
LOOK FORWARD
The primary season resumes in earnest in August, with a number of high-profile races still to be decided.
Congresswoman Liz Cheney faces a tough primary challenge in Wyoming on August 16 after voting to impeach Trump and become vice chair of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. Trump endorsed Harriet Hageman in the race.
In Arizona, one of five battleground states Biden flipped, the former president has bolstered a core of loyalists who promote his bogus campaign claims. In the governor’s race, he backed former TV news anchor Carrie Lake against entrepreneur Karyn Taylor Robeson for the GOP nomination to replace Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who resisted Trump’s pressure in an election year and is barred from running for another mandate.
In the US Senate race in Arizona, Trump is backing investor Blake Masters for the Republican nomination to face Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly in November. Masters said, “I think Trump won in 2020,” and endorsed the baseless conspiracy theory of the “great replacement,” a racist ideology in which white people and their influence are being replaced by people of color.
And in the Arizona Secretary of State race, Trump endorsed state Rep. Mark Finchem, who was pictured outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and is working to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss.
In Michigan, one of the nation’s most battleground states, Republicans faced setbacks in their bid to defeat Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November. Five GOP candidates failed to qualify for the Aug. 2 primary after submitting fake signatures collected by paid petition spinners. Another candidate, Republican Ryan Kelly, was charged last month with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack.
Establishment Republicans are jittery about the Aug. 2 GOP U.S. Senate primary in Missouri, where former Gov. Eric Greitens is trying to return to politics after resigning four years ago amid investigations into possible…
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