The Republican race in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race on Tuesday features rival candidates backed by former President Donald Trump and his estranged Vice President Mike Pence. Democrats are picking a candidate to challenge two-term GOP Sen. Ron Johnson for control of the closely divided chamber.
Meanwhile, Vermont voters are choosing a replacement for U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy as the chamber’s longest-serving member retires. In Minnesota, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar faces a Democratic primary challenger who helped defeat a voter referendum to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety.
What to watch in Tuesday’s primaries in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont and Connecticut:
WISCONSIN
Construction co-owner Tim Michels has Trump’s endorsement in the gubernatorial race and is spending millions of his own money touting both his support of the former president and his years working to build his family’s business into the nation’s largest construction company. Wisconsin. Michels casts himself as an outsider, even though he previously lost a campaign to unseat then-U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold in 2004 and has long been a prominent GOP donor.
Republicans, including Pence and former Gov. Scott Walker, have backed former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Klifisch, who along with Walker survived a recall attempt in 2012. She says she has the experience and knowledge to pursue conservative priorities, including disbanding the bipartisan commission. which oversees the elections.
With control of the Senate at stake, Democrats will also make their choice to run against Johnson. Democratic support rallied around Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes late in the race when his three primary rivals dropped out and endorsed him. He would become the state’s first black senator if elected.
Several lesser-known candidates remain in the primary, but Johnson and Republicans have treated Barnes as the nominee, casting him as too liberal for Wisconsin, a state Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020.
Four Democrats are also running in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat that opened up with the retirement of veteran Democrat Ron Kind. The district leans Republican, and Derrick Van Orden — who narrowly lost to Kind in 2020 and has Trump’s endorsement — is running unopposed.
MINNESOTA
Democratic Gov. Tim Waltz faces a little-known opponent as he seeks a second term. His likely challenger is Republican Scott Jensen, a physician and former state lawmaker who has made vaccine skepticism a centerpiece of his campaign and faces token opposition.
The two have been on a virtual campaign for months, with Jensen attacking Walz for his handling of the pandemic and attacking the governor for rising crime around Minneapolis. Walz touted his own support for abortion rights and suggested Jensen would be a threat to decriminalize the procedure in Minnesota.
Crime has emerged as the biggest issue in Rep. Omar’s Democratic primary. She is being challenged by former Minneapolis City Councilman Don Samuels, who opposes the police defunding movement and last year helped defeat efforts to replace the city’s police department. Omar, who backed the referendum, has a significant cash advantage and is expected to benefit from a strong grassroots operation.
The most confusing part of Tuesday’s vote was for the 1st Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died earlier this year of cancer. Republican former state Rep. Brad Finstad and Democrat Jeff Ettinger, the former CEO of Hormel, are running concurrently in a primary to determine the November matchup for the next two-year term representing the southern Minnesota district, as well as a special election to complete the last few months of Hagedorn’s term.
CONNECTICUT
It’s been about three decades since Connecticut has had a Republican in the U.S. Senate, but the party isn’t giving up.
In the GOP primary against Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, the party endorsed former House Minority Leader Themis Klarides. She is a social moderate who supports abortion rights and certain gun control measures and says she did not vote for Trump in 2020. Klarides argued that her experience and positions could persuade voters to oppose Blumenthal, a senator with two-term incumbent who in May registered a 45 percent job approval rating, his lowest rating in a Quinnipiac poll since taking office.
Klarides is being challenged by conservative attorney Peter Lumay and Republican National Committee member Leora Levy, who Trump endorsed last week. Both candidates oppose abortion rights and further gun restrictions and support Trump’s policies.
VERMONT
Leahy’s impending retirement has opened up two seats in Vermont’s small three-member congressional delegation — and the opportunity for the state to send a woman to represent it in Washington for the first time.
Democratic U.S. Congressman Peter Welch, the state’s congressman, quickly launched his Senate bid after Leahy announced he was retiring. Leahy, who is the Senate president pro tempore, has been hospitalized several times over the past two years, including after breaking his hip this summer.
Welch was endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and is the favorite to win the seat in November. He faces two other Democrats in the primary: Isaac Evans-Franz, an activist, and Dr. Nikki Tran, an emergency room physician.
On the Republican side, former US Attorney Christina Nolan, retired US Army officer Gerald Malloy and investment banker Myers Mermel are competing for the nomination.
The race to replace Welch has resulted in the first wide-open campaign for the Vermont House of Representatives since 2006.
Two women, including Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and state Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, are the top Democratic candidates in the race. Gray, elected in 2020 in her first political bid, is an attorney and former assistant attorney general.
The winner of the Democratic primary will be the heavy favorite to win the liberal state’s general election. In 2018, Vermont became the last state without female representation in Congress when Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate.
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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis.; Doug Glass in Minneapolis; Susan Hay in Hartford, Connecticut; and Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vermont, contributed to this report.
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You can find Meg Kinard at
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