- Trump, Biden could clinch 2024 nomination after today’s Republican and Democratic primaries in Washington, Georgia, Mississippi CBS News
- Locking it up: Trump, Biden, expected to clinch GOP, Democrat presidential nominations in Tuesday’s primaries Fox News
- Election 2024 live updates: Trump, Biden could clinch nominations in today’s primaries The Washington Post
- Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday Speech The New York Times
- Biden and Trump could clinch nominations in Tuesday’s contests, ushering in general election The Associated Press
Tag Archives: primaries
Three takeaways from New Hampshire and Rhode Island primaries
Don Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general and election denier who has embraced Trump’s approach to politics, led state Senate President Chuck Morse as of early Wednesday morning. If he ends up winning the race, he would join a list of candidates national Republicans worry won’t be able to appeal to the broader November electorate.
The stakes are high, with a Senate split 50-50 on the line and Republican candidates in Arizona, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania also struggling. The GOP had hoped that New Hampshire, where Hassan won by just 1,000 votes six years ago, would be added to the list of battleground states in November.
Meanwhile, the fields were set for two of New England’s most competitive House races on Tuesday, as well — including one in New Hampshire, where a Trump White House aide who has also parroted his lies about election fraud defeated an establishment-backed candidate, further complicating the GOP’s efforts to win control of the House.
Results still unknown in New Hampshire Senate primary
The Republicans’ hopes of winning a Senate majority could hinge on the outcome of a razor-tight primary in New Hampshire.
Morse is backed by establishment Republicans, including moderate Gov. Chris Sununu, and has been boosted by a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which pumped more than $4 million into the race in an attempt to stop Bolduc from winning the primary.
Bolduc aligned himself closely with former President Donald Trump. He said he “concurred with Trump’s assessment” about the 2020 election — that is, Trump’s lie that President Joe Biden’s victory came as a result of widespread fraud.
“I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by” that letter, Bolduc said in an August primary debate.
Bolduc has also called Sununu, the Republican governor who national figures attempted to recruit into the race, “a Chinese communist sympathizer.” He has said he would repeal the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution, which requires states to directly elect their senators, and raised the prospect of abolishing the FBI.
What was missing from New Hampshire’s primary was Trump. His decision not to endorse any candidate was a departure from Trump’s approach to most Senate primaries this year.
Hassan won by just 1,000 votes in 2016, and Republicans have seen New Hampshire as a potential pick-up opportunity in their bid for control of a Senate currently split evenly between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.
Trump’s style trumps his substance in New Hampshire
Mimicking Trump’s brash style and parroting his election denialism again proved more potent in a Republican primary than embracing the policy substance of his tenure in the White House.
That’s the lesson from the Republican primary in New Hampshire’s 1st District, where 25-year-old political newcomer Karoline Leavitt, a former Trump aide who more closely mimicked the brand of politics that has defined Trump’s orbit of political acolytes, defeated Matt Mowers, another former Trump administration official but one who was more cautious on issues like the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from the former President.
Mowers fully embraced aspects of Trump’s tenure. His website was full of positions that defined the former President, and Mowers touted the fact that Trump endorsed him in his failed attempt to win the seat in 2020.
Rhetorically and stylistically, however, the two were dramatically different.
Where Mowers had “confidence in New Hampshire elections,” Leavitt said she believed “the 2020 election was undoubtedly stolen from President Trump.” Where Mowers suggested hearings to determine whether President Joe Biden should be impeached, Leavitt unequivocally said the President should be impeached. And where Mowers said he “supports science” when asked about the newly rolled out coronavirus vaccine, Leavitt said it was “none of your business.”
Mowers’ restraint effectively opened the door for someone like Leavitt to win over Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, many of them who still support the former President.
As polls showed Leavitt rising in the closing days, outside groups like the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund and Defending Main Street spent millions on ads looking to help Mowers beat back the challenge from the right. But the money was largely for not — and now Republicans are saddled with a more complicated nominee in a race against Rep. Chris Pappas, one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.
Leavitt is one of the first Gen Z candidates to ever win a primary.
Rhode Island picks candidates in competitive House race
The field is set for what’s expected to be one of New England’s most competitive congressional races this fall, after Rhode Island state treasurer Seth Magaziner won the 2nd District’s Democratic primary, CNN projected.
He is now set to face Republican Allan Fung, the Cranston mayor, in the district where long-time Rep. Jim Langevin is retiring. Langevin, a Democrat, has won his races without serious competition since 2001, and President Joe Biden won there by 14 percentage points in 2020. But Republicans believe the seat is winnable.
Fung was the Republican candidate for governor in 2014 and 2018, losing twice to former Gov. Gina Raimondo but performing well in the district, which covers the western half of the state.
Magaziner defeated Sarah Morgenthau, who was the director of the Peace Corps Response under former President Barack Obama; David Segal, who once served in the state legislature and ran a failed congressional race in 2010; and Joy Fox, who worked as communications director for Langevin and Raimondo.
McKee hangs on in Rhode Island
One of the least popular governors in the country, Rhode Island’s Dan McKee faced four primary challengers as he seeks his first full, elected term in office.
But McKee, who took over as governor last year when Raimondo left the job to join the Biden administration, is no stranger to tough primaries — he almost lost his bid for renomination as lieutenant governor in 2018.
In the end, though, despite being weighed down by a federal investigation into the controversial awarding of a state contract to a firm with ties to an old ally — an episode in which McKee has denied any wrongdoing — he emerged from the packed field, likely benefiting from a split among the anti-incumbent vote.
Both of his closest rivals, former CVS executive Helena Foulkes and Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, ran as reformers with pledges to clean up government. Foulkes, who promised not to run for reelection if she didn’t revitalize Rhode Island schools, was endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The race was a bust for progressive favorite Matt Brown, the Bernie Sanders-endorsed former secretary of state, who trailed the leaders four years after losing a primary challenge to Raimondo.
Takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries in Florida, New York and Oklahoma
A special election upstate offered new clues about the political impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after CNN projected that Democrat Pat Ryan, who cast his campaign as a referendum on the ruling, would win.
Here are the key takeaways from August’s final primary day.
Crist looks to derail DeSantis in the fall
For the second time in eight years, Democratic voters elected Charlie Crist as their nominee for governor, choosing the seasoned veteran over Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who was vying to become the state’s first female governor. Crist now has just 11 weeks to unite his party, energize the Democratic base and convince independent voters that the state needs a new direction.
See full results in Florida here.
The stakes for Democrats are high, and not just in Florida, where DeSantis has already pushed through an aggressively conservative agenda, vowing that a second term will bring new action to further restrict abortion and to make it easier to carry a gun in public. But national Democrats are also now looking for Crist to slow DeSantis’ rise before an anticipated campaign for the White House in 2024.
The task will not be easy. DeSantis has amassed $132 million for the general election, a record sum for a gubernatorial candidate who isn’t self-funded, and he has animated the Republican base more than any other GOP politician not named Donald Trump. His party has surpassed Democrats in registered voters in Florida for the first time. And he can point to a state economy that appears to be booming, with more people moving there than anywhere in the country, record tourism numbers, and an unemployment rate of 2.7%, almost a full point below the national level.
But Democrats have argued that the prosperity has not been shared by all. With some of the country’s fastest rising home prices and rents, Florida has become a paradise that many can no longer afford. A property insurance crisis has threatened coverage for millions of homeowners just as hurricane season reaches its zenith. LGBTQ Floridians say the DeSantis administration has made the state more hostile to them and women say new restrictions on abortion eliminate autonomy over their bodies and force them to see through medically risky pregnancies.
Crist’s argument against another four years of DeSantis is also predicated on Floridians longing for a less divisive tone from its leader. Throughout the primary, Crist and Fried depicted DeSantis as a bully and a despot who is far more focused on positioning himself to run for the White House than he is on governing the country’s third largest state. Time and again, they have noted, DeSantis has forced the state’s other branches to bend to his will, eliminating any checks on his executive power.
Florida’s latest contentious Senate race formally takes shape
The Senate race between Republican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio and Democrat Rep. Val Demings is on.
Demings won her primary on Tuesday and Rubio was unopposed, setting up a race that Republicans believe they should easily win but one that offers Democrats yet another chance to show they can win statewide in a place that has crept right for years.
The two have been focused on each other for months — their primaries were not competitive — but on Tuesday night, the contours of the race were clear: Rubio plans to brand Demings a “Pelosi Puppet” who is inextricably linked to President Joe Biden, while Demings plans to attack Rubio as ineffective, selfish and wedded to a Republican Party dominated by Trump.
The onus is on Demings to prove she — or any Democrat — can win statewide in a state that has overwhelmingly backed Republicans for years. But Democrats got a morale boost recently: The National Republican Senatorial Committee came in with an ad campaign for Rubio while Demings was widely outspending the Republican.
Like many Democrats, Demings is also hoping the anger in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will propel her to an unlikely victory.
“I dream of an America where we protect constitutional rights like a woman’s right to choose. I’ve said it along this campaign trail, let me say it again. We’re not going back. We’re not,” Demings said on Tuesday night.
Demings has the fundraising advantage — she has consistently outraised Rubio and pulled in $12.2 million in the second quarter of 2022 — but central to her campaign will be her ability to push back against attacks linking her to the “defund the police” movement. Demings, the former Orlando police chief, has already put out her own ad refuting the criticism and has long had her campaigns identify her as “Chief Demings,” not Rep. Demings, in a not-so-subtle response to the attacks.
Democrat who campaigned on ‘referendum on Roe’ wins NY special election
Three weeks after voters in Kansas shot down a ballot measure that would have allowed the state to ban abortion, New Yorkers in a swing district special election broke for a Democrat who cast his campaign as a “referendum on Roe.”
Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan’s victory offered Democrats another clear sign that the Supreme Court’s decision to end federal abortion rights is shaping up as a powerful tool for juicing their base — and perhaps winning over some wavering Republicans — ahead of the midterms.
Ryan defeated Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a moderate Republican who repeatedly said he would not support a nationwide ban, but also stopped short of backing legislation to protect abortion rights at the federal level.
The seat they campaigned for, in the current 19th District, became open when Antonio Delgado, a Democrat, left to become lieutenant governor. Ryan will serve out Delgado’s term while both he and Molinaro run for full terms in neighboring districts under the state’s new congressional maps.
The current district, though, has long been a bellwether of politics beyond its upstate borders. It has voted for the eventual winner in every presidential election since 1996 (it only missed the mark in 1992, its first under the present borders).
Ryan set the terms of the contest early on — within an hour of the Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling with an ad that, after touting his military service, pivoted to a direct-to-camera message: “Freedom includes a women’s right to choose,” Ryan says. “How can we be a free country if the government tries to control women’s bodies?”
Molinaro, who has deep ties to and a long political career in the district, received significant backing from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which put more than $1 million into the race. The DCCC spent less, but Ryan’s campaign said it brought in more than $2 million in grassroots donations — a large chunk of it arriving in the aftermath of the Kansas referendum.
Nadler emerges in clash of Upper Manhattan Democratic titans
Reps. Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney are about the same age, share nearly identical ideological views and both chair powerful committees in the House, where they both arrived in 1993.
But it will be Nadler, bolstered by endorsements from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and The New York Times editorial board, that will return to Capitol Hill next year after he defeated Maloney in one of the most contentious primaries in recent New York history.
It was a race neither wanted and, according to Maloney, Nadler urged her to run in another district after their parallel strongholds on Manhattan’s Upper East and West Sides were drawn together at the conclusion of a long redistricting process.
Maloney tried to tap into Democratic primary voters’ anger over the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and vowed, if reelected, to make the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment her main focus. She also accused Nadler of taking undue credit for his part in major local projects, like the construction of the Second Avenue subway, and — at the bitter end — suggesting on camera that he might be “senile.”
But Nadler, despite a disappointing debate performance, shored up the district’s progressive base. A key piece of validation came from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who cut an ad for Nadler highlighting his support from Planned Parenthood and NARAL, declaring New Yorkers “lucky to have Jerry in Congress.”
Though the full tally is yet to be finalized, it appears Nadler’s margin of victory could exceed Maloney’s lead — if it holds — over a third candidate, Suraj Patel, who argued on the trail that the new district needed a new voice. But the 38-year-old, who unsuccessfully challenged Maloney in the last two cycles in a different district, again fell short.
New York’s 10th District results still up in the air as moderate takes lead
New York City progressives appear to have fumbled away a prime opportunity to send one of their own to Congress next year, as moderate former federal prosecutor Daniel Goldman held a narrow lead as of early Wednesday in the new 10th District’s chaotic Democratic primary.
Goldman came into the race with money — his own: he’s an heir to the riches of Levi Strauss & Co. — and broad name recognition from his role as the party’s lead counsel in former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment. But he had almost no political roots in the new district, which stretches from Lower Manhattan down into Brooklyn, making it one of the most liberal in the country.
Still, he is on a path to win the nomination with less than 30% of the vote because his top rivals — state Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou; City Council Member Carlina Rivera; and US Rep. Mondaire Jones, who moved into the city district rather than run against US Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney — appear to have split the progressive vote.
It’s not that Goldman’s opponents, or local progressive groups, didn’t see it coming. They just failed to do much of anything to stop it. Last Monday, Niou and Jones held a joint news conference to denounce Goldman for trying to buy the seat, but demurred when asked if there had been any talks about a given candidate dropping out and endorsing another. By Friday, it was Rivera standing side-by-side with former US Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, who praised Rivera but did not stand down or endorse her.
Both in the race and outside of it, influential progressives and aligned groups who might have been able to broker a consolidation were largely quiet on the question. Asked at his press conference with Niou if he would welcome some outside intervention from figures like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jones all but issued an invitation.
“If the people you just named want to help clarify those stakes for the people in this district, then I personally would welcome them amplifying this information,” Jones said.
Alas, none did.
Sean Patrick Maloney holds off progressive challenger
The progressive insurgency that dominated downstate New York politics in 2018 and 2020 was dealt another blow on Tuesday, when state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi lost her bid to unseat US Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the powerful head of the party’s House campaign arm.
Biaggi — who became a hero on the left in 2018, when she ousted the leader of a turncoat pack of state Democrats who collaborated with Republicans in Albany — moved north of the city to take on Maloney, who also shifted districts following a drawn out redistricting process.
But Biaggi couldn’t keep up with Maloney on the fundraising front and, even though he left behind a big chunk of his old electorate to run in the 17th District, benefited from greater familiarity among primary voters.
Outside groups also flexed in support of Maloney. The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York’s PAC spent nearly $500,000 against Biaggi. A new PAC, called Our Hudson, also chipped in to undermine Biaggi, who was endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez. (Ocasio-Cortez, though, mostly stayed out of the fray, never campaigning for Biaggi in the district.)
Maloney, a former White House and campaign aide to former President Bill Clinton, who endorsed him, also got a boost from his colleagues on Capitol Hill in the form of Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The passage of the historic climate, health care and tax law calmed the nerves — and, possibly, the appetite to deliver a harsh message — of Democratic primary voters.
Markwayne Mullin to become the favorite in race to fill Inhofe’s Senate seat
Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin will be the GOP nominee for the special election to fill Sen. Jim Inhofe’s Oklahoma Senate seat, CNN projected. As the Republican nominee, Mullin is in a strong position to win the general election this fall in the conservative state. He will face off against former Democratic Rep. Kendra Horn.
Inhofe, a veteran of the Senate, announced in February that he would retire in January 2023, sparking the special election.
Mullin, who represents Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District, defeated former Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon in Tuesday’s runoff. Mullin advanced to the runoff after leading the first round with 44% of the vote, and that was before an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
Mullin’s campaign website highlights his support for the former President, saying, “In Congress, he fought the liberals trying to stop President Trump.”
5 things to know for August 17: Primaries, Covid, Hearing aids, Water cuts, Ukraine
Here’s what you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.
(You can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)
1. Primaries
The near-term political fate of Republican Rep. Liz Cheney was decided Tuesday after Wyoming voters ousted her from her House seat. “This primary election is over, but now the real work begins,” Cheney said, delivering scathing remarks about former President Donald Trump, after losing to Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman. In her concession speech, Cheney vowed to continue to fight the former President’s election lies and steer the GOP away from his influence. Since the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, Cheney has become the Republican Party’s most forceful critic of Trump and has helped lead the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot. She is the eighth of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump to now exit the House. Separately, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is squaring off in the first of what’s likely to be two rounds against the Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka. Former Gov. Sarah Palin, meanwhile, is attempting a political comeback in a special election for the state’s lone House seat.
2. Covid-19
The White House says a new type of Covid-19 vaccine specially designed to protect against the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants will be available next month. If the shots meet FDA standards, they will likely be available in early to mid-September, White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said on Tuesday. The Biden administration is currently trying to “get out of the acute emergency phase” where the US government is buying the vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tests. “My hope is that in 2023, you’re going to see the commercialization of almost all of these products,” Jha said. “Some of that is actually going to begin this fall, in the days and weeks ahead,” he added. Separately, first lady Dr. Jill Biden tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms, her spokesperson said Tuesday.
3. Hearing aids
Hearing aids should get cheaper and possibly even better due to a long-awaited rule change that the FDA announced Tuesday. Instead of getting a prescription, visiting a hearing health professional and having a custom fitting, people with mild to moderate hearing loss will be able to buy hearing aids directly from a store or online. This move will make hearing aids much more widely available across the country, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said. Data shows about 1 in 8 people in the US ages 12 and older has hearing loss in both ears, and the rate increases significantly with age. About a quarter of people 65 to 74 have hearing loss, and that goes up to 50% around age 75. But only about 16% of the tens of millions of people with hearing loss use a hearing aid. The FDA estimates people could see over-the-counter hearing aids on the market as early as October.
4. Water cuts
The federal government is implementing new mandatory water cuts for the Southwest US due to an extraordinary drought that is drying up the Colorado River and draining the nation’s largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The federal government announced Tuesday the Colorado River will operate in a Tier 2 shortage condition for the first time starting in January. This means Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will have to further reduce their Colorado River use beginning in January, or the federal government may step in and take control of the states’ water management plans. As a result, states, water managers and tribes are now back at the negotiating table to figure out how to solve the West’s water crisis.
5. Ukraine
As the war in Ukraine rages on, Russian forces are now using up to 60,000 rounds of ammunition each day, a Ukrainian official said. That estimate is in line with many made by Western analysts about the volume of ammunition being used by Russian forces after a relative lull in early July. Russia’s main efforts are concentrated on “pushing Ukrainian troops back from the Donetsk oblast,” the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces said. Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow has “no need” to use nuclear weapons to achieve its objectives in Ukraine. This comes after Ukraine called for tougher sanctions against Russia for “nuclear blackmail” following various explosions around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
THIS JUST IN
North Korea fires two cruise missiles toward the sea off its west coast
North Korea fired two cruise missiles into the waters off its west coast today, according to a South Korean Defense Ministry official. Military officials from South Korea and the US said they were analyzing the launch for further details. Tensions between the two Koreas have been building this year, with US military and intelligence agencies warning that North Korea appears to be preparing for a nuclear test — which would be its first in nearly five years.
BREAKFAST BROWSE
Canadian politician swallows a bee in the middle of a live briefing
To bee or not to bee, that is the question. This video of Ontario Premier Doug Ford has caused a major buzz online. Click here to watch.
The world’s most breathtaking clifftop hotels
If you love a good view, check out this photo gallery of breathtaking hotels perched on top of mountains and cliffs.
Tennis legend Serena Williams loses in Cincinnati opening match
With the US Open just around the corner, Williams was dealt another loss Tuesday after recently saying she will “evolve away from Tennis.”
This image of a lone woman in a room full of men was radical
Many doors will open to those who are bold enough to knock! Take a look at this striking portrait from 1975 showing a lone woman in a male-dominated workplace.
Scientists plan to resurrect this animal from extinction with ancient DNA
Never underestimate the power of science. This animal, which has been extinct since 1936, may live once again.
TODAY’S NUMBER
43
That’s how many books a Texas school district is removing from its school shelves — including the Bible and an adaption of Anne Frank’s diary — after they were challenged through the district’s formal complaint process in the past school year. The Keller Independent School District near Fort Worth, Texas, said the books will be temporarily removed for up to 30 days while the challenged materials are being reviewed. Several of the books under review explore LGBTQ experiences, according to the district. This announcement comes as discussions over school library books and curriculum have become key issues across the country.
TODAY’S QUOTE
“Making progress in this country, as big and complicated as ours, clearly, is not easy. It’s never been easy. But with unwavering conviction, commitment and patience, progress does come.”
— President Joe Biden, after signing a sweeping $750 billion health care, tax and climate bill into law at the White House on Tuesday — marking a major victory for his administration and the Democratic Party ahead of the midterm elections. Biden said during a signing ceremony that the legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, is “one of the most significant laws in our history.”
TODAY’S WEATHER
Check your local forecast here>>>
AND FINALLY
Young girl’s street performance brings people to tears
Start your day on the right note with this moving violin cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” (Click here to view)
Liz Cheney state primaries result: Defeated lawmaker blasts Trump’s ‘lies’ as ex-president gloats over her loss
Liz Cheney concedes in her primary race
Congresswoman Liz Cheney lost to Republican nominee and primary challenger Harriet Hagemen on Tuesday, in fresh signs of Donald Trump’s enduring sway over the Republican Party, as primary elections were held in Alaska and Wyoming, two of the reddest states in the country.
Ms Hageman was leading the Republican field with at least 62.4 per cent of the total votes polled, with Ms Cheney trailing with 33.5 per cent of the votes. A total of 58 per cent of the expected ballots had been counted, Edison Research said.
As her congressional career suffered an unexpected halt, Ms Cheney vowed that she would do whatever it takes to stop Mr Trump from reaching the White House again.
A staunch critic from within the Republican camp, Ms Cheney has condemned the former president’s administration by serving a very public role of ant-Trump resistance and steered the congressional probe into the January 6 Capitol riots.
She was facing an effort by Mr Trump to punish her for disloyalty in the form of Harriet Hageman, her former staffer and current top rival.
Fetterman opens up shocking lead in new PA Senate poll
Pennsylvania Lieutenant Gov John Fetterman is dominating the state US Senate race with a lead of nearly 20 points, according to a new survey out Tuesday from Public Opinion Strategies, which has an A- rating from pollster aggregator FiveThirtyEIght.
If Mr Fetterman’s level of support is anywhere close to as high as it is in the poll, he’s heading for a clean victory in November in what analysts have thought for months was going to be an easy year for Republicans like his opponent, TV’s Dr Mehmet Oz.
John Bowden17 August 2022 06:30
Donald Trump Jr takes a dig at Liz Cheney: ‘You won’t have to pretend…’
Donald Trump Jr took a swipe at congresswoman Liz Cheney after she lost the Republican primaries on Tuesday and said that the anti-Trump GOP leader will not have to pretend to be from Wyoming, the state from where she contested the key race.
He shared a 35-seconds long video of his father Donald Trump grooving and dancing and wrote: “Bye bye @Liz_Cheney. On the bright side at least you won’t have to pretend to be from Wyoming anymore.”
The former president’s son did not share a tweet on congratulating the candidate backed by Mr Trump, Harriet Hageman, but instead issued multiple tweets mocking Ms Cheney.
In another tweet, he slammed the congresswoman’s mention of 16th US president Abraham Lincoln and said: “Liz Cheney really compared herself to Lincoln… LMFAO. That CNN & MSDNC fluffing really got to her carpetbagger/warmonger head.”
Arpan Rai17 August 2022 06:10
Fetterman raises half a million from Dr Oz’s grocery gaffe
John Fetterman’s US Senate campaign in Pennsylvania says it has raised more than half a million dollars in the wake of a video posted by his opponent, Dr Mehmet Oz, in which the Republican candidate attempts the art of shopping for groceries.
The bizarre video posted by Dr Oz this week was widely mocked on Twitter as the bewildered Dr Oz misread price labels and depicted himself as a stranger to the Wegman’s produce section.
John Bowden17 August 2022 05:30
Five times Liz Cheney was Donald Trump’s biggest thorn on Capitol Hill
Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming headed into a primary election on Tuesday where her betrayal of Donald Trump in the wake of the January 6 attack eventually cost her a seat in the House; just a few years ago she was a powerful member of the chamber’s Republican leadership.
Ms Cheney has embraced the role of the stoic resistance leader, more than any other member of the House or Senate who broke with Mr Trump after the 2020 election or January 6, and never missed an opportunity to point out his role in the horrifying attack.
Here’s a look at the most important moments in Liz Cheney’s career as the de facto leader of the anti-Trump GOP:
Five times Liz Cheney was Donald Trump’s biggest thorn on Capitol Hill
As the Jan 6 committee has shown, an anti-Trump voice in the GOP can be damaging
Arpan Rai17 August 2022 05:00
Liz Cheney: What’s next for firebrand anti-Trump Republican
The speculation over what’s next for the never-Trump Republican is already growing after the primary loss of representative Liz Cheney on Tuesday night.
Rep Cheney was defeated by Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, who, by the latest poll estimates from the Casper Star-Tribune, was leading the three-term congresswoman from Wyoming by more than 20 points.
From a widely speculated launch for presidential run in 2024 to sounding an alarm over Trumpism, there are several possible next moves for the 56-year-old congresswoman could make.
Here’s where we might see Ms Cheney land, reports Johanna Chisholm:
Liz Cheney: What’s next for the firebrand anti-Trump Republican?
The three-term congresswoman has lost her at-large US House primary race in Wyoming against a Trump-backed opponent. What’s next for the GOP lawmaker?
Arpan Rai17 August 2022 04:34
Cheney invokes Abraham Lincoln in fiery concession speech
In a speech delivered on a picturesque private ranch in Wyoming on Tuesday as her congressional career came to a halt, Liz Cheney invoked one of the nation’s most famous presidents who held the US together in time of civil war.
And she vowed that she would do whatever it takes to stop Donald Trump from reaching the White House again.
“Abraham Lincoln was defeated in elections for the Senate and House before he ultimately won,” she told her hopeful supporters.
Read more from The Independent’s Eric Garcia:
Liz Cheney blasts Trump in concession speech: ‘Poisonous lies destroy free nations’
Harriet Hageman beats rival Republican after the congresswoman’s continued criticism of the GOP and Donald Trump
John Bowden17 August 2022 04:30
Trump slams Cheney as ‘spiteful and sanctimonious’ as he gloats over her primary defeat
Former President Donald Trump wasted no time before gloating about Liz Cheney’s defeat Tuesday night.
“Congratulations to Harriet Hageman on her great and very decisive WIN in Wyoming. This is a wonderful result for America, and a complete rebuke of the Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs. Liz Cheney should be ashamed of herself, the way she acted, and her spiteful, sanctimonious words and actions towards others. Now she can finally disappear into the depths of political oblivion where, I am sure, she will be much happier than she is right now. Thank you WYOMING!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Read more from John Bowden in The Independent:
Trump slams Cheney as ‘spiteful and sanctimonious’ as he gloats over her defeat
Trump lays in to Cheney minutes after race is called and he takes revenge for her Jan 6 committee performance
John Bowden17 August 2022 03:49
Trump nemesis Liz Cheney loses primary in Wyoming to Republican backed by former president
Liz Cheney has been defeated in the Republican primary for Wyoming’s at-large congressional seat.
At just under 90 minutes after polls closed, the incumbent congresswoman was trailing her Trump-backed rival Harriet Hageman by more than 30 points.
Read more from The Independent’s Eric Garcia:
Trump nemesis Liz Cheney loses primary to Republican backed by former president
Harriet Hageman beats Cheney after the congresswoman’s continued criticism of the Republican Party and Donald Trump
John Bowden17 August 2022 03:21
Liz Cheney hints at future ambitions in remarks before polls close
Wyoming Rep Liz Cheney spoke to reporters as voters headed to the polls across the state to consider her bid for reelection on Tuesday and hinted that the primary election today was just “the beginning of a battle” for the soul of the GOP.
“ I have no regrets,” she said according to CBS News. “I feel very proud about all the work that I’ve done together with people of Wyoming over the last six years and really understand and recognize there’s nothing more important than the defense of our Constitution. And so I’m going to continue to work and ensure that we’re doing that in a way that is nonpartisan.”
Read more from Eric Garcia at The Independent:
Cheney says she has ‘no regrets’ as she faces her impending primary loss
Cheney is set to lose to a Trump-endorsed primary challenger in the Republican primary for Wyoming’s at-large congressional district.
John Bowden17 August 2022 02:05
Polls close in Wyoming
Polls are now closed in Wyoming. Republican voters in the state are set to determine the fate of Rep Liz Cheney, vice chair of the House select committee investigating January 6.
Watch live results from the state from The Associated Press here at The New York Times:
John Bowden17 August 2022 02:00
Liz Cheney state primaries result: Wyoming rep, Palin and Murkowski to learn their fate as Trump gloats
Liz Cheney ad calls out opponents’ stance on the ‘Big Lie’
Voters will decide the fates of two high-profile Republicans on Tuesday as primary elections occur in Alaska and Wyoming, two of the reddest states in the country.
In Wyoming, the vice chair of the House select committee investigating January 6, Liz Cheney, faces an effort by Donald Trump to punish her for disloyalty in the form of Harriet Hageman, her former staffer and current top rival.
Ms Cheney is deep underwater in the polls, and could lose tomorrow by more than 20 points by most indications. However, she has one trick up her sleeve: Democrats, who are rallying behind her in an attempt to block another 2020 electon conspiracist from office. Wyoming has closed primaries, but voters can change their registration on the day of voting.
Meanwhile in Alaska, the state’s former governor and right-wing provocateur Sarah Palin is seeking to make a political comeback after resigning her previous office under a cloud of ethics investigations. She trailed a fellow Republican, as well as one Democrat in the race, in a poll measuring her support levels last month. Alaska has ranked-choice voting, meaning that the candidates will have to contend with both Democratic and Republican voters deciding the outcome.
What has Trump said about the Wyoming race?
In the race to unseat his arch-rival, Liz Cheney, former President Donald Trump enthusiastically gave his endorsement to her oponent Harriet Hageman.
“I strongly endorse Republican House of Representatives Candidate Harriet Hageman from Wyoming who is running against warmonger and disloyal Republican, Liz Cheney. Harriet is a fourth-generation daughter of Wyoming, a very successful attorney, and has the support and respect of a truly great U.S. Senator, Wyoming’s own Cynthia Lummis. Harriet Hageman adores the Great State of Wyoming, is strong on Crime and Borders, powerfully supports the Second Amendment, loves our Military and our Vets, and will fight for Election Integrity and Energy Independence (which Biden has already given up). Unlike RINO Liz Cheney, Harriet is all in for America First. Harriet has my Complete and Total Endorsement in replacing the Democrats number one provider of sound bites, Liz Cheney. Make America Great Again!”
Oliver O’Connell16 August 2022 17:00
Voices: Murkowski will survive while Cheney falls – why?
Eric Garcia, The Independent’s Washington bureau chief, writes:
This evening, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both face their primaries.
The two women’s political situations are strikingly similar. Both represent largely rural Republican states, and both hold seats once occupied by their fathers: Murkowski’s father Frank Murkowski selected her to replace him when he became governor, while Cheney was preceded by her father Dick, former House minority whip and later vice president, who occupied the seat throughout the 1980s.
Both have earned Donald Trump’s ire with their criticisms of him, too. Cheney was one of ten House Republicans who voted to convict Trump for his role in the January 6 riot, while Murkowski joined six other Republican senators to convict him.
But the parallels only go so far. Where Cheney will likely see her career in elected office come to an end, Murkowski is all but guaranteed to advance to the general election, despite the fact she has a Trump-backed primary challenger.
Lisa Murkowski will survive while Liz Cheney falls. Why?
Cheney has a staunchly conservative record, voting with Trump 93 per cent of the time; Murkowski, by contrast, crossed Trump far more times, sometimes controversially. What makes her so much safer?
Oliver O’Connell16 August 2022 16:30
What do the polls say in Wyoming?
The Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center of the University of Wyoming conducted one of the most recent polls of the voter intentions in today’s Republican primary. Here is a summary of the findings of the survey:
Rep Liz Cheney of Wyoming
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Wyoming Republican primary candidate Harriet Hageman is leading incumbent Liz Cheney by nearly 30 points in the primary race for Wyoming’s lone seat in the US House of Representatives, according to a new survey by the University of Wyoming’s Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center (WYSAC).
The survey was conducted July 25-August 6, yielding 562 responses from Wyoming residents identified as likely voters in the August 16 Republican Party primary. The margin of error for the primary survey is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Just over one-quarter, 28 per cent, of GOP primary voters support incumbent candidate Cheney, while 57 per cent support Hageman. Candidate Anthony Bouchard polled at 2 percent, while candidates Denton Knapp and Robyn Belinskey both polled below 1 per cent. Ten percent of likely GOP voters say they are still undecided.
“The race for the Republican nomination appears to be a referendum on Cheney, as it usually is when an incumbent seeks re-election,” says Jim King, professor of political science at UW.
Among survey respondents expecting to vote for Cheney, 66 percent indicated their vote was an expression of support for the incumbent congresswoman. In contrast, 29 per cent of respondents expecting to cast ballots for another candidate said they were supporting that candidate, while 41 per cent said their vote was in opposition to Cheney.
Oliver O’Connell16 August 2022 16:00
Watch: Cheney’s closing argument campaign video
On Thursday, just days before Tuesday’s primary in Wyoming, congresswoman Liz Cheney released a closing plea to voters, as the anti-Trump Republican made a final case for casting a vote for her instead of her Trump-backed, election-denying opponent, Harriet Hageman.
“America cannot remain free if we abandon the truth. The lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen is insidious — it preys on those who love their country,” Ms Cheney said in the video released Thursday. “It is a door Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans to abandon their principles, to sacrifice their freedom, to justify violence, to ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law.”
“This is Donald Trump’s legacy, but it cannot be the future of our nation.”
Watch the full video below:
Johanna Chisholm16 August 2022 15:33
Palin, Murkowski highlight Alaska’s 2 elections on Tuesday
Alaska voters get their first shot at using ranked voting in a statewide race Tuesday in a special US House election in which Sarah Palin seeks a return to elected office.
Also, Republican US Sen Lisa Murkowski faces 18 challengers in a primary in which the top four vote-getters will advance to November’s general election.
The special election and regular primaries for US Senate, US House, governor and lieutenant governor and state legislative seats are on opposite sides of a two-sided ballot. It could take until 31 Aug to know the winner of the special election.
Read the full report from The Independent below:
Palin, Murkowski highlight Alaska’s 2 elections on Tuesday
The Alaska primary on Tuesday will feature two elections
Johanna Chisholm16 August 2022 15:03
What to watch for in today’s primaries
Elections in Wyoming and Alaska on Tuesday could relaunch the political career of a former Republican star and effectively end the career of another — at least for now.
Here’s what to look out for:
What to watch: Cheney in trouble while Palin eyes comeback
Elections in Wyoming and Alaska on Tuesday could relaunch the political career of a former Republican star and effectively end the career of another
Oliver O’Connell16 August 2022 14:30
Sarah Palin’s ex-in-laws have scheduled an election eve party for her opponent
Jim and Faye Palin, the ex-in-laws of Sarah Palin, have said that they’ll be hosting a party for the opponent, Nick Begich, of the former Alaska governor’s.
Mr Begich, who is running against Ms Palin for Alaska’s lone seat in the House, received Ms Palin’s former in-laws support months ago, after the two announced in a pair of Facebook posts that they’d be backing him and not their former daughter-in-law.
“We know many of our elected officials and candidates on a first name basis. It also makes it hard sometimes in picking who to vote for,” said Jim Palin in one of the posts shared on the Republican candidate’s Facebook page. “This election, Nick Begich is getting my vote.”
It was also revealed that the mother of Ms Palin’s ex, Todd Palin, contributed $250 on 19 May to Mr Begich’s campaign, Business Insider reported.
Johanna Chisholm16 August 2022 14:02
Cheney and Murkowski: Trump critics facing divergent futures
They hail from their states’ most prominent Republican families. They have been among the GOP’s sharpest critics of former President Donald Trump. And after the Jan. 6 insurrection, they supported his impeachment.
But for all their similarities, the political fortunes of U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming are poised to diverge on Tuesday when they’re each on the ballot in closely watched primary elections.
Cheney and Murkowski: Trump critics facing divergent futures
Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney hail from their states’ most prominent Republican families
Oliver O’Connell16 August 2022 13:30
Giuliani told he’s a target of Georgia criminal election probe
Rudy Giuliani is a target of the criminal investigation being led by authorities in Georgia over the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The former New York City mayor and atttorney to Donald Trump was one of the top pushers of bogus conspiracies about the 2020 election and appeared before several panels of state lawmakers in Georgia to demand that they decertify the results showing Joe Biden the winner. Now, his actions could make him the first Trump associate to be criminally indicted for the scheme to thwart Mr Biden from becoming president.
Rudy Giuliani told he’s a target of Georgia criminal election probe, report says
Former Trump attorney had law licence suspended over election fraud conspiracies
Oliver O’Connell16 August 2022 12:30
Political fates of Cheney and Murkowski in question solely for standing up to Trump, writes NYT editorial board
On Monday night, the New York Times Editorial Board published an op-ed that shone a light on two Republicans, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both of whom are facing primary challenges on Tuesday as they square up against opponents backed by former President Donald Trump.
“Indeed, their political fates are in question solely because they stood up to Mr. Trump when it would have been much safer and politically expedient not to,” writes the board.
The positions of Ms. Cheney and Ms. Murkowski stand in sharp relief to so many of this season’s Republican candidates, who are launching scorched-earth attacks on Democrats as “liars” even as they continue to promote Mr. Trump’s Big Lie.
Some MAGA Republicans like to pretend that they’re brave with shows of chest-beating, name-calling and machismo, and complaints about being persecuted by social media and the news media. But so much of this is political theater aimed at whipping up the Trump base, and none of it requires moral courage.
Violence, like the violence unleashed during the Jan. 6 attack, is an ever-present and growing response to political bravery in our democracy. It was there at the Capitol that day; it was there in the hate aimed at John Lewis and his fellow marchers in Selma; it was present in the alleged kidnapping plot aimed at Ms. Whitmer; and it is present in the stream of death threats endured by politicians in both parties whenever they cross a line.
The New York Times Editorial Board
Read the full editorial board piece here.
Johanna Chisholm16 August 2022 12:04
Six takeaways from Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Arizona and Washington primaries
The vote in Kansas was one of the first tests of the potency of abortion rights at the ballot box since the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade and end the federal protection of abortion access.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, local elections officials were still counting votes to determine whether a slate of statewide candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump and promoted his lies about election fraud won their Republican primaries.
In Missouri, the political comeback of a former governor was shut down. And in Michigan, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump was ousted, while the matchup was set for what will be one of the key gubernatorial races this fall.
Kansas maintains constitutional right to abortion
Kansas voters sent a dramatic message on Tuesday, opting to maintain the right to an abortion in their state’s constitution just weeks after the US Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Polls have long shown that voters overwhelmingly support protecting abortions rights. But the win for the “no” vote in Kansas is proof of that and signals that the Supreme Court decision has further angered voters and possibly shifted the politics of the issue ahead of the November elections.
The “no” leaves the state constitution unchanged. While lawmakers in the state can still try to pass restrictive abortion laws, courts in Kansas have recognized a right to abortion under the state constitution.
The biggest warning to Republicans, many of whom have trumpeted the overturning of Roe and backed pushes to pass stricter abortions laws, is perhaps the turnout in Kansas. With 78% of the vote in on Tuesday night, nearly 700,000 people have cast ballots in the primary, a figure that already dwarfs the turnout in the 2020 presidential primary election.
“This is further proof of what poll after poll has told us: Americans support abortion rights,” said Christina Reynolds, a top operative for Emily’s List, an organization that looks to elect women who support abortion rights. “They believe we should be able to make our own health care decisions, and they will vote accordingly, even in the face of misleading campaigns.”
Greitens’ attempted comeback falls flat
Republicans in Missouri breathed a sigh of relief after state Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the wide-open Senate primary, according to a CNN projection.
Perhaps more significant than who won, though, in the deep-red state, is who lost: disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens, who was attempting a political comeback. Greitens resigned in 2018 amid a sex scandal and accusation of campaign misconduct, and subsequently faced abuse allegations from his ex-wife, which he has denied
Schmitt, the attorney general, emerged from a crowded field that included two members of Congress, Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long.
Former President Donald Trump stayed out of the race, issuing a tongue-in-cheek statement supporting “Eric” on the eve of the primary — leaving it up to voters’ interpretation whether that meant Schmitt or Greitens.
A member of the ‘impeachment 10’ is defeated
Rep. Peter Meijer became the second of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump to be ousted in a primary Tuesday, losing to Trump-endorsed conservative challenger John Gibbs, CNN projected.
Democrats played a role in boosting Gibbs — a calculated decision that has become a flashpoint, angering some Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans.
Meijer, a freshman, voted to impeach Trump just days after taking office, after the insurrection of January 6, 2021. Gibbs, meanwhile, backed Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
Meijer’s loss means the Grand Rapids-based 3rd District seat will be one of the most competitive House contests in November’s midterm elections.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, eyeing the seat as a possible pick-up opportunity, spent more than $300,000 on television ads seeking to bolster Gibbs with pro-Trump GOP primary voters by portraying him as a Trump-aligned conservative.
In Washington, two more Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, were attempting to survive their own primaries. The state’s open, non-partisan primary system in which the top two finishers regardless of party advance to November’s general election made them more difficult targets for Trump and his supporters.
Unknowns in Arizona
Arizona’s race for the Republican nomination for governor could depend on whether former President Donald Trump’s supporters turned out in force on election day in a state that conducts its contests largely by mail.
Karrin Taylor Robson, a former member of the Arizona Board of Regents who is backed by former Vice President Mike Pence and outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey, led former television journalist Kari Lake, a Trump-endorsed election denier, in the early returns Wednesday morning.
But the early results were largely mail-in ballots. Votes cast on election day were expected to favor Lake — a result of Trump’s years-long effort to undermine faith in mail-in voting.
The Arizona gubernatorial primary was the most significant contest in a set of primaries that tested Trump’s influence over the GOP.
If Trump’s slate of statewide candidates in Arizona advances to the general election, they’d be positioned to take over the election machinery of one of the nation’s most important presidential battleground states if they win in November.
Blake Masters, the venture capitalist endorsed by Trump and backed by millions in spending from GOP megadonor Peter Thiel, led the state’s GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
State Rep. Mark Finchem, a Trump-endorsed “Stop the Steal” activist who has said the state legislature should be able to overturn voters’ will in presidential elections, led the GOP primary for secretary of state. Democrats saw a tight race between Maricopa County recorder Adrian Fontes and state Rep. Reginald Bolding.
And in the attorney general’s race, Trump’s preferred candidate, election denier Abraham Hamadeh led.
But there was one person who had defied Trump and his election lies ousted on Tuesday, according to a CNN projection: Rusty Bowers, the Arizona House speaker. Bowers testified in June about the pressure he faced to overturn the state’s 2020 election results from former President Donald Trump and others. In return, he was censured by his party, called “unfit to serve” — and now has lost his primary for a state Senate seat.
Dixon victory in Michigan governor’s race sets up referendum on Covid policies
Tudor Dixon, the conservative commentator endorsed by Trump in the final days of the race and backed by large factions of the Michigan Republican establishment, won the state’s GOP primary to take on Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, CNN projected.
The clash in Michigan could be one of the nation’s most competitive governor’s races.
Whitmer has cast herself as a bulwark for abortion rights in a state where Republicans have sought to enforce a 1931 law that would impose a near-total ban on abortion.
Dixon, meanwhile, framed the race in her victory speech Tuesday night as a referendum on restrictions Whitmer imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dixon, a mother of four who is backed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s family, is also an advocate of school choice — potentially positioning education as a marquee issue in November’s midterm election.
Progressives suffer another defeat in Michigan
Rep. Haley Stevens’ projected Democratic primary victory in Michigan’s newly drawn 11th Congressional District over fellow Rep. Andy Levin marks another blow against progressives in what has been a mostly disappointing primary season.
It’s also a resounding victory for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its super PAC, United Democracy Project, which has spent millions backing moderate, more staunchly pro-Israel candidates in Democratic primaries.
Stevens and Levin are both supportive of Israel, but Levin — who is Jewish — has been more willing to criticize its government’s treatment of Palestinians and is the lead sponsor of the Two-State Solution Act.
Progressive Democrats, frequently targeted by AIPAC spending this primary season, have fumed at fellow Democrats for accepting or courting support from the group, which has also contributed to Republican election deniers. AIPAC has defended the practice, arguing that its policy goals need bipartisan support.
J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group that has clashed with AIPAC, tried to boost Levin with a $700,000 July ad buy, but that sum paled in comparison to the millions bundled by AIPAC and more than $4 million spend by UDP.
What to watch in primaries in Arizona, Michigan, elsewhere
In Missouri, scandal-ridden former Gov. Eric Greitens is attempting a political comeback. In Michigan, a crowded field of Republican gubernatorial candidates includes a man charged in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. In Arizona, a prominent figure in the QAnon conspiracy movement is running for the U.S. House.
Those are among some of the most notable contests in Tuesday’s primary elections being held in six states.
Arizona, which Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020, is a top target for former President Donald Trump, who tried in vain to get his defeat overturned. He has endorsed a slate of candidates up and down the ballot who have promoted his false claims of a stolen election.
Trump has also been zeroed in on the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him over the Jan. 6 insurrection. Three of them are on the ballot Tuesday in Washington state and Michigan, as are two members of “the Squad,” Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Meanwhile, Kansas voters could clear the way for the Republican-controlled Legislature to further restrict or ban abortion if they approve a proposed state constitutional change. It’s the first referendum vote on abortion policy by a state since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
Ohio is also holding a primary for state legislative races on Tuesday, three months after its statewide and congressional contests — a split system that resulted from legal wrangling over redistricting.
What to watch:
ARIZONA
Trump’s endorsed candidates in Arizona all have one thing in common: They have loudly disseminated misinformation about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, despite election officials and Trump’s own attorney general saying there is no credible evidence the race was tainted.
In the governor’s race, Trump has backed former television news anchor Kari Lake, who has said that she would not have certified Arizona’s election results in 2020. Lake faces businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson, who is endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence and outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a staunch defender of the 2020 election, is strongly favored to win the Democratic nomination for governor.
In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, Trump has backed tech investor Blake Masters as the candidate to go up against Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly in the fall. Masters, whose campaign has been bankrolled by billionaire Peter Thiel, has called for reducing legal immigration and espoused the baseless “great replacement” conspiracy theory, claiming Democrats are trying to “replace Americans who were born here.”
Attorney General Mark Brnovich, another Senate candidate, has been weighed down by lackluster fundraising and fierce criticism from Trump, who says Brnovich did little to advance his election fraud claims. Another top candidate, Jim Lamon, the founder of a solar energy firm, was a fake elector for Trump in 2020, signing a certificate falsely saying that the then-president had won the state.
The Republican primary for secretary of state includes Trump-backed legislator Mark Finchem, a state representative who worked to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss; state Rep. Shawnna Bolick, who introduced a bill to let legislators ignore election results and choose their own presidential electors; and state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, who has long pushed to overhaul election laws. The GOP establishment has rallied around advertising executive Beau Lane in the race.
Ron Watkins, who has ties to the QAnon conspiracy theory, is considered a long shot in his House run. Watkins, a Republican, served as the longtime administrator of the online message boards that became the home of the anonymous “Q.” The conspiracy theory is centered around the baseless belief that Trump waged a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and that a group of satanic, cannibalistic child molesters secretly runs the globe.
In the state Legislature, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified at a Jan. 6 hearing about Trump’s pressure to overturn the 2020 election, faces a Trump-backed candidate in his bid to run for the state Senate.
MICHIGAN
The Republican primary for governor was wild from the start, with five candidates getting kicked off the ballot for failing to file enough valid nominating signatures.
Several of the remaining candidates have baggage that could hurt in a general election against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Real estate broker Ryan Kelley has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges after authorities said he rallied Trump’s supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol. Businessman Kevin Rinke was sued in the 1990s for sex harassment and racial discrimination — allegations he says were lies. Chiropractor Garrett Soldano hawked supplements he falsely claimed treated COVID-19. Conservative commentator Tudor Dixon, who has been endorsed by Trump, has previously acted in low-budget horror pictures.
All of the candidates falsely say there was fraud in the 2020 election, with Dixon, Kelley and Soldano saying the election was stolen from Trump.
Republican Rep. Peter Meijer is hoping to hold on to his seat after voting to impeach Trump. The former president has endorsed businessman and missionary John Gibbs, who worked in the Trump administration under Housing Secretary Ben Carson.
MISSOURI
Greitens’ political career appeared over when he resigned as governor in 2018, following his admission to an extramarital affair and accusations of blackmail and campaign finance violations. On Tuesday, the former Navy SEAL officer has a chance at redemption in his Republican primary for the seat held by retiring GOP U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt.
Greitens, Attorney General Eric Schmitt and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler are the front-runners in a crowded 21-person GOP field that includes U.S. Rep. Billy Long and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis lawyer who along with his wife pointed guns at racial injustice protesters who ventured onto their private street.
Trump has not made an endorsement in the race, though he’s ruled out Hartzler.
The GOP winner in Missouri, a solidly Republican state, will be favored in November. But Republican leaders have long worried that Greitens — his ex-wife has also accused him of abuse, allegations Greitens has called “baseless” — could win the primary but lose the general election.
On the Democratic side, the nomination appears to be up for grabs between Lucas Kunce, a Marine veteran and self-proclaimed populist, and Trudy Busch Valentine, an heiress of the Busch beer fortune who has largely self-funded her campaign.
WASHINGTON
Two Republican House members from Washington state who voted to impeach Trump face primary challengers endorsed by him.
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who has been in Congress since 2011, has said she voted for impeachment because she had “an obligation to the Constitution.” Trump has endorsed Joe Kent, a former Green Beret and a conservative cable show regular who echoes the former president’s grievances about the 2020 election outcome.
Rep. Dan Newhouse, a congressman since 2015, said he cast the vote to impeach Trump for inciting and refusing to immediately stop the Jan. 6 insurrection. Among his challengers is Loren Culp, a Trump-backed former small-town police chief who refused to concede the 2020 governor’s race to Democrat Jay Inslee.
In Washington, the top two vote-getters in each race, regardless of party, move forward to November.
KANSAS
Voters will decide whether to approve a change to the state constitution that could allow the Legislature to restrict or ban abortion despite a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling that abortion access is a fundamental right. It’s the first referendum on abortion by a state since Roe v. Wade’s reversal.
In statewide races, Republican Kris Kobach is running for attorney general as he attempts a political comeback following losses in races for governor and U.S. Senate in previous years. Kobach, the state’s former secretary of state, served as vice chair of a short-lived Trump commission on election fraud after the 2016 election.
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Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix; Sara Burnett in Chicago; Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri; Chris Grygiel in Seattle; and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; contributed to this report.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics.
Primary election: Kemp and Raffensperger will win Georgia GOP primaries, CNN projects, as voters reject Trump-backed challengers
The losses of election deniers backed by Trump in the Peach State — one of five states holding primaries Tuesday — offers clues about Republican voters’ willingness to spurn the former President’s vanity campaigns and move on from his lies about the 2020 election.
The Trump-backed candidate in the Republican primary for Georgia attorney general, John Gordon, will also lose to incumbent Chris Carr, CNN projects.
Kemp will face Democrat Stacey Abrams, who ran unopposed in Tuesday’s primary, in a rematch of their 2018 race, which Abrams narrowly lost.
The governor made no explicit mention of Trump in his victory speech Tuesday night.
“Even in the middle of a tough primary, conservatives across our state didn’t listen to the noise,” the governor said to a few hundred supporters at the College Football Hall of Fame in downtown Atlanta. “They didn’t get distracted; they knew our record of fighting and winning for hard-working Georgians.”
Kemp thanked Perdue, whom Trump had recruited to run against him, for a gracious concession call and his pledge to work together to keep the governor’s office in Republican hands.
“Everything I said about Brian Kemp was true, but here’s the other thing I said that’s true: He is a much better choice than Stacey Abrams and so we are going to get behind our governor,” Perdue said Tuesday night. “Let’s take a few hours, lick our wounds, and tomorrow morning, you are going to hear me going to work for Brian Kemp and making damn sure that Stacey Abrams is never governor of Georgia.”
Kemp devoted the majority of his victory speech to assailing Abrams.
“Tonight, the fight for the soul of our state is to make sure that Stacey Abrams will not be our next governor or next President,” Kemp said.
Kemp may have charted a new GOP playbook for candidates burdened by Trump’s grievances. He kept Republican voters focused on the conservative policies he has championed: from his early re-opening of Georgia in the midst of the pandemic, to the law he signed restricting mail-in voting, to his backing of a law allowing most Georgians to carry a concealed firearm without a license.
A cavalcade of high-profile current and former GOP governors, including Chris Christie of New Jersey and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, vouched for Kemp on the stump. And in that proxy war between Trump and the Republican establishment, former Vice President Mike Pence told Georgians on Monday night that a vote for Kemp would “send a deafening message all across America that the Republican Party is the party of the future.”
Former Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Republican, said the results of the gubernatorial primary show that Republican voters appreciate Kemp’s accomplishments in his first term and demonstrate the limits of Trump’s influence.
“Georgia Republicans have spoken about how they feel about Trump,” said Chambliss, who served two terms in the Senate.
It had been more challenging for Raffensperger to disentangle himself from Trump’s obsession with the 2020 election given the infamous call where the former President demanded that the Republican secretary of state “find” enough votes for him to win the state, which is still very much in the news as part of the ongoing Fulton County special grand jury investigation of Trump’s election interference.
Trump had backed Rep. Jody Hice, who continues to falsely claim that Trump would have won Georgia if the election had been “fair,” for secretary of state.
The Republican Senate primary offered less drama since Trump and the GOP establishment long ago united behind former football star Herschel Walker, who easily won the nomination Tuesday night, CNN projected. As Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock runs for a full six-year term, Republicans are eying Georgia’s Senate seat as a key pickup in their quest to win control of the Senate.
In the first House primary between two Democratic incumbents, Rep. Lucy McBath will defeat Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, CNN projects. McBath, a gun control advocate who flipped the current 6th District in 2018, decided to run in the 7th District after the GOP-controlled legislature redrew her district to be more safely red.
Alabama
In another race that has underscored the limits of Trump’s influence, Rep. Mo Brooks will advance to a runoff in the GOP primary to replace retiring Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, CNN projects. He’ll face former Shelby aide Katie Britt.
In the days ahead of Tuesday’s primary, Brooks appeared to be back in contention even after Trump had rescinded his endorsement of the congressman. Though Brooks was once one of Trump’s strongest defenders and voted against certifying the 2020 election results, the former President said he was pulling his endorsement in March because Brooks had urged voters to put the 2020 election behind them.
Despite losing Trump’s endorsement, Brooks continued his campaign with the support of the Club for Growth and prominent conservative backers such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who vouched for the congressman’s conservative bona fides at a campaign rally on Monday.
Arkansas
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s former White House press secretary, will win the GOP nomination for governor of Arkansas, CNN projects.
She’s well positioned to carry the state, which Trump won by nearly 28 points, in November.
A win in the general election would be a homecoming for Sanders, whose father Mike Huckabee spent more than 10 years in that role from 1996 to 2007.
Texas and Minnesota
Texas voters cast their ballots in runoff elections on Tuesday amid news of a shooting at an elementary school. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said 14 students and one teacher were killed.
In one of the more notable contests in the state, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filed a failed lawsuit to overturn the 2020 presidential results, will win the Republican primary runoff, CNN projects. He was facing a challenge from Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and grandson of former President George H.W. Bush. Bush had argued that Paxton’s extensive legal troubles could complicate the GOP’s ability to hold the seat in November. Paxton had led the field in Texas’ March primary but hadn’t cleared the threshold to avoid a runoff.
The most closely watched contest on the Democratic side is the runoff between moderate Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, the only Democratic congressman who votes against abortion rights in the House, and his progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros in Texas’ 28th Congressional District.
The debate over reproductive rights has intensified in that race since Politico published a draft majority opinion from the Supreme Court that suggested the court is poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing the right to an abortion.
Minnesota is holding a special election in the 1st Congressional District, which has been vacant since Rep. Jim Hagedorn died in February. His widow, Jennifer Carnahan, is one of the Republican candidates attempting to replace him.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Jeff Zeleny and Mike Warren contributed to this report.
Primaries 2022 election day live: Trump rages as Dr Oz struggles in PA and Madison Cawthorn crashes out
‘Great guy’: Trump endorses Dr Mehmet Oz in Republican primary for Senate race
With almost all the results now in from Tuesday’s key primary elections, Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to baselessly suggest mail-in ballots were fraudulent in Pennsylvania, where his chosen Senate candidate Dr Mehmet Oz is locked in a tight battle with former hedge fund executive David McCormick.
With only a small portion of the vote yet to be counted, the two men are just a tiny number of votes apart, putting them within the 0.5-point margin that triggers an automatic recount – and raising the possibility that mail-in votes could put Mr McCormick ahead.
Elsewhere, strong performances by several Trump-backed candidates indicate the former president still has plenty of clout within the party, but it was far from a perfect scorecard. North Carolina Republicans threw out the far-right congressman Madison Cawthorn in his primary.
That result met with celebration even within the Republican Party, whose establishment increasingly wanted to see the congressman removed from office because of his extreme statements and outlandish behaviour.
Focus on Idaho as far right makes strides at state level
Solidly Republican Idaho has long been a stronghold for hardcore right-wing politics, but the recent far-right drift among state Republicans is attracting increasing attention from beyond the state’s borders.
While several extremist challengers to incumbent officials lost their races on Tuesday, a very different dynamic played out in the state senate, where mulitple incumbents were ousted by candidates holding extreme views.
Boise State Public Radio has a detailed report on the situation here.
Andrew Naughtie19 May 2022 12:59
Oz-McCormick: the state of play
As things stand this morning, only a tiny proportion of votes in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary remain to be counted, and the gap between first-placed Dr Mehmet Oz and chaser Dave McCormick has closed to a mere 1,240 votes out of more than 1.3 million already counted.
It is not entirely clear how many votes remain outstanding, but Mr McCormick appears to have an edge in mail-in ballots (much to Donald Trump’s chagrin). The state’s counties have until next Tuesday to certify their results. And if the result ends with a margin of less than 0.5 points, as currently seems likely, an automatic recount will be triggered.
In the meantime, catch up below on why the mail-in ballot process has slowed the count down so much.
EXPLAINER: How mailed ballots slow results in Pennsylvania
Counting of mailed ballots in Pennsylvania is drawing renewed scrutiny amid a too-close-to-call U.S. Senate primary between Republicans David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Former President Donald Trump blasted the state’s elections procedures on social media, even though there are no indications of any wrongdoing with those ballots other than a printing error that was slowing the tally in one county
Andrew Naughtie19 May 2022 12:15
Hannity complains about failed far-right candidate
Kathy Barnette’s supposed last-minute surge in the Pennsylvania Senate primary turned out to be an illusion, as she polled several points behind the near-tied Mehmet Oz and David McCormick. But she earned herself quite an audience on the right with her exuberantly extreme persona, and she is now using her newly earned platform to complain about Fox News’s Sean Hannity and his efforts to tarnish her as dangerous in his efforts to boost Dr Oz.
Here’s what Mr Hannity had to say about the matter last night:
Andrew Naughtie19 May 2022 11:30
Catch up: Who really won this week’s primaries?
Eric Garcia has taken the measure of this week’s primary results – the ones that are final, anyway – and he has this analysis of what they tell us about the state of the two parties, and about Donald Trump’s inconsistent power to shape the electorate’s preferences:
It’s clear that while Trump’s endorsement helps, it isn’t a guarantee. As of Wednesday, it is still too early to determine whether Dr Mehmet Oz, the former television host that Trump endorsed, won or lost the Senate primary in Pennsylvania. But the fact that the ex-president’s backing failed to slingshot him far ahead of the pack shows that a Trump endorsement won’t override reservations conservatives have about a candidate – as many did with Dr Oz, worrying that his beliefs on abortion, guns and fracking put him beyond the pale.
Andrew Naughtie19 May 2022 10:45
Madeleine Dean endorses John Fetterman
Democrat Madeleine Dean, who represents the 4th congressional district of Pennsylvania and has stayed away from endorsing any candidate so far, has backed lieutenant governor John Fetterman in the race.
“I am delighted to get behind John Fetterman,” Ms Dean said on Wednesday, adding that she ran against him for lieutenant governor for a period of time in 2018 and saw “a genuineness — willing to be himself, willing to be outside the box”.
Stuti Mishra19 May 2022 10:00
How Mastriano’s win in Pennsylvania could turn election lies into action
Doug Mastriano was deeply involved in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the last election. He was at the US Capitol during the 6 January insurrection.
If he’s elected in November, Mr Mastriano has pledged to end the no-excuse vote by mail, a process that hundreds of thousands used in this week’s primary. He also wants to force millions of registered voters to register again.
Here’s what his victory would mean for the state with his far-right brand of politics:
Stuti Mishra19 May 2022 09:00
How mailed ballots slow results in Pennsylvania
Former President Donald Trump blasted Pennsylvania’s elections procedures on social media on Wednesday, even though there are no indications of any wrongdoing with those ballots other than a printing error that was slowing the tally in one county.
He has relentlessly criticised the state’s voting procedures since his loss in Pennsylvania two years ago when it took several days to tally the results from all mailed ballots.
Here’s an explainer on how the state’s mailed ballot system works and what is causing the delay:
EXPLAINER: How mailed ballots slow results in Pennsylvania
Counting of mailed ballots in Pennsylvania is drawing renewed scrutiny amid a too-close-to-call U.S. Senate primary between Republicans David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Former President Donald Trump blasted the state’s elections procedures on social media, even though there are no indications of any wrongdoing with those ballots other than a printing error that was slowing the tally in one county
Stuti Mishra19 May 2022 08:00
Do Republicans like ‘Big Lie’ supporter Doug Mastriano suddenly now believe in legitimacy of elections?
Doug Mastriano spent the months after the 2020 presidential election demanding an audit of results and amplifying Trump’s lie that his loss was due to fraudulent outcomes.
Last night Mastriano declared victory almost immediately after news networks predicted his GOP primary win for Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, relying on the same electoral process that saw Trump lose two years ago.
Why do Mastriano and all the other previous deniers who won their races now believe the election process is fair?
The governor in Pennsylvania appoints the secretary of state, an immensely powerful position that runs the state’s elections and signs off on electors.
Alex Woodward19 May 2022 07:00
Trump says ally Dr Oz should declare victory in Pennsylvania primary
The former president baselessly suggested that his preferred candidate Dr Oz simply declare himself the winner in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary, and falsely claimed election officials are “unable” to count ballots – keeping up his bogus narrative that elections, if they don’t go his way, are rigged against him, throwing a wrench into the democratic process.
Alex Woodward19 May 2022 06:00
Defeated GOP primary candidate blames Sean Hannity for her loss accusing him of ‘flat out lies’
Far-right candidate Kathy Barnette, who is trailing in third in the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, is blaming her finish on Fox News host Sean Hannity.
In a video posted to her Twitter account early on Wednesday morning, she thanked her supporters and attacked the Fox personality.
She said: “I do want to say: never forget what Sean Hannity did in this race. Almost single-handedly, Sean Hannity sowed seeds of disinformation, flat-out lies every night for the past five days. And that was just extremely hard to overcome, apparently”.
Alex Woodward19 May 2022 05:00