The Midterm Report: Pivotal primaries setting the stage for November elections
(Photo: Brandon Mowinkel, Unsplash)
With the future of abortion rights quickly becoming a central subject in the leadup to the fall midterms, primary season is now underway into what will ultimately determine the power of Congress during the second half of President Biden’s first term.
Five states held primary elections on Tuesday, including Pennsylvania, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, and Idaho.
For North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who single-handedly taught me what a key bump is, a last-ditch endorsement from Trump, Tuesday’s vote represented the final nail in his proverbial political coffin.
Cawthorn’s term in Congress has been mired by both legal controversies and Republican backlash from comments he made about “orgies” and cocaine use in Washington, as well as calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug” in the early days of Putin’s invasion.
Between trying to smuggle a loaded gun through an airport twice and being pulled over for both speeding and driving with a revoked license, top GOP legislative leaders are eager to replace Cawthorn, a political liability, with State Sen. Chuck Edwards in November. Edwards, a fast-food franchise owner, will face-off against Democratic candidate Jasmine Beach-Ferrara this fall.
The runner-up of American Idol’s second season, Clay Aiken, fell short in his bid for a U.S. House seat in North Carolina, finishing in third place on the ballot and losing to State Sen. Valerie Foushee.
Also in North Carolina, GOP incumbent Rep. Ted Budd has advanced to November’s Senate election. Budd is set to face Democrat Cheri Beasley, who decisively won an 11-candidate primary and would become the state’s first Black senator if elected this fall.
Over to Pennsylvania, where the increasingly desperate Dr. Oz offered a bizarre and uncomfortable final primary plea on Monday.
“When you go to bed at night [and] put your head on that soft pillow, you’ll know Oz will be doing exactly what you want him to do if you were there next to him,” he said.
The race between Oz and David McCormick, a Wall Street-backed candidate, has been a nail-biter, with the former talk show host ahead of McCormick by roughly 1,200 votes on Thursday morning in a race that’s both too close to call and likely to trigger a recount.
Another newcomer who lost a primary challenge is former Rep. Conor Lamb, who first won a special election back in 2018, surprising Democrats in a victory against Republican Rick Saccone. But in his bid for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Lamb, who boasted dozens of key Democratic endorsements, fell short of his opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who remained in the hospital for days after suffering a stroke. Fetterman garnered more than double the number of votes as Lamb received.
Also in Pennsylvania, Trump-backed candidate Doug Mastriano has clinched the GOP nomination for governor. Mastriano, who pushed for state officials to overturn Biden’s victory in 2020, will be responsible for certifying Pennsylvania’s 2024 presidential election results, should he emerge victorious in November against uncontested Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro.
In Idaho, a Lieutenant Governor fell short in a race against her boss, Gov. Brad Little, for the highest position in the state office. The Seattle Times has reported that Trump-endorsed conspiracy theorist Janice McGeachin, a Trump-endorsed conspiracy theorist, claims "the coronavirus does not exist." Even worse, McGeachin "called for the execution of Dr. Anthony Fauci."
Also in Idaho, a race for the Secretary of State included two candidates who baselessly denied President Biden won the 2020 election, according to The Idaho Capital Sun. But as reporter Andrew Buncombe noted on Twitter, “not a single Republican has claimed [these primary results] were rigged.”
In Kentucky, State Rep. Morgan McGarvey advanced in the Democratic primary, defeating an activist who made national headlines in the wake of the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Mar. 2020.
On the Republican side, incumbent Thomas Massie secured the GOP nomination, despite previously criticizing former President Trump as a “disaster” and a “third rate Grandstander.” It appears there are no hard feelings as Trump endorsed Massie for re-election.
Elsewhere in Kentucky, a man who survived a shooting attempt at his campaign office in February has advanced as the Democratic candidate for mayor of Louisville. Craig Greenberg was not harmed in the Valentine’s Day shooting, but he did report a bullet grazed his sweater.
Voters in both Indiana and Ohio went to the polls on May 3.
With Ohio Sen. Rob Portman leaving his post at the end of the term, author of Hillbilly Elegy and Trump supporter J.D. Vance has advanced as the Republican nominee and is set to face-off against Congressman Tim Ryan, a former candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination. In what is expected to be an unpredictable election, Ryan, a victim of state redistricting, is expected to be succeeded in the House by State Rep. Emilia Sykes.
Another Trump-backed candidate, Max Miller, handily won the Republican primary in Ohio’s 7th District. He’s now a safe bet to win in November.
On the Democratic side, progressives were dealt another blow after former Bernie Sanders campaign strategist Nina Turner lost a rematch against Shontel Brown, by a greater margin than their 2021 special election face-off.
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