Despite raid in Florida, Trump candidates advance
The day after FBI agents searched his home in Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump yet again illustrated his electoral pull on the Republican Party.
In a series of primaries in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont and Connecticut on Tuesday — and in a newly conceded race from last week's election in Washington state — Trump's candidates scored victories and his enemies drew defeats, with a notable exception.
Republican voters in Wisconsin and Minnesota elevated a slate of nominees who have peddled baseless claims of fraud over the 2020 presidential election, setting up high-stakes battles in the fall over the future of fair elections in critical battleground states. And in Connecticut, Trump-backed Senate candidate Leora Levy trounced a moderate Republican, Themis Klarides.
Here are five takeaways:
Pivital governors race
Tony Evers, Wisconsin's Democratic governor, was always going to be in trouble. He was facing a prospective showdown against either Tim Michels, a millionaire construction magnate endorsed by Trump, or Rebecca Kleefisch, the state's former lieutenant governor, who had the backing of former Vice President Mike Pence. On Tuesday night, Evers learned his Republican rival would be Michels, the latest victor of the power struggle across the country between Trump Republicans and establishment Republicans.
Michels might not be the best onstage, but he has money to pour into his race. And he could go after not only Evers but Wisconsin Republicans' other favorite target, President Joe Biden. It was Biden who canceled the contract to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which Michel's firm was supposed to build.
Consequential vote
Evers, who has cast himself as a defender of fair elections, has vetoed more than a dozen state bills that would have restricted voting. Michels has pushed the false notion that the 2020 election can still be decertified and has pledged to abolish the state's elections commission.
Michels has campaigned on being tough on crime. On Tuesday, that stance did not apply to the former president.
Trump fever there
Robin Vos, the speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, came within a whisker of losing Tuesday to a candidate with little name recognition, all thanks to a Trump endorsement. The near miss for Vos, the most powerful Republican in Wisconsin politics, shows just how crucial that endorsement can be.
The race between Vos and Adam Steen in the Republican primary for a Wisconsin Assembly seat was tighter than virtually any Wisconsin analysts predicted, though Vos is an 18-year incumbent.
Ray of hope for Dems
In a state where the last two presidential elections were won by razorthin margins, Democrats in Wisconsin have some cause for optimism.
Some of that has to do with sweeping legislation, covering climate change and prescription drug prices, which is on pace to pass by November. Some of it has to do with the energy galvanizing Democratic voters over abortion rights. And some of it, in Wisconsin, has to do with Mandela Barnes, the state's lieutenant governor.
Barnes — a former community organizer from Milwaukee — won the Democratic nomination in a Senate race to take on the Republican incumbent, Sen. Ron Johnson. Barnes' victory sets up a heated general election race that could help decide control of the Senate.
GOP impeacher out
Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, the fate of all but one is now sealed. Four declined to seek another term, two others survived their primaries and three have lost.
In Washington state, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who sharply criticized Trump's actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, became the third House Republican to lose, after she conceded her race with a statement on Tuesday.
The 10th House Republican who voted to impeach the former president, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, has her primary next week on Aug. 16.
`Squad' still intact
Rep. Ilhan Omar, one of the most prominent lawmakers in Congress, survived her Democratic primary in Minnesota as she seeks a third term, making her the latest member of the progressive group known as the “squad” to defend her seat this year.
Omar's victory against Samuels makes her the third member of the “squad” to beat back primary challengers. The other two were Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Two other members — Reps. Alexandria OcasioCortez of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — did not draw any primary opponents this cycle. A sixth member, Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, is facing three primary challengers later this month.