Heavyweight Democrat loses; Trump picks win
NEW YORK — As Donald Trump’s party came together, a 28-year-old liberal activist ousted top House Democrat Joe Crowley in the president’s hometown Tuesday night, a stunning defeat that suddenly forced Democrats to confront their own internal divisions.
Crowley, the No. 4 House Democrat and until Tuesday considered a possible candidate to replace Nancy Pelosi as leader, becomes the first Democratic incumbent to fall this primary season. He was beaten by underfunded challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the daughter of working-class immigrants and a former Bernie Sanders organizer who caught fire with the party’s left wing.
Trump celebrated Crowley’s defeat on social media.
“Perhaps he should have been nicer, and more respectful, to his President!” Trump tweeted, taking credit for a victory by a candidate more liberal than Crowley. He added: “The Democrats are in Turmoil!”
All in all, Trump had reason to celebrate Tuesday night as all three of his endorsed candidates survived primary challenges that could have embarrassed him and the party.
Those included New York Rep. Dan Donovan, who defeated convicted felon Michael Grimm in New York City’s only Republican stronghold, and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who once branded Trump “a fraud” but has warmed to the president in the past two years.
Yet none of the day’s contests mattered more to Trump than the one in South Carolina.
Gov. Henry McMaster, one of the president’s earliest and strongest supporters, survived a tough challenge from a political newcomer, self-made Republican millionaire John Warren.
The White House went all-in for the governor in recent days, dispatching the president and the vice president to the state in an effort to prevent a political debacle.
Trump’s party did just that Tuesday, though the president has a mixed track record when weighing in on primaries: His preferred candidates have suffered losses in Alabama and western Pennsylvania in recent months.
In Utah, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney defeated littleknown state Rep. Mike Kennedy.
In Maryland, former NAACP President Ben Jealous seized the Democratic governor’s nomination. He will become the state’s first African-American governor if he beats Republican incumbent Gov. Larry Hogan this fall.
In Colorado, five-term Democratic congressman Jared Polis won the Democratic nomination in the race to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper. And in Oklahoma, former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson beat former state Sen. Connie Johnson to win the Democratic nomination in the race to be the state’s next governor.
Oklahoma voters also backed the medicinal use of marijuana despite opposition from law enforcement and business, faith and political leaders.