Trump-backed election skeptics gain in key races
GOP voters in Wis., Minn. tap hopefuls touting fraud claim
The day after FBI agents searched his home in Palm Beach, Florida, former President Donald Trump yet again illustrated his electoral pull on the Republican Party.
In a series of primaries in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin on Tuesday — and in a newly conceded race from last week’s election in Washington state — Trump’s candidates scored victories and most of his enemies drew defeats.
GOP voters in Minnesota and Wisconsin 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, the Trump-backed Senate candidate Leora Levy trounced a moderate Republican, Themis Klarides.
In Wisconsin, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried to play Trump assertion of control against his newly minted Republican opponent Wednesday while observers said running too closely to Trump in the swing state could be dangerous.
Trump’s pick for governor, construction company co-owner Tim Michels, beat out the choice of establishment Republicans. Evers said that means Michels now “owns” Trump and he won’t be able to moderate in the general election.
Longtime Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette won his Democratic primary, advancing to a general election in which Republicans hope to win back the seat and give it power over elections.
State Rep. Amy Loudenbeck defeated two primary opponents to advance to the November election against La Follette, first elected in 1974.
Meanwhile, most of the 10 Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach Trump have either retired or lost. The latest to fall, Washington state Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler who conceded Tuesday, said in an email: “I’m proud that I always told the truth, stuck to my principles, and did what I knew to be best for our country.”
Unlike many states, Wisconsin’s secretary of state is not its top elections official and the office’s only duties are to sit on a state timber board and verify certain travel documents. But Loudenbeck and other Republicans have said they want to change that and dismantle the Wisconsin Elections Commission, established six years ago with bipartisan support.
Loudenbeck and her primary opponents have echoed Trump’s false claims that fraud cost him the 2020 election and sharply criticized decisions made by the commission heading into the 2020 election, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought major challenges to running elections. They had argued that empowering the secretary of state would allow voters to hold someone accountable for important election-related decisions.
To accomplish their goal, Republicans also would need to defeat Evers, who would block such a move, in November.
Mandela 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. Barnes, Wisconsin’s first Black lieutenant governor, would be its first Black senator if he were to win.
In Minnesota, Republican Kim Crockett — who has called the 2020 election “rigged” and campaigned on rolling back changes that have made it easier to vote — advanced to the November election against Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat seeking his third term.
Races in Connecticut and Vermont were noteworthy because it was the first time in more than a decade that the seats were open. Both longtime Democratic secretaries of state opted not to seek reelection this year.
In Connecticut, GOP primary voters selected Dominic Rapini and Democratic primary voters nominated state Rep. Stephanie Thomas. Rapini is the former board chairman of a group called Fight Voter Fraud Inc. and has called for tightening ID requirements and cleaning the state’s voter rolls. Thomas opposes additional ID requirements.
In Vermont’s Democratic primary, state Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas defeated two opponents.
On the Republican side, perennial candidate H. Brooke Paige was the lone person on the ballot for secretary of state, and advanced to the November election.