Teacher ousts Ky. House official in GOP race
A high school math teacher defeated the majority leader of the Kentucky House of Representatives in a GOP primary on Tuesday, following a wave of education protests at the Kentucky Capitol and elsewhere around the country.
The victory by Travis Brenda highlighted primaryelection results in four states: Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas and Georgia.
In Georgia, Stacey Abrams won the Democratic primary for governor, becoming the state’s first woman to be nominated for that office by either major party. If the former state House minority leader wins the general election in November, she will become the first nation’s black female governor.
Brenda narrowly defeated state Rep. Jonathan Shell to win the nomination for state House District 71. Two years ago, Shell was credited with helping orchestrate the first GOP takeover of the state House in nearly a century. However, voters turned on him for his role in writing a state law that changed Kentucky’s pension system.
Brenda credited a groundswell of teacher support and said it sends a message that teachers and public workers won’t be silent. Brenda will face Democrat Mary Renfro in November.
At least 15 other current and former teachers were on Tuesday’s ballot in Kentucky.
In another race in the Bluegrass State, a gay man in eastern Kentucky lost his bid to challenge a Republican county clerk who went to jail three years ago for denying him and others marriage licenses. David Ermold was seeking the Democratic nomination for county clerk in Rowan County to challenge religious conservative Kim Davis.
In 2015, Davis said that “God’s authority” prevented her from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the aftermath of an historic U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Ermold lost to Elwood Caudill in a four-way Democratic primary despite a campaign that raised more than $200,000, with donations coming from at least Abrams An Arkansas voter, reflected in glass, leaves a precinct after casting a ballot in Little Rock in Arkansas’ primary election Tuesday. Primaries also were held Tuesday in Georgia, Texas and Kentucky. 48 states.
Caudill will face Davis in the November general election. No one challenged Davis for the Republican nomination.
In Georgia, Abrams got a last-minute boost with an endorsement — in the form of a 60-second robo-call — from Hillary Clinton.
Abrams beat former state Rep. Stacey Evans. The onetime legislative colleagues tussled over ethics accusations and their records on education. Both are Atlantaarea lawyers.
Abrams’ Republican opponent in November will be either Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle or Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who emerged from a five-candidate race characterized by strong support for gun rights and tough talk on immigration. Their runoff, required because neither received at least 50 percent of the vote, is scheduled for July 24.
Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, who has held the office since 2011, is term-limited.
In Texas, Gina Ortiz Jones, an Air Force veteran and former intelligence officer, got Democrats’ nod to face Republican Will Hurd in November in a San AntonioMexican border U.S. House district. Jones would the first openly lesbian congresswoman from her state.
In a Democratic runoff for governor, a Hispanic former sheriff from Dallas won, becoming the first openly lesbian and Latina gubernatorial nominee in the state’s history. Lupe Valdez defeated Andrew White, the son of a former governor, despite losing the support of some Hispanic activists because of her record on immigration. She will be a heavy underdog against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson won the Republican primary in his re-election bid, defeating a gun-rights advocate and cable-news commentator who declared her gun range “Muslim-free.”
Hutchinson, a former congressman and federal Homeland Security official, is generally popular in the predominantly Republican state and touted $150 million in tax cuts he had successfully pushed through the Legislature.