Trump supporter wins S. Carolina GOP runoff
COLUMBIA, S.C. — One of President Donald Trump’s earliest and strongest supporters, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, survived an unusually tough challenge from a political newcomer on Tuesday. But a veteran Democratic House leader wasn’t so fortunate.
Rep. Joe Crowley of New York lost to Alexandria OcasioCortez, a 28-year-old former aide to the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, in the first defeat of the primary season for a Democratic incumbent.
In Utah, Mitt Romney, the former GOP presidential nominee and one-time face of the “Never Trump” movement, won the Republican nomination to run in November to become a 71-year-old freshman senator.
Crowley is the fourthranking Democrat in the House and had been considered a possible candidate to replace Nancy Pelosi as the party’s leader in the chamber if the Democrats should win control in November and Pelosi should step aside. Crowley was backed by many unions, while Ocasio-Cortez was endorsed by several liberal groups, including MoveOn.
Also in New York, Trump got his way where his preferred candidate defeated a convicted felon in the president’s home city. Incumbent Rep. Dan Donovan beat former Rep. Michael Grimm.
Grimm had held the Staten Island seat until 2015, when he pleaded guilty to knowingly hiring immigrants who were in the country illegally to work at his Manhattan restaurant and cooking the books to hide income and evade taxes.
No contest mattered more to Trump than South Carolina, where McMaster had faced the possibility of losing his seat to 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. In other elections: • Former NAACP President Ben Jealous has won the Democratic nomination for governor in Maryland, setting up a battle between the liberal candidate and a popular Republican incumbent.
Jealous beat Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker. Both candidates are black, and Jealous now has a shot at becoming the state’s first black governor and the country’s third elected black governor.
Jealous faces Gov. Larry Hogan in the general election.
• A state senator in South Carolina won the Republican nomination for U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy’s open seat.
William Timmons was nominated in the runoff after he had finished second to former state Sen. Lee Bright in the June 12 primary.
Timmons was the choice of establishment Republicans, picking up a number of endorsements and quiet support.
Timmons will take on businessman Brandon Brown, who won the Democratic runoff.
• Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has defeated ex-state Sen. Connie Johnson to win the Democratic nomination in the race to be the state’s next governor.
• Mississippi Democrats nominated state Rep. David Baria to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, lining up behind a party stalwart as they reject a bid by a newcomer. Many Democratic politicians backed Baria, the state House minority leader, arguing that Sherman was an unknown quantity. The husband of actress Sela Ward, Sherman voted as a Republican in California and donated to Wicker. Sherman said that was an effort to prevent a tea party conservative from winning office.
• Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin has won the Democratic nomination for his bid to earn a third term, beating Chelsea Manning and six others. The popular and wellfunded incumbent easily took victory in Tuesday’s crowded primary.
Cardin’s best-known rival was Manning, the convicted leaker of U.S. government secrets. She ran an unorthodox, grass-roots campaign that failed to resonate with many voters.