What we learned Tuesday from primaries in 4 states

WASHINGTON – President Trump declared Tuesday’s primary elections “a great night” and said “all candidates are those who have a great chance of winning in November.”

Here are four big takeaways:

GOP sees a window in W.Va.

Republicans — and particularly Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — woke up Wednesday with a weight off their shoulders: West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey won Tuesday’s marquee race. In West Virginia’s Republican Senate primary, Morrisey came in 6 percentage points ahead of Rep. Evan Jenkins and beat former convict Don Blankenship by 15 percentage points.

Republicans had been wringing their hands over Blankenship, who appeared to be surging in the final days of the race. Blankenship is the former Massey Energy CEO convicted of a misdemeanor related to a mine blast that killed 29 men in 2010.

Trump won West Virginia in the 2016 election by 42 points, and Republicans see Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin as a prime pick-off opportunity in the fall.

Getting Morrisey may have bolstered Republicans’ chances in the state, but it’s still not a slam dunk, said Terry Sullivan a Republican strategist.

Voters still want the swamp drained

House members went down all over the place Tuesday night. In North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, Republican Rep. Robert Pittenger became the first sitting congressman of the cycle to lose his primary. Mark Harris, a conservative pastor who came close to beating Pittenger in 2016, labeled Pittenger a member of the “Washington swamp” and beat him by 3 percentage points.

In West Virginia, Jenkins, a current House member, came in second in his bid for his party’s nomination for Senate. And in Indiana, Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita both lost by doubledigits to businessman Mike Braun.

But one congressman, Republican Rep. Jim Renacci in Ohio, captured his party’s nomination for the Senate with 47% of the vote.

Trump ties aren’t enough

Trump won all four of Tuesday’s primary states during the 2016 election and he remains popular with the Republican electorate, but voters didn’t reward candidates just because they aligned themselves with him. It wasn’t that Tuesday’s winners had rebuked Trump, it’s just that his most overt supporters were not necessarily rewarded. In Indiana, an analysis by Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group for the USA TODAY NETWORK found that all of Messer’s and Rokita’s ads that aired through April included a reference to Trump, and only 12% of Braun’s did.

The establishment’s big night

Morrisey’s clear victory in West Virginia sent McConnell and his allies on a victory lap, but there wereother reasons for the establishment — in both parties — to celebrate Tuesday.

In Ohio, two conservative Republicans aligned with the House Freedom Caucus, went down to more mainstream candidates. State Sen. Troy Balderson won both primaries for the special election (to fill the remainder of the term) and the midterm election (for next year) for Ohio’s 12th Congressional District. Former NFL football player Anthony Gonzalez beat state Sen. Christina Hagan in Ohio’s 16th Congressional District.

Both parties got well-known establishment politicians for their gubernatorial race in Ohio. The race will be a rematch of the 2010 attorney general race in which Republican Mike DeWine narrowly defeated Democrat Richard Cordray.

Don Blankenship