Trump’s pick wins the North Carolina Senate GOP primary
Former President Donald Trump was facing the strongest test yet of his ability to shape a new generation of Republicans on Tuesday night, as voters rallied around one of his hand-picked choices for a critical U.S. Senate seat and were considering another.
North Carolina
U.S. Rep. Ted Budd and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley won their respective Senate primaries on Tuesday, setting up a fall election matchup that should again test the former president’s influence in North Carolina.
Budd won the 14-candidate Republican primary over former Gov. Pat Mccrory and U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, while Beasley had entered Tuesday as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, which 11 people sought. Current GOP U.S. Sen. Richard Burr is retiring.
Trump, who narrowly won the state’s electoral votes in 2016 and 2020, gave his endorsement to Budd nearly a year ago and benefited from millions of dollars spent by the Club for Growth Action super PAC used to praise him and brand Mccrory as too liberal.
Mccrory and Walker criticized Budd for failing to participate in televised debates and accused the super PAC of trying to buy an election for Budd.
Beasley’s path to the nomination widened after two rivals left the race last fall. Beasley, who would be the first Black senator elected from North Carolina, has consistently been the largest fundraiser in both primary fields.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn struggled Tuesday to hold on to his western North Carolina seat, facing a stiff challenge from a state legislator in the Republican primary. Late in the evening, however, a spokesman said Cawthorn was conceding to state Sen. Chuck Edwards.
With most votes counted, election results in the 11th District Republican primary showed the firstterm congressman and pro-donald Trump firebrand slightly trailing Edwards.
Six other GOP candidates were in the race.
Several GOP leaders have turned away from the 26-year-old congressman, with some citing a series of unforced errors, such as calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug ” after Russia invaded his country. Cawthorn also infuriated fellow Republicans in Congress when he alleged on a podcast that he had been invited to an orgy in Washington.
Edwards, an owner of Mcdonald’s franchises, received endorsements from U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and the state’s top GOP legislative leaders.
Pennsylvania
Much of the attention on Tuesday centered on Pennsylvania, where Trump’s preferred Senate candidate, Mehmet Oz, has divided conservatives. Some are suspicious of the ideological leanings of the celebrity heart surgeon who gained fame as a frequent guest on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. Oz has spent much of the campaign in a heated fight with former hedge fund CEO David Mccormick.
That’s allowed commentator Kathy Barnette to emerge in the final days of the primary as a conservative alternative to both Oz and Mccormick. Should she win the primary and general election, Barnette would be the first Black Republican woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
Trump, who has held campaign-style rallies with Oz, insists he is the best candidate to keep the Senate seat in Republican hands in the fall. Given his level of involvement in the race, a loss would be a notable setback for the former president, who is wielding endorsements as a way to prove his dominance over the GOP ahead of a potential 2024 presidential run.
Democrats have their own high-profile contests. In Pennsylvania, progressive Lt. Gov. John Fetterman won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania primary election.
He had dominated the Senate race but was forced off the campaign trail by a stroke. The 52-year-old tweeted a picture of himself casting an emergency absentee ballot from the hospital. Later Tuesday he tweeted: “I just got out of a procedure to implant a pacemaker with a defibrillator in my heart. We got the all-clear that it was successful, and that I’m on track for a full recovery.”
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who secured a late endorsement from Trump and has trumpeted the former president’s lies about nonexistent, widespread fraud costing him the 2020 election, has won the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania’s open governor’s office
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Attorney General John Shapiro, a Democrat who was unopposed for his party’s governor’s nomination, had tweeted that he had mild COVID -19 symptoms that forced him from the campaign trail.
Kentucky
Republican incumbent Rand Paul won his party’s nomination as he pursues a third term, defeating five little-known challengers in the Kentucky primary.
Former state lawmaker Charles Booker of Louisville defeated three opponents on the Democratic side. Booker gained attention for his racial and economic justice message amid nationwide protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans in encounters with police.
Booker faces a daunting task in trying to unseat Paul. Kentucky has tilted decidedly toward the GOP and Paul holds a commanding fundraising advantage over his Democratic challenger. Kentucky has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.
Also, Morgan Mcgarvey, who serves as Kentucky’s highest-ranking Democrat as minority leader of the state Senate, won the party’s nomination for a U.S. House seat in the Louisville area.
He ran with the endorsement of Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat who holds the seat but plans to retire at the end of his term.
Mcgarvey, whose victory was called by The Associated Press on Tuesday night, beat out one other Democrat, state Rep. Attica Scott.
At the age of 38, Mcgarvey became the youngest Kentucky Senate minority leader in 2019.
The Democratic nominee is expected to win easily in November.