Kobach loses in Kansas, Tlaib safe in Michigan
Astead W. Herndon and Katie Glueck
Kansas Republicans on Tuesday soundly rejected the Senate bid of Kris Kobach, a polarizing figure in state politics and a staunch ally of President Donald Trump’s, choosing instead to nominate a conservative congressman who was the choice of party leaders.
Kobach was defeated in the primary by Rep. Roger Marshall, The Associated Press reported, a major relief to GOP officials in Kansas and Washington who had worried that Kobach would uniquely jeopardize the seat in the general election and would be a thorn in the side of party leadership if he won. Marshall will face state Sen. Barbara Bollier, a former Republican herself who switched parties, in November.
In Missouri, a progressive activist, Cori Bush, pulled off a stunning upset against longtime incumbent William Lacy Clay Jr., the AP reported, marking a turning point for the progressive movement in its bid to threaten more centrist elected officials. If she wins in November, Bush, a nurse who was a local leader in the Black Lives Matter movement in St. Louis, would be the first person outside the Clay family to represent the seat in more than 50 years.
Bush, 44, would also become the first Black woman to represent Missouri in Congress.
In a closely watched Democratic House race in Michigan, Rep. Rashida Tlaib halted a tough challenge from her 2018 rival, Brenda Jones. Tlaib is a member of the progressive “squad” of women of color who helped shape the party’s House
majority.
Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state known for his hard-line views on immigration and voting rights, was seen by party leaders as an especially weak potential general election candidate, even in a state that has not sent a Democrat to the Senate in 88 years. In the 2018 governor’s race, Kobach lost to Laura Kelly, a Democrat, and heading into this week’s contest, Senate Republican polling showed that nearly 30% of Republican primary voters indicated they would support Bollier in the general election if Kobach were the nominee.
It is possible that the race could still be in play this fall, as Republicans confront a challenging political landscape shaped by disapproval of Trump’s leadership during the coronavirus crisis. But Republicans and Democrats alike expected the state to be much more competitive if Kobach had won the nomination.
Kansas was one of several states, including Missouri, Michigan and Arizona, holding some of the last primaries before November’s general election. It was a new test of the mail-in voting systems that many states are relying on during the coronavirus pandemic. The lack of immediate results in some places was yet another precursor of what is likely to unfold in November, when the reliance on absentee voting systems could delay results past Election Day.
That dynamic was evident Tuesday in New York City, where, six weeks after Primary Day, the Board of Elections delivered long-awaited victories to two Democrats: Ritchie Torres, a 32-yearold New York City councilman, who won a 12-way Democratic primary for a soon-to-be open House seat, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a longtime incumbent. The expansive use of vote-bymail in New York was viewed by some as a test of whether the nation is ready for November.
The contests nationwide Tuesday were a microcosm of several political themes the parties are confronting, including the embrace of Republican candidates fashioned in the style of Trump and the left-wing push to unseat more centrist House Democrats.
On the Republican side, the Kansas Senate race in particular offered another reminder that the party divisions that existed before Trump won will persist even after he leaves office. That includes the disagreement between deeply conservative activists, who are skeptical of Washington and approve of the type of white identity politics Trump has embraced, and the party’s traditional establishment — many members of which have argued that such messaging hurts the party long term.
One Republican House member, Rep. Steve Watkins of Kansas, fell to a primary challenger, Jake Laturner. Watkins had been charged with four counts of voter fraud last month, which capped off an embattled two years in Congress after he was elected in 2018. Watkins reportedly listed a UPS store in Topeka as his official residence on a change-of-address form for voter registration in 2019.
The success in Missouri of Bush shows a new pathway for left-wing efforts to remake the House Democratic caucus. Since 2018, progressives have found some success in heavily Democratic districts with a white incumbent and a majority-minority population, a pathway executed by successful House challengers like Alexandria Ocasiocortez in New York, Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts and Jamaal Bowman in New York, who coupled the insurgent message of ideological change with an argument about racial representation.
Bush is the first example of that wing defeating a Black or Latino member of the party’s establishment. Earlier this year, other longtime Black caucus members in Ohio and New York easily defeated challengers, and some members of the Congressional Black Caucus crowed that the party’s left wing could not threaten them. That is no longer true.
Bush also won without the full backing of the progressive apparatus. Although she received support from political groups such as Justice Democrats and Sunrise Movement, and from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT., she did not have the full-throated support of other figures including Ocasio-cortez.
Missouri voters also approved the expansion of Medicaid to more than 200,000 low-income adults, a break from the Trump Administration, which has tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
States handled the election activity Tuesday with moderate success, as Americans continued to show a degree of comfort with mail-in and absentee voting systems even as Trump and his allies have sought to sow distrust. In Michigan, more than 1.6 million voters had turned in an absentee ballot by Tuesday evening, according to election officials, a sizable portion of the total electorate.