Hundreds of thousands of voters in Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska went to the polls Tuesday in primaries that showed moderation, achievement, a desire for diversity and a rejection of the political power of money. We exchanged opinions on the matter.
And what will happen to zombie campaigns in both parties’ presidential elections? Nikki Haley had a pretty good night for a candidate who long ago withdrew from the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Here are four takeaways:
In Maryland, a player with the potential to make history beat the odds.
Rep. David Trone, co-owner of the large alcohol distribution company Total Wine & More, has given up his safe House seat, burned through more than $60 million of his fortune and is the only third-party candidate in the Senate Democratic primary. She lost to Angela Alsobrooks, who was aiming for the top spot. A black woman is elected to the U.S. Senate.
In the showdown between money and history, history won.
Maryland would normally have been a safe bet for Democrats hoping to keep Sen. Ben Cardin’s seat after he retires, but former governor and moderate Republican favorite Larry Hogan has joined the race. This confused the equation. Democrats were initially happy to have him as their candidate, knowing they wouldn’t have to spend a penny on him in the general election.
But Democratic leaders in Maryland and around the country need a candidate who will encourage voters in the Baltimore and Washington suburbs to run in November to defeat Hogan, an anti-Trump Republican who has proven bipartisan appeal. I started thinking that. He won two gubernatorial elections in blue states.
Ms. Allbrooks defeated Mr. Trone in her home base in the diverse Washington suburbs of Prince George’s County, where she serves as county executive. She beat him in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and suburban Howard County. She also narrowly defeated him in his home state of Montgomery County, a Washington suburb home to some of the wealthiest communities in the country.
Cook Political Report assesses that the seat is likely to go to Democrats, even though Hogan is currently the standard-bearer for the Republican Party, but the upcoming election will be a tough one. If Allsbrooks and U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware) win November’s Senate elections, voters will double the number of Black women elected to the U.S. Senate for the first time in U.S. history. For the first time in history, two black women will be elected. She soon becomes a senator.
Resistance fighters are defeated.
In most online partisan Democratic circles, Harry Dunn is a star, a burly figure who fought the pro-Trump mob on January 6, 2021, testified before the House committee investigating the Capitol attack, and then ran for office. He was a Capitol Police officer. The house he risked his life to protect.
He may have lived just outside the Congressional district he wanted to represent. He may not have had any political experience. But he was a candidate who ran to “save democracy.”
On Tuesday, he lost the Democratic primary to represent Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District next year to soft-spoken state Sen. Sarah Elfreth.
By the end of April, Mr. Dunn had collected about $4.6 million from people across the country and dominated the airwaves. Elfreth raised $1.5 million and received support from the United Democracy Project, a pro-Israel political action committee affiliated with the American Israel Political Committee.
But she had something that Mr. Dunn didn’t have. It was her legislative committee experience and her track record in the Democratic political field.
Do you expect the Republican Party to moderate?
Tuesday’s two House primaries provided clues as to how far the Republican Party has moved to the right, as presumptive Republican nominee Donald J. Trump returns to the spotlight. Mainstream Republicans dominated in both Nebraska and West Virginia.
In Nebraska’s battleground state around Omaha, Rep. Don Bacon, a well-known independent voice, faces conservative challenger Dan Frye, backed by the state’s Republican Party, a pro-Trump stronghold. . Bacon said he expects his seat to go to Democrats in November if Frey wins the primary. Mr. Bacon defeated Mr. Frey on Tuesday, making the race even tougher for Democratic candidate state Sen. Tony Vargas.
In West Virginia, Derrick Evans, an unrepentant mobster who was arrested for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol, challenged U.S. Rep. Carol Miller in a safe Republican seat. Mr. Miller is not a moderate, but neither is he a mobster. The incumbent whipped the rebel.
Zombie presidential voters appear again.
President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump will be the White House nominees of both parties, barring some unforeseen disaster, but they are unopposed in the primaries and their opposition continues to grow. There is. For Mr. Biden in Maryland, a state with high Democratic approval ratings, it was a form of “irresponsibility.” About 1 in 10 Democratic primary voters did so, many likely protesting support for Israel in the Gaza war. And 3.3 per cent voted for the defunct candidates Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips.
In West Virginia, 20% of voters in the Democratic primary chose a close contest between Jason Palmer and Stephen Lyons. Phillips, of Minnesota, received about 8% of Nebraska’s Democratic votes.
Signs of unity were even weaker on the Republican side. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who has been out of the race for a long time, won about 20% of the vote in Maryland and Nebraska. Even in West Virginia, Trump’s deepest state, Haley received nearly one in 10 Republican votes.
Where these voters go in November could matter. They don’t show up to vote, but they keep showing up to vote.
