Five states – Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, and Washington – hold primary elections on August’s biggest single election day.
Summary
Five states – Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, and Washington – hold primary elections on August’s biggest single election day.
- Multi-way Republican primaries for U.S. Senate in Missouri and Arizona reach their conclusion on Tuesday. Businessmen Blake Masters and Jim Lamon and state Attorney General Mark Brnovich are competing for the right to take on Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona.
- Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt, ex-Gov. Eric Greitens and Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long are vying to succeed retiring Sen. Roy Blunt in the Show Me State. All but Greitens should easily prevail over Democratic candidates Lucas Kunce or Trudy Busch Valentine.
- Three House Republicans who voted to impeach former president Trump for his role in the Capitol riot – Reps. Peter Meijer (MI-03), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03) and Dan Newhouse (WA-04) – face Trump-backed primary challenges.
- Republicans will select their nominees to take on Democratic governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Tony Evers of Wisconsin and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the likely Democratic nominee for Arizona’s open-seat governor’s race.
- Former president Donald Trump backed commentator Tudor Dixon in Michigan, failed 2004 Senate candidate Tim Michels in Wisconsin and TV broadcaster Kari Lake in Arizona.
- His former vice president, Mike Pence, endorsed rival candidates in Wisconsin (ex-Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch) and Arizona (Board of Regents member Karrin Taylor Robson).
- In Michigan’s 11th District, pro-Israel group AIPAC spent millions to knock off progressive Rep. Andy Levin in his bruising member-vs.-member primary with Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens.
- At least other three incumbents are at risk of defeat on Tuesday. Republican Rep. David Schwikert and two Squad members – Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush – face well-funded challengers but are expected to prevail.
- CNN reported on the “chaotic” Republican primary to challenge Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Two leading candidates were knocked off the ballot and third candidate was arrested before Michigan Republicans and Trump consolidated behind Tudor Dixon, a conservative commentator and the new apparent frontrunner heading into Tuesday’s vote.
- POLITICO covered the shady campaign tactics House Democrats are employing to sink Rep. Peter Meijer, one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump over his role in the Capitol riot. House Democrats are funding Meijer’s primary opponent, a 2020 election conspiracy theorist, all while using the January 6 committee to inveigh against attacks on “our democracy.”
- The Washington Post went to Kansas to cover the state’s referendum on whether to end the Kansas Constitution’s right to an abortion, the first electoral test for abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June.
- The Washington Examiner reported all four of Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates – Kari Lake for Governor, Blake Masters for U.S. Senate, Abe Hamadeh for state Attorney General Mark Finchem for Secretary of State – were leading the polls in Arizona ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
- FOX News covered Trump’s fence-sitting “endorsement” in the Missouri Senate primary. The former president endorsed “ERIC” – the first name of two of the primary frontrunners, state Attorney General Eric Schmitt and former Governor and alleged domestic abuser Eric Greitens.
- National Review mocked Trump’s “hilariously indecisive Missouri endorsement.” Author Dan McLaughlin acknowledged the statement was a “brilliantly hilarious” as a piece of “performance art” but urged the former president to “leave governing to the adults.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
