The power of the former president Donald Trump‘s endorsement will be tested on Tuesday, when his preferred candidates face hotly contested Republican primary battles across the country.
Trump has entered the Senate, House and gubernatorial primaries in Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina as he aims to further his influence among the GOP base and shape the party’s future. Tuesday’s primaries also come two weeks after Trump 34 were convicted of serious crimes In a New York hush money case.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has sought to support two GOP members of Congress from South Carolina, who are facing particularly conservative challengers.
He is supportive Rep. Nancy Mace, who has previously criticized Trump for facing a well-funded primary challenger in attorney Catherine Templeton. After the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots that called for the GOP to walk away from Trump, Mays defeated her primary challenger in 2022, Katie Arrington, who received Trump’s endorsement.
Mace continued He wholeheartedly supports Trump He won the 2024 presidential election and was endorsed for re-election. While Trump’s endorsement has attracted interest in the GOP primaries, he lost to Nikki Haley in February when Mace won the 1st Congressional District in Charleston. the basis of the state In general.
Mays drew the ire of some Republicans last year after he voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as House speaker. Templeton has received support from McCarthy, including donations from his leadership PAC, and he said he asked the former California congressman to help him. to raise cash in the campaign.
Outside groups linked to McCarthy allies also took to the airwaves to attack Mace, with the conservative Club for Action for Growth launching ads to boost Mace, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. The Winning Action Fund for Women, a group that backs GOP female candidates and backed Mace in 2022, now supports Templeton. Longtime Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., also endorsed Templeton over his House colleague last week.
This primary may not end on Tuesday. Mace, Templeton and Marine veteran Bill Young are on the ballot, meaning the race could go to a June 25 runoff if no candidate wins a majority of the primary vote.
Trump endorsed another incumbent facing a primary challenge: South Carolina Rep. William Timmons in the 4th District, which includes heavily evangelical parts of the state in Greenville and Spartanburg.
Timmons does facing state representative Adam MorganRep. Florida, who chairs the Freedom Caucus in the South Carolina State House. With support from hard-right members of Congress like Matt Gaetz and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Goode of Virginia.
Timmons announced his endorsement of Trump in the race ad featuring the former president speaks directly to the camera to boost the three-term congressman. Timmons, who narrowly escaped a runoff in the 2022 primary, received help in the race from outside group Defend American Jobs and America Leads Inc., a group with ties to the cryptocurrency industry.
Timmons’ opponent in the 2022 primary, Pastor Mark Burns, won almost a quarter of the vote. But Burns is now vying for the Trump endorsement to replace retiring GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan in the open 3rd District race in South Carolina. Trump too appeared in a television commercial It is reported that it was filmed at the Trump Tower in New York on the evening of April 19. Trump was in court that day for his silence trial.
The District 3 race is expected to go into a runoff given the crowded primary field.
Burns, nurse Sheri Biggs and state Rep. Stuart Jones are considered top contenders. Kevin Bishop, a former aide to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, is also in the race.
Trump makes a last-minute choice in Nevada
Trump’s confirmation is also at stake in Nevada’s GOP Senate primary, where the winner will face Democratic Sen. Jackie Rosen in one of the nation’s top Senate races.
The leading candidates in the crowded field are Sam Brown, a military veteran who won Trump’s favor over the weekend, and Jeffrey Gunter, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Iceland at the end of his administration.
Brown lost a state Senate primary in 2022 in an attempt to run to the right of former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, but has emerged as the party’s preferred choice to challenge Rosen in that race. He tried to soften his stance on abortion when it came to his wife’s decision to share the abortion affected her life.
Guenther played up his service in the Trump administration and tried to call Brown quite conservative. Guenther calls himself “110% pro-Trump,” a message that may be blunted by Trump’s late decision to put his thumb on the scales for his opponent.
Gunter also carried out brutal attacks on the air. Including one who called Brown “The newest creature to emerge from the swamp.” The ad depicts the scars on Brown’s face, which he suffered from a life-threatening explosion while serving in Afghanistan.
Brown was the top fundraiser in the race, outspending Guenther from $7.1 million to $3.3 million as of May 22, and outspending him from $4.6 million to $3 million as of May 22.
The endorsement could be muted by Trump waiting until the weekend before the primary to announce his choice in a state that mostly votes by mail. Moreover, Brown already seemed to be the favorite.
Further down the ballot, Trump endorsed former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee in the 4th District to challenge Democratic Rep. Stephen Horsford. Democratic Reps. Susie Lee of the 3rd District and Dina Titus of the 1st District will also learn about their GOP challengers on Tuesday, but Trump has not endorsed either of those contests.
Trump and the VP candidate take opposite sides
Republican primary voters in North Dakota are choosing a new governor after GOP Gov. Doug Burgum decided not to seek re-election. The state has not elected a Democratic governor since the 1988 election, and Trump won in 2020 with more than 40 percent of the vote.
The GOP primary was contested between the state’s only member of Congress, Rep. Kelly Armstrong, and Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller. Armstrong has the support of Trump and both states’ U.S. senators, Burgum Trump considers himself a candidateSupports Miller.
Although Burgum has recently downplayed the idea that he and Trump are on opposite sides, the race has heated up.
In a recent advertisement, Miller made a not-so-cover shot Criticizing “self-serving politicians,” he said: “Nobody gave me a ladder to get there.” It is the job of politicians who have the right to climb the ladder, and they will step on anyone to get to the top.”
Meanwhile, the Armstrong campaign advertised He criticized Miller for a handful, warning that there were “many red flags.” small donations to Democrats in the past.
State Sen. Merrill Piepkorn is the only Democrat running for governor and will face the winner of the GOP primary.
Armstrong’s proposal leaves his at-large House seat open and gives North Dakotans another statewide primary to decide on Tuesday’s ballot. The top candidates are Trump, Burgum and state Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, backed by GOP Sen. John Hoeven; former state Rep. Rick Becker, a former plastic surgeon backed by conservative figures like Ron and Rand Paul, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Goode, and the Caucus for Growth; and veteran Alex Balazs approval of the state party.
Becker and Fedorchak, the top fundraisers in the race and their allies, have taken up most of the airtime.
The Growth Club spent more than $700,000 on airing the competition. basically blasted Fedorchak. But after Trump’s confirmation, the group canceled ad buys, and Fedorchak’s allies largely matched the club’s spending during that time. lobbying attacks v. Becker.
Meanwhile, in Maine, Trump has endorsed Rep. Jared Golden, one of five Democrats running for re-election in the district Trump represents in 2020, in the GOP primary for the competitive 2nd District. The former president endorsed state representative Austin. Theriault, a former NASCAR driver.
The GOP is poised to secure the House majority in Ohio’s special election
Voters in Ohio will send a new member to Congress in a special election for the seat vacated by former GOP Rep. Bill Johnson earlier this year.
Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli is the favorite to serve out the remainder of Ohio’s 6th District, with Johnson by 35 points in 2022 and Trump by about 30 in 2020. Data compiled by Daily Kos Elections. His state Senate district is in the Youngstown area, which is part of his congressional district, and his family owns grocery stores in the area.
Democrats have nominated Michael Kripchak, an Army veteran and retired police officer. But Rulli happened is a great leader in fundraising in the deep red region. A GOP victory here would help eliminate Republicans’ slim majority in the House.
Early elections held in such districts are usually associated with low voter turnout. But all attention may turn to the area again in the fall, even if the congressional district is unlikely to change hands. That’s because the Youngstown area is key to Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s re-election bid a year from now.