(AP) – Primary voters decide on Tuesday the fate of two South Carolina Republicans who cling to their seats in the U.S. House after challenging Donald Trump, while in Nevada, a favorite of the establishment with the support of the former president he faces a tougher challenge than expected. for the U.S. Senate.
Meanwhile, in Maine, a warlike former governor who once said he was “Trump before Trump” has retired from Florida to challenge an enemy for his former job.
Primary contests in South Carolina, Nevada and Maine will feature the latest test of the Trump political brand on Tuesday. North Dakota is also holding elections, although U.S. Republican Sen. John Hoeven is not facing a serious rival.
What to see:
NEVADA
Trump has backed U.S. Attorney General Adam Laxalt for the U.S. Senate and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo as governor. The good they do on Tuesday will measure the power of a Trump endorsement, which has yielded conflicting results this mid-term campaign season.
Laxalt’s political pedigree has helped him become a favorite. His grandfather Paul Laxalt was governor and senator of Nevada. And Laxalt’s father is the late US Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who first publicly acknowledged his paternity in 2013. In addition to Trump, Laxalt also has the endorsement of much of the ‘Washington Republican establishment, as it intends to run in November against the former. Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, considered one of the most vulnerable.
But Laxalt, who grew up largely near Washington, DC, and served as attorney general in the Navy, has faced a stronger-than-expected challenge.
Retired Army Captain Sam Brown, a West Point graduate and Purple Heart receiver who was badly burned in Afghanistan, presents himself as a conservative outsider. It has attracted public and won the support of those who see Laxalt too welcoming with the establishment. It also has the endorsement of the Nevada Republican Party.
In the race for governor, Lombardo, the head of the Las Vegas police department, is expected to face Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak in November. But he must first overcome a Republican primary challenge by former U.S. Senator Dean Heller and Joey Gilbert, a lawyer and former boxer, who was outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Beyond the marquee races, state Republican primaries for the secretary of state will also offer a measure of Trump’s lasting control over the GOP.
Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, is stepping down due to term limit laws. In 2020, he refused to give in to Trump’s pressure campaign to undo his defeat in the state presidential election, promising not to “put his thumb on the scale of democracy.”
Six Republicans are vying for the seat, including Jim Marchant, a former state lawmaker who has accepted Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud in the state. His website makes clear his position: “My number one priority will be to review the fraudulent electoral system in Nevada.”
Democrats have joined behind Secretary of State candidate Cisco Aguilar, a lawyer who previously worked for Harry Reid, the former Democratic Senate leader who died last year.
CAROLINA DEL SUD
Loyalty can be an inconsistent thing for Trump. And the perception of his lack is the driving force behind the heated primary challenges to two South Carolina Republicans in the U.S. House.
Rep. Nancy Mace worked on the 2016 Trump campaign and earned her endorsement when she ousted current Democrat Joe Cunningham from a coastal swing district four years later.
But shortly after his swearing-in, a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, and Mace told national television that “Trump’s entire legacy was erased” by the attack. Trump was furious and recruited a rival, former state MP Katie Arrington, who helped oust Mark Sanford from the U.S. House in 2018.
In Congress, Mace has tried to repair the fences, a little bit. He voted against Trump’s second ouster and opposed the creation of a Sept. 11-style commission to investigate the origins of the Jan. 6 attack, which was inspired by Trump’s lies. about a stolen election.
But he also voted in favor of former Trump campaign director Steve Bannon out of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 investigation. And he has publicly clashed with Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a far-right flamethrower and Trump acolyte.
Mace is not the only South Carolina candidate to have provoked his anger.
Trump also called for rivals U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, after he voted in favor of ousting the president over the Jan. 6 insurgency. Rice now faces six more Republicans, all of whom have cited the ousting vote as the main motivation for their campaigns.
Finally, Trump decided to support state Rep. Russell Fry, who has published television commercials comparing Rice to bad guys, including Satan. Fry told voters during a recent debate that “we will vote to remove Tom Rice from the polls.”
Rice, on the other hand, has focused on important but much more everyday issues, such as his achievements in securing funding for flood repair and assistance to farmers in the region during his five terms.
TOMORROW
Maine Governor primaries are a simple process, with a Democrat and a Republican seeking office. But they will close what promises to be a clumsy general election, facing two long-standing enemies.
Democratic incumbent Janet Mills is seeking a second term. She is a former district attorney, state legislator, and Maine attorney general who often clashed with Republican Paul LePage when he was governor. Now challenge her.
That the two even compete with each other is a bit of a surprise.
LePage, who was once described as “Trump before Trump was there,” moved to Florida after leaving office in 2019 after two strict terms that often drew national attention for his indecent comments.
But the draw for elected officials seemed too big. In 2020, he returned to Maine promising to challenge his old nemesis, whom he accuses of “reckless spending” and “heavy-handed” pandemic directives.
So far, LePage is lagging behind in fundraising behind Mills, but the race is expected to be one of the most competitive governor races in the country this year.
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Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Columbia, SC, David Sharp in Portland, Maine, and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
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