Four takeaways from the biggest Primary night since Super Tuesday
It was the biggest primary night since Super Tuesday and there were few surprises in the results.
Bernie Moreno won the Republican Senate primary in Ohio, with strong support from former President Donald J. Trump to become the Republican nominee in perhaps the most important Senate race in November.
Incumbent representatives have also overcome primary challenges in Illinois, and the results of a special primary in California will ultimately decide who completes the term of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was removed from his post last year and left Congress not long after.
Here are four takeaways.
With Trump’s strength, Moreno has the upper hand in Ohio.
Bernie Moreno, a wealthy former car dealer and political newcomer, emerged victorious from a three-way brawl in Ohio’s Republican primaries to determine who would face Sherrod Brown, the Democratic incumbent, in an increasingly Republican state.
The hotly contested primary proved once again how powerful a show of support from Mr. Trump is, especially in a state like Ohio. The former president backed Moreno early on as the Republican establishment tried hard to advance his chosen candidate, Matt Dolan, a wealthy senator.
But the star power of Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, and his former moderate senator, Rob Portman, was decisively outpaced by Mr. Trump. Mr Moreno cruised to victory, taking a narrow majority of votes in a three-way race.
Democratic establishments claim victory in Illinois.
Two incumbent Democratic representatives in Illinois faced major challengers in Tuesday’s primary and survived — demonstrating the power of the incumbent.
Representative Danny Davis won by a wide margin in the Democratic primary for the Seventh Congressional District. He has represented part of Chicagoland for almost 28 years. He is also 82 years old and faced a number of younger opponents who were eventually pushed aside after the Democratic establishment in Illinois rallied around Mr. Davis.
Representative Jesús García, a progressive Democrat known as Chuy, won by a wide margin in the Democratic primary in Chicago’s Fourth Congressional District, defeating his opponent, Raymond Lopez, in a landslide. The race was fought in part over immigration issues. Mr García, who has called himself a ‘proud immigrant’, criticism of President Biden when he called an undocumented migrant “illegal” in his State of the Union address. Mr. Lopez has been more conservative on immigration.
Another race featuring an incumbent, the Republican primary in the 12th Congressional District, was still undecided early Wednesday morning. Rep. Mike Bost is by no means a moderate Republican, and had the support of Mr. Trump, but was nonetheless challenged from his right by Darren Bailey, a staunchly pro-Trump Republican who will enter the 2022 race for governor of J.B. Pritzker lost by a wide margin. .
Kevin McCarthy’s seat remains in limbo.
Vince Fong, a Republican lawmaker, advanced in a special primary in California to end the term of Mr. McCarthy, a Republican who was ousted from his role as speaker of the House of Representatives and resigned shortly afterward.
Mr. Fong did not reach the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff, and two other candidates were close to second place, with still no votes: Mike Boudreaux, another Republican and the sheriff of Tulare County, and Marisa Wood, a Democrat and teacher. . The second election is scheduled for May 21.
Mr. Fong and Mr. Boudreaux advanced in a separate primary held on Super Tuesday for full terms starting in January 2025.
Trump and Biden, as expected, scored huge victories.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, their parties’ presumptive presidential nominees, posted near-total victories in the states that held primaries on Tuesday: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio.
But the results still reflected small but significant resistance in each party to their presumptive candidates.
Trump achieved overwhelming margins of victory, winning at least 75 percent of the vote in every state as of early Wednesday. Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race after Super Tuesday, won a notable minority of votes in each primary. Her best performance was in Arizona.
Biden took an even greater percentage of the vote in the Democratic primaries, winning at least 83 percent of the vote in every state as of early Wednesday. But some voters still expressed dissatisfaction with his candidacy. In Ohio, 13 percent voted for Representative Dean Phillips, who dropped out after Super Tuesday and supported Mr. Biden. In Kansas, more than 10 percent voted for the “none of the names shown” voting option.