The Kansas vote was one of the first tests of the power of abortion rights at the polls since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and ending federal protections for access to abortion.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, local election officials were still counting votes to determine whether a statewide slate of candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump and promoted his lies about voter fraud won the their Republican primaries.
In Missouri, a former governor’s political comeback was shut down. And in Michigan, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump was impeached, as the party set up for what will be one of the key gubernatorial races this fall.
Kansas upholds the constitutional right to abortion
Kansas voters sent a dramatic message Tuesday, choosing to keep abortion rights in their state constitution just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Polls have long shown voters support protecting abortion rights. But the “no” victory in Kansas is proof of that, and indicates that the Supreme Court’s decision has further angered voters and possibly changed the politics of the issue ahead of the November election.
The “no” vote leaves the state constitution unchanged. Although state lawmakers may still try to pass restrictive abortion laws, Kansas courts have recognized the right to abortion under the state constitution.
Perhaps the biggest caveat for Republicans, many of whom have heralded overturning Roe and backed the push to pass stricter abortion laws, is the turnout in Kansas. With 78% of the vote cast Tuesday night, nearly 700,000 people have voted in the primary, a number that already exceeds turnout in the 2020 presidential primary.
“This is further proof of what poll after poll has told us: Americans support abortion rights,” said Christina Reynolds, a chief operative at Emily’s List, an organization that seeks to elect women who support abortion rights. “They believe we should be able to make our own decisions about health care, and they will vote accordingly, even in the face of misleading campaigns.”
Greitens’ comeback attempt falls flat
Missouri Republicans breathed a sigh of relief after state Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the open Senate primary, according to a CNN projection.
Perhaps more significant than who won, however, in the deep red state, is who lost: disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens, who was attempting a political comeback. Greitens resigned in 2018 amid a sex scandal and an allegation of campaign misconduct and later faced abuse allegations from his ex-wife, which he has denied.
Schmitt, the attorney general, emerged from a crowded field that included two members of Congress, Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long.
Former President Donald Trump stayed out of the race and issued a tongue-in-cheek statement endorsing “Eric” on the eve of the primary, leaving it up to voters to interpret whether that meant Schmitt or Greitens.
A member of the ‘impeachment 10’ is defeated
Rep. Peter Meijer became the second of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach former President Donald Trump in a primary Tuesday, losing to Trump-endorsed conservative challenger John Gibbs, CNN predicted.
Democrats played a role in Gibbs’ push, a calculated decision that has become a flashpoint, angering some Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans.
Meijer, a freshman, voted to impeach Trump within days of taking office, following the January 6, 2021 uprising. Meanwhile, Gibbs supported Trump’s lies about the fraud widespread in the 2020 elections.
Meijer’s loss means Grand Rapids’ 3rd District seat will be one of the most competitive House contests in November’s midterm elections.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, eyeing the seat as a potential pick-up opportunity, spent more than $300,000 on television ads seeking to shore up Gibbs with pro-Trump GOP primary voters by portraying him as a Trump-aligned conservative .
In Washington, two other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, were trying to survive their own primaries. The state’s open, nonpartisan primary system in which the top two finishers, regardless of the party’s advance in the November general election, made them tougher targets for Trump and his supporters.
Strangers in Arizona
Arizona’s race for the Republican nomination for governor could hinge on whether former President Donald Trump’s supporters show up in force on Election Day in a state that conducts its elections mostly by mail.
Karrin Taylor Robson, a former member of the Arizona Board of Regents who has the support of former Vice President Mike Pence and outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey, directed former TV reporter Kari Lake, a Trump-endorsed pollster, wednesday morning
But the early results were largely mail-in ballots. Election Day votes were expected to favor Lake, the result of Trump’s years-long effort to undermine faith in mail-in voting.
Arizona’s gubernatorial primary was the most important contest in a series of primaries that tested Trump’s influence over the GOP.
If Trump’s slate of state candidates in Arizona advances to the general election, they would be in a position to take over the electoral machinery of one of the nation’s top presidential battleground states if they win in November.
Blake Masters, the Trump-endorsed venture capitalist backed by millions in spending from Republican mega-donor Peter Thiel, led the state’s Republican primary to face Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly.
State Rep. Mark Finchem, a Trump-backed “Stop the Steal” activist who has said the state legislature should be able to override the will of voters in presidential elections, led the Republican primary for secretary of been Democrats saw a tight race between Maricopa County Piper Adrian Fontes and state Rep. Reginald Bolding.
And in the attorney general’s race, he led Trump’s preferred candidate, electoral denialist Abraham Hamadeh.
But there was one person who had challenged Trump and his election lies kicked out Tuesday, according to a CNN screening: Rusty Bowers, the speaker of the Arizona House. Bowers testified in June about pressure he faced to overturn the state’s 2020 election results from former President Donald Trump and others. In return, he was censured by his party, branded “unfit to serve,” and has now lost his primary for a state Senate seat.
Dixon’s win in Michigan governor’s race creates referendum on Covid policies
Tudor Dixon, the conservative commentator backed by Trump in the final days of the race and backed by large factions of Michigan’s Republican establishment, won the state’s GOP primary to face Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, according to CNN projected.
The showdown in Michigan could be one of the most competitive gubernatorial races in the country.
Whitmer has become a bulwark of abortion rights in a state where Republicans have tried to enforce a 1931 law that would have imposed a near-total ban on abortion.
Dixon, meanwhile, framed the race in his victory speech Tuesday night as a referendum on the restrictions Whitmer imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dixon, a mother of four who has the support of the family of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, is also an advocate for school choice, which could position education as a prominent issue in the mid-term elections in November.
Progressives suffer another defeat in Michigan
Rep. Haley Stevens’ projected victory in the Democratic primary in Michigan’s newly drawn 11th Congressional District over her running mate Andy Levin is another blow against progressives in what has been a mostly disappointing primary season.
It’s also a resounding victory for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its super PAC, the United Democracy Project, which has spent millions backing moderate and more staunchly pro-Israel candidates in the Democratic primaries.
Stevens and Levin both support Israel, but Levin, who is Jewish, has been more willing to criticize his government’s treatment of the Palestinians and is a leading sponsor of the Two-State Solution Act.
Progressive Democrats, often the target of AIPAC spending this primary season, have pushed their fellow Democrats to accept or court the group’s support, which has also contributed to the negatives in Republican elections. AIPAC has defended the practice, arguing that its policy goals need bipartisan support.
J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group that has clashed with AIPAC, tried to boost Levin with a $700,000 ad buy in July, but that sum paled in comparison to the millions raised by AIPAC and more of $4 million spent by UDP.