Yesterday’s elections weren’t just about the Democratic presidential sweepstakes. There were important primaries involving Senate and House races for both parties.
I covered one of them — the Alabama Senate primary on the GOP side. Jeff Sessions finished a close (and disappointing) second and faces a runoff race with former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville.
For Democrats, rejection of the most radical candidates was a theme that carried over from the presidential primaries. In California, where the radical Sanders won, a special election was held to fill the seat abandoned by Rep. Kate Hill after her sexual misconduct was exposed. One of the candidates was Cenk Uygur of the ultra-left Young Turks.
Support for Uygur, a sexist pig, was negligible. The choice of only 6 percent of voters, he was little more than a blip on the election radar.
Democrat Christy Smith and Republican Mike Garcia emerged from the free for all. They will compete in what might be a tight runoff race on May 12. This district, CA 25, was held by a Republican until Hill won it.
In North Carolina, the Democrats selected their challenger to Sen. Thom Tillis. It will be Cal Cunningham, a former state senator. He defeated current state senator Erica Smith, who ran as a radical leftist (for example, she backed the Green New Deal).
Republicans were hoping Smith would win. A GOP super PAC reportedly spent $3 million to boost her campaign. However, Cunningham prevailed easily, 57-35. He will be a considerably stronger candidate than Smith would have been.
Texas also featured a showdown between the Democrats’ ultra-radical wing and its conventional liberal faction. In a district on the Mexican border, veteran Rep. Henry Cuellar faced an intense challenge from Jessica Cisneros, a disciple of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (I know, AOC is young to have disciples, but Cisneros is only 26 years old.)
Cisneros didn’t just have Ocasio-Cortez’s support. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren endorsed her, as did Emily’s List, a pro-abortion outfit.
The race was close, but Cuellar prevailed, 52-48. In raw votes, his margin was less than 3,000.
On the Republican side in Texas, Rep. Kay Granger, the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, survived a challenge from Chris Putnam. With the support of the Club for Growth, Putnam attacked Granger for not being fiscally responsible.
Boosted by President Trump’s endorsement, Granger beat back the challenge, 58-42. Fiscal responsibility seemingly has lost some of its resonance for Republicans.
I also kept an eye on Darrell Issa’s comeback attempt in California. Issa is making that attempt in a district adjacent to the one he used to represent. He’s hoping to fill the seat held by Duncan Hunter, who resigned after admitting to campaign finance fraud.
As with the race to succeed Hill, this contest was open to Democrats and Republicans. The key for GOP candidates was to beat back fellow Republicans and make it to the runoff against the leading Democrat.
Issa appears to have succeeded. He’s narrowly ahead of fellow Republican and conservative talk show host Carl DeMaio for second place, but the absentee ballots still need to be counted. If Issa’s lead holds, he will face the top vote getter, Ammar Campa-Naijar.
Campa-Naijar received 34 percent of the vote. The top three Republicans collected 57 percent.
Campa-Naijar ran a close second to Hunter in 2018, but Hunter was already under indictment. This time, the GOP candidate, whether it’s Issa or DeMaio, will not be burdened in this way. The district (CA 50) looks like a probable GOP pickup.
In sum, last night was a good one for “establishment” candidates and a bad one for insurgents.
