Strong Showing From Trump Candidates in Tuesday's Primaries Sets Tone for High Stakes’ Nov. Midterms

Five US states - Illinois, Colorado, Oklahoma, New York and Utah - held primaries for the 2022 Midterm Elections on Tuesday, with voters heading to the polls to pick nominees for governors, senators and representatives to the US Congress.

Ex-president Donald Trump's influence was again keenly felt on the ballot as five more states, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma and Utah, held primaries on Tuesday.

Overall, Trump and his supporters largely succeeded in tapping candidates for the party’s nominations for the general election in November, when congressional, state and local races will be on the ballot. According to preliminary results, many of the candidates who won on June 28 had either openly supported Donald Trump, or sympathized with the 45th POTUS and supported him in the past, including on the contentious issue of “fraud” and “rigging” in the 2020 presidential election.

Illinois

In the Illinois Republican primary for governor, the incumbent Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Democratic Governors Association, which he funds, may have reportedly spent close to $35 million trying to sway voters against state Sen. Darren Bailey, an openly pro-Trump Republican, but failed. Despite Democrats warning that Bailey embraced the Trump agenda, he handily won the nomination in a state that swung towards Joe Biden by 17 percentage points in 2020.

GO VOTE!!!! Pritzker is a failure. #twill pic.twitter.com/Iith2oNmDR

— Darren Bailey for Governor (@DarrenBaileyIL) June 28, 2022

Another Trump-endorsed Illinois Republican - Rep. Mary Miller - prevailed in House District 15. Due to the 2020 US Census, redistricting merged her district with that of fellow Republican Representative Rodney Davis and the two went head-to-head in the primaries, resulting in Miller's victory.

Utah

Utah Sen. Mike Lee efficaciously fended off two primary challengers on Tuesday. Lee had openly backed Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he claimed had been “rigged” to favor his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

His unsuccessful challengers - ex-Utah House member Becky Edwards and political operative Ally Isom - had not voted for Donald Trump in 2020, and attacked Lee for his unwavering loyalty to Trump.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) had stated in 2021 that Trump's remarks to his supporters during a rally on January 6, in which he urged them to "fight like hell," were not much different from comments Democratic lawmakers made, urging voters to publicly challenge GOP members of Congress.

"Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone's entitled to a mulligan once in a while…they're making it deeply personal… They're ceasing to make it about policy."

Lee has been in the crosshairs of the mainstream media, accused of being heavily involved in Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

In texts sent to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who turned them over to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 events at the US Capitol, Lee was highly supportive of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election through legal challenges, offering on Nov. 7, 2020 his “unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal to restore Americans faith in our elections.”

Mark Lee ultimately abandoned the effort when no evidence of widespread fraud was discovered, according to texts, cited by US media.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, endorsed by Donald Trump in March, easily won the nomination, far outstripping three fellow Republicans.

Rep.Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) secured the most votes in the GOP primary for the US Senate, despite failing to clear the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a runoff with former state Rep. T.W. Shannon, according to the Associated Press. Tahrohon Wayne Shannon, advisory board member for ‘Black Voices for Trump,’ notably addressed a rally of Trump supporters in June, 2020.

Markwayne Mullin, who last publicly met with Trump in April 2022, is known for his effort to secure legislation to overturn the House’s vote to impeach Trump for ‘inciting’ the Jan. 6 riot. He had initiated a bill, introduced in May 2022, that would have nullified Trump's second impeachment.

According to an email his office sent to fellow GOP lawmakers at the time, cited by US media, he stated, “The Democrats’ weaponization of impeachment against President Trump cannot go unanswered in the history books.”

Colorado

In Colorado, business founder and University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganal won the Republican primary election for governor.

Ganahl, who boasts strong links to the party establishment, was seen as the frontrunner early on, relying on support from influential Republicans, including former Gov. Bill Owens.

When she first launched her bid to run for governor, she was asked if she believed the 2020 presidential election was ‘stolen,’ as many Colorado conservatives do.

Ganahl told reporters she didn’t want to get into that on the day of her campaign launch. However, according to the Colorado Democratic Party, Ganahl had a “long track record of being in lockstep with Donald Trump, Cory Gardner and Lauren Boebert.”

Ganahl said that Democrats’ “dirty tricks backfired,” as she made her victory speech on Tuesday.

Furthermore, Trump-endorsed first-term lawmaker Rep. Lauren Boebert fended off a challenge from state Sen. Don Coram in the Colorado 2022 GOP primary race for US House from Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.

My wife’s favorite member of congress overwhelmingly won a primary tonight despite horrible lies. #AmericaFirst is rising.

The Swamp will be drained yet. pic.twitter.com/t901XiMQRU

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 29, 2022

Boebert made headlines when she called out President Biden, accusing him of putting US troops in coffins during his State of the Union address. The president had been discussing American troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I’m thrilled the voters showed their confidence in me to continue being their representative. Hardworking Americans recognize now is not the time to go along to get along, it’s time to stand up and fight for our American way of life. That is exactly what I will continue to do. Conservative Republicans like me are going to help take back the House in November, fire Nancy Pelosi, and do all we can to get our country back on track,” Boebert said in her statement.

High Stakes Midterms

Before Tuesday’s ballot, twenty-six states held their first round of primaries to decide who will be on the ballot in the November midterm elections and, thus, decide the balance of power in Washington and US state capitals.

The stakes are particularly high this year for the midterm elections in the US, on November 8, 2022, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested.

The loss of a Democratic majority in the US House of Representatives in the November midterms is believed to be virtually unavoidable, according to the Democratic Party's strategists cited by media. Republicans need a gain of only four seats to recapture the House majority.

In a Senate currently split 50-50, Republicans need a net gain of only one seat.

A GOP-controlled House could potentially roadblock President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda and, as the Republicans have long vowed, investigate his administration and family. Damning revelations about Hunter Biden, the president’s son, under federal investigation for possible tax fraud stemming from his overseas business dealings, have cast a shadow over the 46th POTUS.

House Republicans have pledged that if Americans entrust the GOP with a majority in 2023, they would use “tools at our disposal to ensure we get to the truth about whether Joe Biden has financially benefited and helped facilitate Hunter Biden’s business dealings.”