Good morning. Welcome to a special post-Primary Day edition of On Politics. This morning, we’re looking at what last night’s results tell us about President Trump’s political power.
Trump’s primary-night display of power
If there were ever any doubts about what President Trump might call his total and complete sway over the Republican base, last night’s primary results should put those to rest for now. In Georgia, the Trump-backed candidate for governor was the top vote-getter in initial results. In Alabama, his choice for the Senate had a significant lead late Tuesday and is headed to a runoff. And in Kentucky, a rare Republican critic of the president lost to a Trump-backed challenger in the most expensive congressional primary on record. That decisive defeat of Representative Thomas Massie by Ed Gallrein in Kentucky was, as my colleague Robert Draper wrote from Hebron, Ky., the “apogee” of “President Trump’s midterm retribution tour against Republicans he deems disloyal to him.” Throughout the race, that outcome didn’t look like a given. Massie’s vivid personal brand — as a libertarian-leaning iconoclast — was a strong fit in his district in years past. The seven-term incumbent had survived saber-rattling from Trump before. He is one of his party’s loudest anti-interventionist voices amid the war in Iran that is deeply unpopular, including among a notable share of Republicans. Yet ultimately, the race wasn’t especially close, and it was an early night in Kentucky. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, given Trump’s track record this month alone. When Republican state senators from Indiana voted down Trump’s preferred plan to redraw the state’s congressional map, he promised payback. A couple of weeks ago, he largely got it — most of the anti-redistricting Republicans facing Trump-backed challengers lost their primaries. On Saturday, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — a two-term incumbent who voted for an impeachment conviction of Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — came in third place in his state’s Republican primary. Representative Julia Letlow, who has Trump’s endorsement, came in first place and advanced to a runoff next month against John Fleming, the state treasurer. Cassidy didn’t receive enough votes to advance. All of this bodes poorly for Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who is headed to a runoff next week against Ken Paxton, the state’s hard-right attorney general. Paxton received Trump’s endorsement on Tuesday. Republican senators are furious, and some are now voicing what for years had been a Democratic pipe dream: that deep-red Texas could actually be in play this year, if Paxton is the Republican nominee against the Democrat James Talarico. On the Democratic side, Bob Brooks — a House candidate who put together an unlikely coalition that included support from Gov. Josh Shapiro, a relative centrist, and Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist — won handily and will advance to a highly competitive general election. I spoke with Shapiro, who is up for re-election this year, about the pivotal role Pennsylvania may play in determining control of the U.S. House. You can catch up on my colleagues’ coverage below, and we’ll have more for you today on the fallout.
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