Meanwhile, a Republican lawmaker who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 uprising lost to a Trump-backed challenger early Wednesday, while two other House Republicans who supported impeachment awaited results in primaries. elections in Washington state. In Michigan, a new politician has emerged from the state’s messy Republican primary, setting up a rare woman-woman matchup in the general election between conservative commentator Tudor Dixon and incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Details from Tuesday night’s election results: RED STATE OF KANSAS REJECTS ABORTION AMENDMENT Kansas may seem like an unlikely place for abortion rights advocates to score a major victory. But on Tuesday, voters in the conservative state resoundingly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the legislature to ban abortions. It was the first major test of voter sentiment since the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The amendment would allow the Legislature to overturn a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling declaring access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state constitution. His failure on the ballot in a state that Donald Trump won by nearly 15 points is a stark warning to Republicans, who have played down the political impact of the high court decision. It also gives an important victory to Democrats, who are feeling young and energized as they head into a difficult midterm election season for them. Kansas currently allows abortion up to the 22nd week of pregnancy. After that, abortion is permitted only to save a patient’s life or to prevent “substantial and irreversible physical damage to an important bodily function.” Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, has warned that efforts by the Republican-led legislature to ban abortions will hurt the state. It became clear on Tuesday that many voters agree with her.
TRUMP’S REVENGE Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer was one of 10 Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to impeach Trump after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. On Tuesday, he became the latest victim of the former president’s revenge. Meijer, the heir to a Midwestern grocery empire and a former Army reservist who served in Iraq, lost the GOP contest to former Trump administration official John Gibbs. “I am proud to have remained true to my principles, even when it came at a significant political cost,” Meijer said in a statement. In addition to supporting Trump, Gibbs also shared Trump’s penchant for conspiracy theories: he parroted Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election and once spread false claims that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chair was involved in a satanic ritual involving bodily fluids. Major is the second of 10 Republicans backing impeachment to lose his primary, joining South Carolina Rep. Tom Rice, who was defeated by a Trump-backed challenger in June. Four others chose to retire rather than face the wrath of voters. And so far, only California Rep. David Valadao has survived — just barely. Also on the ballot Tuesday were Washington state Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, both of whom faced Trump-backed challengers for their impeachment votes. But those contests were too early to be called because Washington state conducts mail-in elections, delaying the reporting of results. Herrera Beutler’s challengers include Joe Kent, a former Green Beret who has cultivated ties to far-right groups and employs a campaign aide who was a member of the Proud Boys. Newhouse’s opponents include Loren Culp, a former GOP gubernatorial candidate who falsely claimed his 13-point loss to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in 2020 was the result of voter fraud.
THE TRUMP PLAN Most of the candidates in Trump’s Arizona had a successful night in the primaries. Senate candidate Blake Masters, whose campaign was funded by tech investor Peter Thiel, won his Republican primary after echoing Trump’s lies about a stolen election and espousing cultural grievances that animate the right, including critical race theory and allegations of heavy technology censorship. In the secretary of state race, Mark Finchem, an Arizona state lawmaker who worked to reverse Trump’s 2020 loss in the state, won his primary. In the state legislature, Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who testified at a Jan. 6 hearing on Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election, lost his Republican primary for a state Senate seat to a former lawmaker David Farnsworth, whom Trump supports. The possible exception to Trump’s winning streak was Republican gubernatorial candidate Cary Lake. After establishment-backed Karrin Taylor Robson, who was endorsed by Trump’s estranged vice president, Mike Pence. That could still change. Counts of Election Day ballots and late mail-in ballots likely to favor Lake are still being counted. Arizona has emerged as a key swing state. But it also matters to Trump after Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate in decades to hold what was once a reliably Republican state.
GREITENS RETURN CRASHES Democratic hopes of picking up a U.S. Senate seat in deep red Missouri took a hit on Tuesday after Republican voters picked Attorney General Eric Schmidt as their running mate over former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in disgrace in 2018. Greitens, they predicted, would be toxic in a general election. Democrats got a strong recruit in beer heiress Trudy Bush Valentine, who won Tuesday’s primary. And the state’s Republican establishment prepared to put millions of dollars behind an independent candidate in the general election, potentially breaking the GOP vote. However, Greitens came up short on Tuesday, finishing a distant third behind Schmidt and U.S. Rep. Vicki Hartzler. The evolution of his campaign can likely be traced back to March, when his ex-wife filed a bombshell legal filing over the ex-couple’s child custody case. Sheena Greitens said in an affidavit that Eric Greitens had abused her and one of their young sons. He also said he exhibited such “erratic and compulsive behavior” before his resignation in 2018 that others took steps to restrict his access to firearms. At the time, Greitens faced possible impeachment after his former hairdresser testified that he blindfolded her and held her in his basement, assaulted her and appeared to take a compromising photo to pressure her into keeping quiet about a case. He resigned from office — and refrained from testifying under oath in the case. He launched his comeback campaign for the Senate last year, promoting himself as an unabashedly pro-Trump conservative. And while many in Missouri wrote him off, one major political figure did not: Donald Trump, who publicly pondered Greitens’ traits. But ultimately, Trump stopped short of issuing an endorsement, instead issuing a vague statement this week that threw his support behind “ERIC.” And on Tuesday, the other “ERIC” in the race – Schmitt – won.
CLEAN RACE IN MICHIGAN In essence, Michigan’s hard-fought Republican primary was a contest whose candidate’s personal baggage was, to say the least, inappropriate. On Tuesday, conservative media personality Tudor Dixon was the winner, setting up a November general election battleground against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Dixon’s past as an actor in a string of cheesy, low-budget horror films became a campaign issue. But her career moonlighted in titles like “Buddy BeBop Vs. the Living Dead” and a vampire TV series called “Transitions” pale in comparison to the problems of its rivals. One opponent, Ryan Kelley, faces federal misdemeanor charges after he was caught on video in Washington during the Jan. 6 riot directing a crowd of Trump supporters toward a set of stairs leading to the U.S. Capitol. Kelley has pleaded not guilty. Another, Kevin Rinke, is a former car dealer who settled a series of lawsuits in the 1990s after he allegedly made racist and sexist comments, which included calling women “ignorant and stupid” and stating that they “shouldn’t to be allowed to work in public.” The third, Garrett Soldano, is a chiropractor and self-help guru who has sold supplements he falsely claimed to be a cure for the coronavirus. Many in the state’s Republican establishment, including billionaire former Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos, see Dixon as their best chance to defeat Whitmer. Trump endorsed Dixon in the race on Friday, just days before the primary. But her primary victory is a result few would have predicted months ago. In addition to the shortcomings of her opponents, her path was opened when the two best-known candidates in the race were disqualified from the ballot in May for submitting false signatures.
