2024-05-14 04:29:26
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Voters across Maryland and West Virginia will decide key primaries election‘s Tuesday with major implications in the battle for the Senate majority this fall.
At the same time president Joe Biden and Republican contender Donald Trump hopes to project strength in low-stakes presidential primaries, while further down the ballot two congressional candidates on opposite sides of the Capitol attack in 2021 serve as a stark reminder that the nation remains deeply divided over the deadly insurgency.
A total of three states hold statewide primary elections on Tuesday — Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia — as Republicans and Democrats pick their nominees for a series of fall elections. None are more consequential than the Senate primaries in Maryland and West Virginia, where Republicans are seeking pick-up opportunities that might flip control of Congress’ upper chamber for at least two years.
A Trump critic is fighting for Maryland’s GOP nomination
In Maryland, Republican former governor Larry Hogan is expected to dominate the state’s GOP Senate primary despite his longtime criticism of Trump, whom Hogan describes as a threat to democracy. The former two-term governor would be the blue state’s first Republican senator in more than four decades.
It’s unclear whether Trump loyalists will ultimately embrace Hogan. A total of six other Republicans are challenging the 67-year-old former governor.
On the Democratic side, Rep. David Trone locked in a contentious — and expensive — battle with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
Trone, the co-founder of the Total Wine & More national liquor store chain, put more than $61 million of his own money into the race. That’s just shy of the national record for self-financing a Senate campaign, with much of it going on a months-long TV ad blitz. The three-term congressman says he is better positioned to beat Hogan in November as a progressive Democrat not beholden to special interests.
Race was an issue in the primary, with Alsobrooks working to become Maryland’s first black U.S. senator. Trone apologized in March for what he said was the inadvertent use of a racial slur during a budget hearing.
Alsobrooks, who serves as chief executive of Maryland’s second-largest jurisdiction with the state’s largest number of registered Democrats, has been endorsed by many of the state’s top officials, including Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Rep. Steny Hoyer and a long list of state legislators.
She campaigned to increase economic opportunity, invest in education and protect abortion rights.
The West Virginia battle to replace Manchin
Meanwhile, in West Virginia, the Republican Senate primary is likely to decide whether Democratic Sen. to replace Joe Manchin’s retirement, given the state’s overwhelming Republican tilt.
Republican Gov. Jim Justice and U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney is the leading GOP candidate. With Manchin gone, the seat will almost turn red in November.
The Trump-endorsed Justice, a former billionaire with a people-friendly personality that has made him very popular in the state, is the front-runner once morest Mooney and five other lesser-known Republicans. A former Democrat, Justice switched to the Republican Party in 2017. He announced the change at a Trump rally.
Mooney tried to win over conservatives by branding Justice a “RINO” — which stands for “Republican in Name Only” — who would support Democratic policies. Justice did support Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, saying West Virginia might not afford to turn away the money offered in the bill. Mooney voted once morest it.
On the other hand, Democrats are choosing between Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who has Manchin’s endorsement, and Marine Corps veteran Zach Shrewsbury, who has support from the Progressive Democrats of America. Also in the Democratic primary: former Republican Don Blankenship, who was convicted of violating safety standards following 29 people died in a 2010 coal mine explosion.
West Virginia is also deciding its candidates for governor.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the Republican nominee in the 2018 Senate race once morest Manchin, is running for the Republican nomination. He ran once morest the sons of two members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation: car dealer Chris Miller, whose mother Rep. Carol Miller is, and former State Rep. Moore Capito, whose mother Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is. West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner is also in the GOP race.
On the Democratic side, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams is unopposed.
Tests of power in the presidential primary
There is much less drama in Tuesday’s presidential primaries.
Biden and Trump have already amassed enough delegates to claim the presidential nominations at their respective national conventions this summer. Still, voters on both sides hope to register a significant protest vote on Tuesday that will demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the Biden-Trump rematch.
Maryland progressives, particularly unhappy with the Biden administration’s support for Israel in its war once morest Hamas, are urging voters to choose “uncommitted to any presidential candidate” over Biden. There is no unaffiliated option in West Virginia or Nebraska.
Everett Bellamy, a Democrat who voted early in Annapolis, said he “uncommitted” voted for Biden as a protest once morest the killing of women and children and non-combatants in Gaza.
“I have to make a decision in November, but for now while the violence rages in Gaza and people are being killed and starving every day, I wanted to send a message,” Bellamy (74) said following an early voting center “Hopefully I’ll have a better choice in November.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s Republican critics can’t pick “uncommitted,” but they can pick his former GOP rival Nikki Haley, who will appear on the ballot in Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia despite having campaigned for more than two months. formally suspended. Last week in Indiana, Haley earned nearly 22% of the Republican primary vote.
Trump has shrugged off his Republican critics, but his weakness with the party’s moderate wing might threaten him in the general election.
Two sides of the rebellion
Tuesday’s elections also include two candidates who were intimately involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
In West Virginia, a former member of the House of Representatives, Derrick Evans, is running for the Republican nomination in the 1st Congressional District. The 39-year-old Trump loyalist served a three-month prison sentence following live-streaming himself while taking part in the storming of the US Capitol. He called himself the only elected official who “had the courage” to stand behind efforts to temporarily halt the certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Evans is trying to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. ousting Carol Miller.
In Maryland, former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn is one of nearly two dozen Democrats running in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. The 40-year-old Democrat was in the Capitol on January 6, fending off the violent mob.
And in North Carolina, voters will finalize their choice in what has become a one-person Republican primary in the state’s 13th congressional district. Trump endorsed Brad Knott this month, prompting his opponent to suspend her campaign.
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Willingham reports from Charleston, West Virginia. Peoples reports from Washington.
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