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() — Voters in Kansas gave abortion-rights advocates a big victory Tuesday in one of America’s primary elections, going to the polls to defeat a measure that would have allowed the GOP-led legislature to impose new restrictions.
The Kansas vote was one of the first tests of the power of abortion rights at the polls since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end federal protection of abortion access.
Meanwhile, in Arizona, local election officials were still counting votes to determine whether a slate of state candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald Trump and promoted his lies about voter fraud won their Republican primaries.
In Missouri, the political comeback of a former governor was shut down. And in Michigan, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump has been removed from office, while the showdown in what will be one of the key gubernatorial races this fall has settled.
Here are six highlights from this Tuesday night’s primary:
Kansas upholds constitutional right to abortion
Kansas voters sent a dramatic message Tuesday, opting to keep abortion rights in their state constitution, just weeks after the US Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Polls have long shown voters overwhelmingly support protecting abortion rights. But the “no” victory in Kansas is evidence of that, and points to the Supreme Court’s decision having further angered voters and possibly changed policy on the issue ahead of the November election.
The “no” leaves the state constitution unchanged. Although state legislators may continue to attempt to pass restrictive abortion laws, Kansas courts have recognized the right to abortion in the state constitution.
The biggest warning for Republicans, many of whom have trumpeted Roe’s repeal and supported initiatives to pass stricter abortion laws, is perhaps the turnout in Kansas. With 78% of the votes on Tuesday night, almost 700,000 people voted in the primaries, a figure that already dwarfs turnout in the 2020 presidential primary election.
“This is further proof of what survey after survey has told us: Americans support abortion rights,” said Christina Reynolds, one of the main operators of Emily’s List, an organization that seeks to elect women who support abortion rights. abortion. “They believe we should be able to make our own health care decisions, and they will vote accordingly, even in the face of misleading campaigns.”
Greitens’ comeback attempt in Missouri comes to nothing
Missouri Republicans breathed a sigh of relief after state Attorney General Eric Schmitt won the widely open Senate primary, according to a projection.
Perhaps more significant than who won, however, in the deep red state, is who lost: disgraced former Governor Eric Greitens, who was attempting a political comeback. Greitens resigned in 2018 amid a sex scandal and campaign misconduct allegation, and later faced abuse allegations from his ex-wife, which he has denied.
Schmitt, the attorney general, emerged from a crowded field that included two members of Congress, Republicans Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long.
Former President Donald Trump stayed out of the race, issuing a tongue-in-cheek statement of support for “Eric” on the eve of the primary, leaving it up to voters whether that meant Schmitt or Greitens.
Defeat of a member of the “impeachment 10” in the Michigan primary
Rep. Peter Meijer became the second of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump to be unseated in a primary on Tuesday, losing to Trump-backed conservative challenger John Gibbs, projected.
Democrats played a role in pushing Gibbs, a calculated decision that has become a flashpoint, angering some Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans.
Meijer, a rookie, voted to impeach Trump just days after taking office, following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Gibbs, for his part, endorsed Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud. of 2020.
Meijer’s loss means the Grand Rapids-based 3rd District seat will be one of the most competitive House races in the November midterm elections.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is eyeing the seat as a potential pick-up opportunity, spent more than $300,000 on television ads seeking to bolster Gibbs with voters in the pro-Trump GOP primary, featuring him as a Trump-aligned conservative.
In Washington, two other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, Republicans Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, were trying to survive their own primaries. The state’s open, nonpartisan primary system, in which the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election in November, made them harder targets for Trump and his supporters.
Unknowns in Arizona
Arizona’s race for the Republican nomination for governor could hinge on whether former President Donald Trump’s supporters turned out in droves on Election Day in a state that conducts its contests largely by mail.
Karrin Taylor Robson, a former member of the Arizona Board of Regents who is backed by former Vice President Mike Pence and outgoing Governor Doug Ducey, led former TV journalist Kari Lake, a Trump-backed election denier, in early results. this Wednesday morning.
But the early results were mostly mail-in votes. Votes cast on Election Day were expected to favor Lake, a result of Trump’s years-long effort to undermine faith in mail-in voting.
Arizona’s gubernatorial primary was the most significant contest in a series of primaries that tested Trump’s influence over the Republican Party.
If Trump’s list of state candidates in Arizona advances to the general election, they would be in a position to take over the electoral machine of one of the most important states in the presidential battle of the country if they win in November.
Blake Masters, the Trump-backed venture capitalist backed by the millionaire spending of GOP mega-donor Peter Thiel, led the state force’s primary to face Democratic Senator Mark Kelly.
State Rep. Mark Finchem, a Trump-backed “Stop the Steal” activist who has said the state legislature should be able to override the will of voters in presidential elections, led the Republican primary for secretary of state. Democrats saw a tight race between Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes and state Rep. Reginald Bolding.
And in the race for attorney general, Trump’s preferred candidate, election denier Abraham Hamadeh, was leading.
But there was one person who had challenged Trump and his election lies on Tuesday, according to a projection: Rusty Bowers, the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives. Bowers testified in June about the pressure he faced to overturn the state’s 2020 election results from the former president and others. In return, he was censured by his party, called “unable to serve” and has now lost his primary for a state Senate seat.
Dixon’s victory in Michigan gubernatorial primary raises a referendum on covid-19 policies
Tudor Dixon, the Trump-backed conservative commentator in the closing days of the race and supported by large factions of Michigan’s Republican establishment, won the state’s GOP primary to face Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, projected.
The matchup in Michigan could be one of the most competitive gubernatorial races in the country.
Whitmer has cast herself as a bulwark of abortion rights in a state where Republicans have sought to enforce a 1931 law that would impose a near-total ban on abortion.
Dixon, for her part, framed the race in her victory speech Tuesday night as a referendum on the restrictions Whitmer put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dixon, a mother of four and backed by the family of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, is also an advocate for school choice, which could position education as a prominent issue in November’s midterm elections.
Progressives suffer another defeat in Michigan
Rep. Haley Stevens’ projected victory in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s new 11th congressional district over her colleague Andy Levin deals another blow against progressives in what has been a mostly disappointing primary season.
It’s also a resounding victory for the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its super PAC, the United Democracy Project, which has spent millions backing moderate, anti-Israel candidates in the Democratic primary.
Stevens and Levin support Israel, but Levin, who is Jewish, has been more willing to criticize his government’s treatment of the Palestinians and is the main promoter of the Two-State Solution Act.
Progressive Democrats, to whom AIPAC has frequently directed its spending this primary season, have bristled at fellow Democrats for accepting or courting support from the group, which has also contributed to Republicans denying the election. AIPAC has defended this practice, arguing that its political goals require bipartisan support.
J Street, a pro-Israel liberal group that has clashed with AIPAC, tried to boost Levin with a $700,000 ad buy in July, but that sum pales in comparison to the millions raised by AIPAC and the more than 4 million spent by the UDP.
