Wisconsin race tight: Key takeaways from US primary election results

Democratic socialist Francesca Hong and centrist David Crowley are neck-and-neck in swing state Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary election held on Tuesday.

The Democratic race in Wisconsin reflects a wider, ongoing battle inside the Democratic primaries between mainstream, “establishment” candidates, referred to as “moderates” by Democrats, and more left-wing, “progressive” democratic socialists.

Besides Wisconsin, Alabama, Connecticut, Minnesota, South Carolina and Vermont also conducted primary elections on Tuesday.

In Vermont’s Democratic gubernatorial race, Amanda Janoo won with 49.1 percent of the vote, while Aly Richards trailed behind with 46.5 percent of the vote, with about 98 percent votes counted, according to The Associated Press. Republican incumbent Phil Scott ran unopposed and won, while Trump-favoured Rhett Marques won in Alabama.

Here are some of the key takeaways from Tuesday’s primary races.

Wisconsin shows how divided Democrats are

With 94 percent of votes counted by Wednesday morning, Democratic votes for Crowley and Hong were less than one percentage point apart, according to AP.

Milwaukee County Executive Crowley, endorsed by current governor Tony Evers, was slightly ahead with 39.9 percent of the vote, compared with Democratic Socialist Hong’s 39.5 percent.

The winning candidate will face the Republican’s pick, US Representative Tom Tiffany, who won his Republican nomination by 95.3 percent, in the November general election.

In Wisconsin, Hong’s left-leaning policy goals, including abolishing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, a one-year moratorium on new data centres and increased taxation of billionaires and corporations, have proved popular with a sizeable number of Democratic voters.

This supports the findings of a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll which indicates a growing number of Democratic voters want their party’s candidates to track further to the left.

More than seven in 10 Democrats who identify as liberal said they consider it “essential” that their party’s candidates support raising taxes on corporations and billionaires (76 percent), expanding access to abortion (72 percent) and universal government-provided healthcare (71 percent).

But unlike Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive candidate who won the Michigan Democratic Senate primary earlier this month, Hong is running without endorsements from US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont or US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

Hong has also faced criticism for past posts on social media, including a November 2020 X post, at the height of a COVID-19 wave, in which she wrote, “Please DON’T gather for the colonizer holiday,” and another when she said, “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621”.

In recent interviews, Hong has walked back those statements, saying that as a chef, she had fond memories of the Thanksgiving holiday, but that Thanksgiving is a time that is painful for many people. In another interview, she said that she did not want to cancel Thanksgiving.

Minnesota: Progressives score a win; Trump ally loses governor nomination

Minnesota’s Democratic Senate primary also showed there is momentum behind left-leaning candidates, with progressive Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who was elected on a ticket with Governor Tim Walz in 2018, beating more moderate Representative Angie Craig.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, Flanagan had won 59 percent of the votes while Craig trailed with 39.4 percent.

Tuesday’s primary results in the Upper Midwest also raised questions about the power of an endorsement by United States President Donald Trump.

In Minnesota, former MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell lost the Republican nomination for governor to Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Lisa Demuth, despite the vocal backing of Trump.

With about 99 percent of votes counted, Demuth had 43.4 percent of the votes, while Lindell trailed with 32.5 percent.

Lindell is an enduring Trump ally and proponent of the debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from the Republicans.

Lindell received Trump’s endorsement in May, when the president wrote on Truth Social, “Mike will be SPECTACULAR!!! He truly loves Minnesota, as do I, and wants to bring it back from oblivion and embarrassment. He can do it!”

Demuth is expected to face a tough battle against Democratic nominee Senator Amy Klobuchar, who won her party’s nomination in the aftermath of “Operation Metro Surge“, the Trump administration’s immigration deportation campaign in Minneapolis that resulted in the killing of two protesters by officers earlier this year.

Trump’s endorsement wins in Alabama

A Trump-backed candidate did win the Republican primary in Alabama’s newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District.

Rhett Marques won the race in the district with 50 percent of the vote while Hampton Harris trailed behind with 21.6 percent of the vote, according to AP.

In April, the Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana Republicans could redraw the electoral map. The redrawn map now favours Republicans by eliminating one of two districts in which Black voters make up a majority or near-majority, raising hopes in the party that they can flip it from the Democrats.

The Republican nominee will face Democrat Shomari Figures, who is hoping for a second term in the seat but now faces a tougher challenge.

Ammie Akin won the Republican primary for the 7th District while Jenny Carl won the race for the 1st District.

The fight to replace Lindsey Graham isn’t over

Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, advanced to a run-off for the Republican Party’s nomination for the South Carolina US Senate seat in November’s election following her brother’s death.

In a race between 10 candidates, Graham received 32.7 percent of the vote and Ralph Norman trailed behind, with 24.7 percent of the vote, according to AP.

She will face existing US Representative Ralph Norman in an August 25 run-off. The eventual Republican nominee is favoured to win in November.

Governor Henry McMaster had appointed Graham to serve the rest of her brother’s Senate term through to early January, following his unexpected death from a heart ailment.

Trump endorsed Darline Graham, who has never held public office, for a full six-year term, calling it a “fabulous tribute” to her brother.

But critics said her bid, based on family name recognition and presidential backing without a political record of her own, had the air of a coronation.

Graham has said that she is “not being handed” the seat and that she realises that she needs to earn votes.