One of the biggest races this primary- 4 Democrats and 4 Republicans are vying to become Colorado’s governor. Mark Sanford lost to his primary challenger. The Legislature isn’t expected to convene again until January, which means Frostman and Plumer probably won’t vote on anything before they have to run for re-election in November. The poll manager will ask if the voter wants to vote in the Republican or Democrat primary; the answer will determine which ballot they are given. He faces strong challengers in Catherine Templeton and John Warren, among others.
Advertisement
Schneider ran alone on the Democratic ticket and won nearly all of the votes cast in his race. He’s outspoken about LGBTQ rights while endorsing a $15 minimum wage and a partial semi-automatic gun ban – all notable contrasts with the Republican congressman, Pete Sessions, he’s trying to defeat in November.
While the state’s Senate race will be a marquee event in November, the general election matchup is pretty much decided.
Ranked choice voting: Twice in two years, ME voters have been asked to choose whether they want to elect candidates in a whole new way, by ranking them rather than picking just one. “One bumper-sticker message will be self-defeating”, said former U.S. Rep. Steve Israel of NY, who led Democrats’ national House campaign in 2012. His staff anticipates a higher turnout because unaffiliated voters now can vote in the primary.
Republican voters will choose among three candidates to replace incumbent Sen. The Democratic field includes establishment favorite Jennifer Wexton, a state senator who touts her bipartisan deal-making in Richmond and says the US should move cautiously toward universal health insurance, and political newcomers with calls for a $15-per-hour minimum wage and a more immediate move to single-payer, government health insurance. Tim Kaine, who does not have a primary opponent.
Virginia voter Robert Monroe, who lives in Glen Allen, says he voted for Abigail Spanberger in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in the 7th Congressional District because she is a woman.
Democratic State Sen. Jennifer Wexton was the clear victor in a six-way primary in a northern Virginia district considered key to the House battleground map this fall, and will challenge Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock. Republican Adam Laxalt, the state’s attorney general, is likely to come out as the GOP candidate.
“I can’t imagine there is any other congressional district in the country where you knock on as many doors where people talk about having worked (in the government)”, she said. It stretches from north of Las Vegas through four rural counties in the western battleground state that Democrat Hillary Clinton carried in her loss to President Donald Trump in 2016.
Democratic women won their party’s nominations in two competitive Republican-held congressional districts in Virginia. Mills is one of several Democrats running in the open seat contest, a key pickup opportunity for Democrats.
Republican businessman Shawn Moody has won the right to run to succeed Maine’s Republican firebrand Gov. Paul LePage. Republican auto-repair company owner Shawn Moody won his party’s gubernatorial primary.
On the Democratic side, voters also face a choice between political experience and newcomer perspective.
In the Florida House, for example, Democrats would need to win more than a dozen seats now held by Republicans in districts that went for Clinton in 2016 – plus pick up five more. Because of the new ranked voting, his Democratic challenger is not yet known. He somewhat improbably won election to Congress a few years later.
FOX 54 has more coverage for June 12 primaries.
The race for Secretary of State also has a Swampscott connection, as town resident Anthony Amore, the security chief at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, is running unopposed in the Republican primary. Former Rep. Cresent Hardy won the Republican nomination, setting up a rematch with Horsford; Hardy beat Horsford in 2014, but lost two years later to Kihuen.
Advertisement
Daniella Cheslow contributed to this story from Washington.
