Three of former President Donald Trump’s preferred candidates suffered defeat on Tuesday, and a member of the House liberal “squad” became the first incumbent Democrat to lose a primary.
However, other incumbents who faced challengers won or were close to winning.
Here are five takeaways from the results of a runoff election in South Carolina and primaries in Colorado, New York and Utah.
Support for Trump has limits
It’s not every day that the former president loses a Republican primary, but on Tuesday it happened three times.
In Utah, Republican Rep. John Curtis won the primary to succeed outgoing Senator Mitt Romney, defeating several candidates, including Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who ran as a Trump-backed candidate and won the endorsement of the state’s Republican convention in April.
Although Utah is made up of reliably Republican voters, Trump has not found the same support in the Republican Beehive State as he has elsewhere, so the idea that the former president’s support could not prevail in a primary, especially against an incumbent member of the House, was not too surprising.
But two more House elections may say more about the limits of Trump’s support.
Sheri Biggs defeated Trump-backed pastor Mark Burns in a runoff for the Republican nomination for South Carolina’s 3rd District after Burns won the majority of votes in a larger primary two weeks ago.
Biggs, a nurse and lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, had the backing of Governor Henry McMaster, a Trump ally, for the seat vacated by the resignation of Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan.
Biggs won narrowly, receiving just 51 percent of the vote, according to Associated Press figures. But the story was different in Colorado’s 5th District, where Rep. Doug Lamborn is retiring and former radio talk show host Jeff Crank soundly defeated Trump-backed state Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams. Crank received 65 percent of the vote, while Williams received 35 percent. Williams had faced criticism and even calls to resign after calling for the burning of gay pride flags on the party’s social media feed.
However, neither Biggs nor Crank should be viewed as advocating an “anti-Trump” stance, as was evident in the congratulatory statements from the Conservatives for American Excellence super PAC, which has spent more than $1.1 million in total supporting the pair or attacking their opponents.
“Jeff Crank … supports building the wall to prevent illegal immigrants from entering our country, and he will work with President Trump to get our economy moving again,” the statement said.
“Sheri Biggs has always put her country before herself,” said another. “South Carolina has chosen to send the right candidate to Congress who will work with President Trump to push through an America First agenda.”
Trump also endorsed Rep. Celeste Maloy, but that was not enough to ensure her smooth passage through the Republican primary in Utah’s 2nd District.
In a race that had not been called as of Wednesday afternoon, Maloy held a narrow lead over retired Colby Jenkins, who was endorsed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). Maloy won a special election to fill the seat last year but finished behind Jenkins at the state party convention in April.
Money wins
The most expensive House primary ever ended in defeat for the goal of funding the bulk of spending, according to AdImpact. Democratic Representative Jamaal Bowman’s attempt to be re-nominated in New York’s 16th District was defeated by Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
Super PACs supporting Israel and the cryptocurrency industry invested more than $17 million to support Latimer or oppose Bowman, while groups supporting Bowman spent less than $3 million.
With no votes announced in last week’s Republican primary in Virginia’s 5th District – where Rep. Bob Good is trailing Trump-backed challenger John McGuire but is demanding a recount – Bowman was arguably the first member of the House to be defeated by a challenger who is not another member of the House.
On a smaller scale, the Republican nomination to challenge vulnerable Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo in Colorado’s 8th District went to the candidate who had spent the most money and used the most outside help: state Rep. Gabe Evans.
Reports to the Federal Election Commission showed that Evans raised $646,000, rivaling Janak Joshi’s $189,000. And the low-tax, low-spending group Americans for Prosperity Action spent another $331,000 to support Evans. He ultimately won with nearly 78 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, in New York’s 1st District, former chemistry professor Nancy Goroff invested $1.2 million of her own money in a Democratic primary against former CNN political analyst John Avlon. However, Avlon had already raised more than $1.7 million from donors and outside groups contributed another $1.6 million to his support.
With 70 percent of the votes cast, he was nominated as a candidate to run against Republican Representative Nick LaLota.
Money doesn’t always win
State Senator Mike Kennedy won the Republican nomination for Curtis’ seat in Utah’s 3rd District with 36 percent of the vote in a five-candidate field.
Second place went to Case Lawrence, who founded a nationwide chain of trampoline parks and invested $3.1 million of his own money in the campaign. Third place went to JR Bird, the mayor of Roosevelt, who loaned his campaign $1 million.
While Kennedy has invested some of his own money in the campaign, he has only spent about $156,000 through June 5, according to FEC reports. His total spending through that date was $378,000, compared to Bird’s $1.1 million and Case’s $2.8 million.
Planning big things with a short horizon
Greg Lopez will likely rent rather than buy when he comes to Washington after winning the special election to fill the remainder of the term of Rep. Ken Buck, who gave up his seat in Colorado’s 4th District. That’s because Lopez did not run for a full term in Tuesday’s concurrent primary.
While he’s here, Lopez plans to join the House Freedom Caucus and take on some hot-button issues.
“I want to present some options and different angles on how we can solve the border crisis, while also drawing attention to our national debt,” he said. “Those are the two issues I’m focused on because I’m realistic about what I can accomplish in six months.”
A change of scenery can help
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert entered this election campaign as one of the most vulnerable members of the House, having narrowly defeated Democrat Adam Frisch in Colorado’s 3rd District in 2022. Rather than run against Frisch again and also face a challenge from her Republican colleague, attorney Jeff Hurd, Boebert decided to run in the 4th District after Buck announced he would not run again.
She had Trump’s support and won the Republican nomination on Tuesday with 43 percent of the vote against five challengers. Colorado has no runoff law.
Hurd, meanwhile, defeated four challengers to win the 3rd District nomination with 41 percent of the vote, a victory for the GOP establishment that backed him over former state Rep. Ron Hanks. Democrats had tried to influence the election with ads criticizing Hanks as too conservative, a sign that he could be seen as a weaker challenger to Frisch, who ran unopposed in the primary.
Another Republican who switched districts, New York Rep. Claudia Tenney, ran in the 24th District in 2022 after the state’s map was redrawn. That year, Tenney was challenged by attorney Mario Fratto in a Republican primary and won by nearly 14 points in a three-way race.
Fratto challenged Tenney again on Tuesday and this time won in a direct duel by 22 points.
