Primaries highlights: Updates from Wisconsin, Vermont, Minnesota, Connecticut
Primaries highlights: Updates from Wisconsin, Vermont, Minnesota, Connecticut The Washington Post
Breaking: Trump-backed Tim Michels is projected to win the Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial primary, setting the stage for a marquee fall race. Michels beat former lieutenant governor Rebecca Kleefisch to become the Republican nominee, the Associated Press projected, and will now face Gov. Tony Evers (D). A wealthy construction executive, Michels sparked controversy for first refusing to commit to supporting former president Donald Trump if he runs again in 2024, and then reversing course.
Voters in four states — Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont and Connecticut — are choosing their nominees for November as the primary season enters the final stretch and the matchups for the U.S. Senate are nearly set.
In Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes (D) won the Democratic nomination and will face Sen. Ron Johnson (R) in one of the most competitive races in the country. In Vermont, the retirement of Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D), who was first elected in 1974, creates a rare open seat. Rep. Peter J. Welch (D) was projected to win the Democratic nomination, according to the Associated Press, and will be heavily favored in November in the blue state. Connecticut Republicans selected Leora Levy, who had former president Donald Trump’s backing, to challenge to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D), who is favored to capture a third term.
In Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, voters have a twofold assignment: choosing a successor to congressman Jim Hagedorn, who died in February of kidney cancer, and selecting nominees for the November general election. The top candidates are former state representative Brad Finstad (R) and Jeff Ettinger (D), the former CEO of Hormel Foods.
What you need to know
Wisconsin GOP leader wins primary in spite of opposition from Trump
The Republican speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly fended off a challenge Tuesday from an opponent backed by former president Donald Trump.
The speaker, Robin Vos, has had a touch-and-go relationship with Trump for the past year over a review of the 2020 presidential election. Trump lost Wisconsin to Joe Biden by about 21,000 votes and courts have repeatedly upheld those results.
Vos launched the review last summer and then expanded it after being goaded by Trump to do more. Democrats, along with some Republicans, have called the review an expensive circus that has undermined confidence in a secure voting system. Trump and his allies have called the review insufficient, alleging that Vos hasn’t been willing to go far enough.
Trump last week endorsed Vos’s opponent, Adam Steen, who has called for decertifying the 2020 results. Constitutional scholars say doing that is legally impossible.
Michael Gableman, a former state Supreme Court justice who was picked by Vos to lead the probe, turned against the speaker last week by also endorsing Steen. He recorded a robocall emphasizing Trump’s support for Steen and claiming Vos “never wanted a real investigation.”
After the race was called for him, Vos told reporters at his election night party that Gableman was an embarrassment to the state. He said Republicans in the Assembly would meet soon to decide whether to allow Gableman to continue his investigation of the election, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
