Last night, primary elections were held in Maine, Nevada, South Carolina, and Virginia.
We won’t dig into every race in every state, but we have provided the high and low lights of last night’s elections.
Rep. Mark Sanford lost the GOP primary to state Rep. Katie Arrington. Sanford spent three months running a hard anti-Trump campaign while Arrington hired a Trump campaign advisor and ran as a candidate who supports the president’s agenda.
From Politico:
Sanford, long known for wearing his emotions openly and speaking his mind, has been one of the most high-profile Republican Trump critics in Congress. He’s called the president’s tariffs on steel and aluminum “an experiment with stupidity.” He’s called Trump’s disparaging remarks about Haiti and African nations “something stupid.” He’s said that Trump has done some “weird stuff” in office.During the 2016 campaign, Sanford said Trump should “just shut up” and stop focusing so much on his critics. He’s said that the president was “partially” to blame for the toxic rhetoric that led to the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.). He’s said that “trading slights seems essential” to Trump’s personality, and he gave an extensive interview to POLITICO Magazine in which he said the president had “fanned the flames of intolerance.”
And yes, this is the same Sanford who, while Governor of South Carolina, got caught galavanting through South America with his Argentinian mistress, ending his marriage and Governorship. He later broke up with his mistress turned fiance in a public Facebook post. She claimed she learned of the breakup from the press. So drama.
Also happening in South Carolina:
But I doubt we’ll see this guy splashed across every single headline and chyron.
Corey Stewart won the Republican Senate nomination last night and is already being cast as “a Roy Mooresque headache.”
It’s what looks to be a case of guilt by association.
Last year, Stewart was filmed saying Paul Nehlen (the biker with delusions of unseating Paul Ryan) was one of his personal heroes. Shortly thereafter, Nehlen was banned from Twitter and the GOP for a series of racist tweets.
When the video surfaced, Stewart ‘disavowed‘ Nehlen.
But Nehlen wasn’t Stewart’s only flirtation with crazy. WaPo has more:
It mirrors a problem Stewart had last year during his unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for governor. He said he regretted attending a news conference about Confederate monuments with Jason Kessler, who later organized a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville that erupted into violence and led to the death of a 32-year-old woman.
There are few things worse than being publicly smeared for befriending someone who later went on to do or say wildly inappropriate things. Buuuuuut, if you’re running for office, it helps to exercise a little discernment and avoid the far reaches of the fringe.
Last, but certainly not least, this guy, Eric Brakey, won Maine’s GOP Senate nomination.
The state Senator will challenge Angus King in November.
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