Primary Night Redraws the Battle Lines for November
Michigan, Missouri and Kansas set their tickets in a night that exposed deep fractures on the left
By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Voters in Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, Virginia and Washington went to the polls Tuesday, and by the time the count settled, the results told a story less about party unity than about a Democratic coalition still arguing with itself.
In Missouri's 1st District, Rep. Wesley Bell beat back a rematch challenge from former Rep. Cori Bush, the second straight cycle Bush has lost the seat she once held. Bell drew ad support from a pro-Israel super PAC; Bush had backing from prominent progressives, according to NBC News. "Progressives are supposed to make progress," Bell told supporters after the win, per NBC News.
Michigan delivered a split verdict for the party's factions. Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens for the Democratic Senate nomination despite what NBC News described as a large advertising disadvantage. In the 7th Congressional District, William Lawrence, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, won a three-way Democratic primary to challenge a vulnerable Republican incumbent this fall — a race NBC News called a key battleground in the fight for the House majority. Some Democrats worry his positions could complicate a general-election pitch in a swing seat, per the New York Times. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson won the Democratic nod for governor, and Rep. John James, endorsed by President Trump, secured the Republican nomination, setting up a competitive fall matchup, CBS News and NBC News both project.
In Kansas, State Sen. Cindy Holscher won a contested Democratic primary for governor over a rival endorsed by the sitting governor, and will face Senate President Ty Masterson, the Republican nominee, in what NBC News calls a top pickup opportunity for the GOP. Kansas voters also rejected a Republican-referred measure to let voters directly elect state Supreme Court justices — a proposal put on the ballot after the court sided against the party on abortion, per NBC News. In Missouri, voters similarly turned back a legislature-backed measure that would have required citizen initiatives to win majorities in all eight U.S. House districts to pass, according to the New York Times.
Politico called the overall results a mixed night for the party's left flank: a razor-thin margin that will "deepen divisions over the future of the Democratic Party," rather than settle them.
Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by NBC News, CBS News, The New York Times and Politico.
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