A small sigh of relief. Very small.
The horrific shooting in Texas has rightfully seized our attention but last night but there were some primaries as well. This rundown from the Bulwark has the best analysis I’ve seen yet:
Sarah Longwell:
The biggest upset of the night wasn’t Gov. Brian Kemp’s absolute demolition of the execrable David Perdue, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger unexpectedly clearing the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff with congressman Jody Hice.
Hice was handpicked by Trump to challenge Raffensperger for refusing to “find” him 11,000 votes in the 2020 election.
Pundits had been leaving Raffensperger for dead, but there were a couple of signs that the race was in reach:
1. Focus groups showed that challenger Jody Hice wasn’t breaking through with voters:
2. Perdue was cratering so badly that Trump steered clear of GA in the months leading up to the election:
Regardless of your political party, if you care about having elected officials with integrity oversee our elections—especially in contested swing states like Georgia—you should see Raffensperger’s win as a win for democracy.
Also, beware all the “Trump’s grip on the GOP is slipping” takes coming post-Georgia. I made the case against this analysis in The New York Times a couple weeks back.
Remember, Marjorie Taylor Green and Hershel Walker also both crushed their primaries in GA last night. The party—and the 2022 GOP candidates—is still overwhelmingly Trumpy. It just turns out that Trump can’t run a C team against a slate of incumbents—especially with the length of Kemp’s coattails.
Tim Miller:
We have spilled plenty of ink about Georgia, so I feel compelled to draw everyone’s attention to the nauseating result in the Attorney General race in Texas last night.
Suffice it to say, George P. Bush’s political choices have been pretty gross from my vantage point, so it’s hard to not feel a little vindication in seeing how little they paid off. But I think it’s important to step back and look at this race without any schadenfreude colored glasses. Yes, GPB sucked up to Trump. But he didn’t really go along with the Big Lie. He’s not a criminal. He’s not a racist. He’s a replacement level Republican in MAGA clothing who wouldn’t actually bring about an end to our democracy if push came to shove. And if he’s not your brand of tea well there was another woman Eva Guzman running who was offering basically the same brew with some less Bushy packaging.
But rather than choose either of those perfectly fine MAGA fakers Texas Republicans overwhelmingly backed America’s Craziest Attorney General (a high bar). The LAW AND ORDER party wants the top cop to be a kleptomaniac, insurrectionist, who was indicted for securities fraud. To add insult to injury as he awaited the returns that would give him a blowout victory, Paxton went on Fox to say that Texas’ response to a school shooting in the state that resulted in 19 CHILDREN dying on his watch should be arming and training teachers. I guess Ken’s plan is for the 2nd grade social studies teacher to be deft enough to escort her kids to safety while firing a few stray rounds at the next 18 year old shooter wearing military-style tactical body armor. As Paxton put it, the state just doesn’t have the resources to safeguard the schools themselves, so this is the best available option.
In short Texas Republicans voters have decided that they are just fine with the mass murders, corruption, and full frontal attacks on our democracy continuing unabated, as long as the state’s Attorney General is doing his real job of owning the libs.
Amanda Carpenter:
MAGA hailed Sarah Huckabee Sanders as the new symbol of female empowerment after winning the GOP primary for Alabama governor. Example: Glenn Greenwald gushed, “Sarah Huckabee Sanders poised to smash the glass ceiling, becoming the first woman elected governor in Arkansas’ history.” If only all women had the advantage of inheriting their father’s seat. Imagine how many glass ceilings could be smashed then!
Spurning Washington to come back home to Arkansas was a big part of her campaign. “When I worked at the White House, nobody ever cheered when I went up to the podium,” she said. “This is different, but I like it a whole lot better.” She must be enjoying the escape from mean jokes, reports about her lying about FBI officials, and getting the proper restaurant service she feels entitled to receive.
As one would expect, the former Trump White House Press Secretary-turned Fox News Contributor-turned candidate leaned hard into culture war issues and kept close ties to Trump. Although, she did play coy about Trump’s false claims of the stolen election— ” We know there is fraud in every election,” she said. “How far and wide it went, I don’t think that will be something that will be ever determined.”
She railed against the teaching of critical race theory, supported Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, and said she would have signed a law to ban minors from receiving hormones, puberty blockers, and transition-related surgeries that outgoing GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed.
But it’s the upcoming Supreme Court decision that might overturn Roe v. Wade that could put Sanders and her hardline view on social issues back in the national spotlight. “I am unapologetically pro-life across the board,” Sanders recently affirmed. When asked about exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life, Sanders answered, “I would not push for any exceptions.”
For some reason I don’t feel all that good about these races. I wonder why?