From MTG to Herschel Walker, here are the Trump-backed winners of Tuesday's primaries
Donald Trump endorsed 27 candidates across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and the Texas runoffs. His win-loss record took a hit Tuesday.
By MARISSA MARTINEZ
The driving force behind Donald Trump’s election picks in Georgia was simple: the 11,000 votes that cost him the state in 2020.
Those who supported the former president’s efforts to overturn the election results were rewarded with endorsements. Those who didn’t — including Gov. Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr — ended up with Trump-backed primary challengers.
But things didn’t go quite the way Trump planned. Kemp won big over former Sen. David Perdue on Tuesday. Carr and Insurance Commissioner John King also won by huge margins. Raffensperger won the primary outright — he didn’t even get forced into a runoff, as many expected.
The fate of state Sen. Burt Jones, whom Trump endorsed in the open race for lieutenant governor, remains unclear. While he was leading his nearest challenger by close to 20 percentage points, with 96 percent of the expected vote in, it wasn’t clear if Jones would avoid a runoff: He was at 50.1 percent, a hair above the threshold.
Trump’s House picks in Georgia weren’t much more successful. While all 5 of the Republican incumbents he endorsed won, none of them really faced a competitive race — three of them, in fact, were unopposed. Trump also backed two candidates in open seat House primaries: Jake Evans in the 6th District and Vernon Jones in the 10th. Both finished in second place and moved on to June 21 runoffs.
The lone bright spot in Trump’s Georgia record? His recruited candidate for Senate, Herschel Walker. The former football star maintained a steady lead in the polls since the early days of his campaign and easily sailed to his GOP nomination.
We’re tracking Donald Trump’s endorsement track record through the 2022 primaries.
In Alabama, Trump ditched his original pick for the Senate, Rep. Mo Brooks, after the congressman’s campaign appeared to be flailing. But Brooks — one of Trump’s strongest supporters in Congress — launched a late comeback and made it to the June 21 runoff, where he’ll face first-place finisher, Katie Britt.
Alabama wins
AL01
Rep. Jerry Carl
Unopposed.
He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.
AL02
Rep. Barry Moore
Unopposed.
He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.
AL03
Rep. Mike Rogers
Won with 82 percent of the vote.
He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.
AL04
Rep. Robert Aderholt
Unopposed.
He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.
AL06
Rep. Gary Palmer
Unopposed.
He voted to overturn 2020 electoral votes.
Arkansas wins
GOVERNOR
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Won with 83 percent of the vote.
Sanders, Trump’s former White House press secretary, said she ran for governor to be part of the “last line of defense” against a Democratic-helmed federal government. In his endorsement, Trump said Sanders would “always fight for the people of Arkansas and do what is right, not what is politically correct” as governor.
Sanders, who’s favored to win in November, would be the second in her family to serve as governor — her father, Mike Huckabee, served two terms starting in the 1990s and later ran for president twice.
SENATOR
Sen. John Boozman
Won with 58 percent of the vote.
Boozman voted to acquit the former president in Trump’s second impeachment trial, though the senator said Trump did bear some responsibility for the events of Jan. 6. Trump endorsed Boozman anyway, providing key cover in a tough primary against former Arkansas Razorbacks star and Army ranger Jake Bequette.
AR01
Rep. Rick Crawford
Won with 75 percent of the vote.
He voted to overturn 2020 election results.
AR04
Rep. Bruce Westerman
Unopposed.
Georgia wins
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
Burt Jones
With 96 percent of the expected vote in, Jones was in first place with 50.1 percent of the vote.
SENATOR
Herschel Walker
Won with 68 percent of the vote.
Walker, who will face Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November, has had a relationship with Trump for decades, dating back to when Trump owned the short-lived New Jersey Generals football team in the USFL. “He was a great football player and will be an even better U.S. Senator — if that is even possible,” Trump said in September.
GA01
Rep. Buddy Carter
Unopposed.
He voted to overturn 2020 election results.
GA09
Rep. Andrew Clyde
Won with 76 percent of the vote.
Clyde, who voted to overturn 2020 election results, drew national attention for his cavalier downplaying of the events of Jan. 6 during a House Oversight Committee hearing. Not only was there not an insurrection, Clyde said, but “if you didn’t know that TV footage was a video from January 6, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.”
GA11
Rep. Barry Loudermilk
Unopposed.
He voted to overturn 2020 election results.
GA12
Rep. Rick Allen
Unopposed.
He voted to overturn 2020 election results.
GA14
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Won with 70 percent of the vote.
Greene, who voted to overturn the 2020 election results, is one of Trump’s most vocal supporters. In his endorsement, Trump said the lightning-rod freshman lawmaker has always been on his side, and is someone who “loves our country and MAGA, its greatest ever political movement.”
Texas runoff wins
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Ken Paxton
Won with 68 percent of the vote.
Paxton, who has been mired in scandal and faced abuse of office allegations for much of the past seven years, is a staunch Trump ally. As Texas AG, he challenged the results of the 2020 election in four battleground states but the case was thrown out by the Supreme Court.
He won his Trump endorsement at the expense of George P. Bush, the Bush family scion Paxton defeated in Tuesday’s runoff.
LAND COMMISSIONER
Dawn Buckingham
Won with 69 percent of the vote.
STATE SENATE
Pete Flores
Won with 59 percent of the vote.
STATE HOUSE
Frederick Frazier
Won with 64 percent of the vote.
TARRANT COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY
Phil Sorrells
Won with 59 percent of the vote.
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