Wednesday, August 8, 2018

The Next Ocasio-Cortezes & Other Takeaways From Tuesday's primaries

There were several winners and losers in Tuesday's primaries in Michigan, Kansas, Missouri and Washington.

The progressive winners :
An Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-like shoe-in for the final election:
Rashida Tlaib (at left), winning Michigan's 13th congressional district Democratic primary in Detroit and some western suburbs. Tlaib is leading Brenda Jones by 33.2 percent to 29.2 percent. This race had later returns than other contests in Michigan, but the win looks assured with 96 percent of precincts reporting.
Tlaib was endorsed by the Justice Democrats and Our Revolution.

Andy Levin appears to be winning the 9th district contest, 52.2 percent to Ellen Lipton's 42.6 percent. Votes are not complete, with 84 percent of precincts reporting as of 4 am.
UPDATE:
Final returns show that Andy Levin won the primary with 52.5 percent.

In Kansas, Brent Welder appears likely to be the Democratic party nominee from the 3rd congressional district. Results were slow coming in. At last report (4 am) he was leading with 36.6 percent to Sharice Davids at second place with 35.1. However, as only 51 percent of the precincts were reporting, the race is fluid and different results could be reported by the end of Wednesday.

As in the Ocasio-Cortez vs. Joe Crowley match-up in New York, cash did not translate into victory; albeit, Welder was not outspent 10 to 1. The last report, July 18, in OpenSecrets.org had Tom Niermann  leading wit $723,192 raised to Welder's $677,990. Davids was third in receipts of $344,704 raised.

In Kansas' 4th congressional district (Topeka and environs) James Thompson (at left) enjoyed a landslide victory over Laura Lombard, 65.3 percent to 34.7 percent.  Welder and Thompson also had the endorsements of Justice Democrats and Our Revolution. Welder enjoyed the endorsement of Demand Universal Healthcare.

Also receiving endorsements by some of the above mentioned progressive organizations, David Benac, Steve Friday, Chris Smith and Fayrouz Saad did not win the 6th, 7th, 8th and 11th district primary contests.

UNFAIR REPORTING ALERT:
Much of the U.S. press is projecting Rashida Tlaib as a candidate who would be the first Muslim congresswoman. However, authors of these stories are not taking into consideration Ilhan Omar, also. The latter is a rising star in Minnesota politics. She has been endorsed by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, by the Justice Democrats and by Our Revolution to succeed Keith Ellison in the state's 5th congressional district. Minnesota's primary is next week, August 14, however, that state allows early voting. 

Washington state:
Both Justice Democrat candidates were unsuccessful in their quests for designation as the Democratic nominees for congress.

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