WASHINGTON (AP) — In Colorado, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebertone of the most polarizing members of Congress, tries to defeat a challenge from a more regular Republican in her primary Tuesday.
Two incumbent Mississippi Republicans face primary drains to retain their seats, including one who voted in favor of a committee to investigate the January 6 U.S. Capitol uprising.
In Illinois, Republican Representative Mary Miller, who said the… Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade . to undo a “historic victory for white life” at a meeting with former President Donald Trump — her spokesman said she was mistaken — goes against a fellow GOP incumbent.
A total of six states will hold congressional primaries, primaries or special elections on Tuesday. Many of the Republican races will test Trump’s national influenceand others could give the first hints of How voters react to the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion†
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BOEBERT’S LASTING STRENGTH
A freshman arsonist, Boebert saw her GOP-leaning 3rd congressional district in western Colorado become even more Republican after realignment. She is confronted by the moderate state representative Don Coram, a farmer and hemp farmer, who is dealing with what he calls Boebert’s extremism.
Coram argues that the incumbent party’s allegiance to Trump has led to the neglect of her vast territory’s all-important agricultural issues as she seeks social and conservative media celebrity. Boebert has railed against the “Biden regime” and the “Socialist” Democrats. She also trumpets her feats of arms for the Second Amendment and resisting COVID-19 restrictions that have closed her restaurant “Shooters” for a short time.
Boebert criticizes Coram for working with legislative Democrats. Her opponent is betting that voters alienated from Boebert’s provocations will elect someone more in the tradition of centrists who have played well in the area, including five-year-old Republican Scott Tipton, who lost to Boebert in a disrupted last cycle.
Also Tuesday, in Colorado’s very conservative El Paso County, eight-year-old Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn for a challenge from right from State Representative Dave Williams for his 5th congressional district seat. Williams was not added the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon”, code for an obscenity against Biden, to his name on the ballot.
Facing an ongoing House ethics investigation into whether he misused official resources for personal ends, Lamborn has survived primary challenges in the past as a staunch opponent of abortion and support for the sizable US military presence in Colorado Springs. . Earlier this year, Williams led a 24-hour filibuster in the state house over a bill that would allow unrestricted access to abortion. The bill eventually became law.
ILLINOIS BUSINESS CLASH
Miller, first elected in 2020, is no stranger to controversy. She quoted Adolf Hitler shortly after she won her seat and said at a meeting that “Hitler was right about one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’” She later apologized after Illinois Democrats called for her resignation. She also voted against confirming Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election and is a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
On Saturday night she made the “white life” comment as Trump stood behind her at a rally in Mendon, cheering the crowd. Miller has since said she is not a racist, and her spokesperson said she intended to say the ruling was a victory for the “right to life.”
She will face Republican Rep. Rodney Davis for five terms for the GOP nomination for the 15th congressional district, a sprawling, heavily red district in central Illinois that was being redrawn after the state’s shrinking population cost it a congressional seat.
Davis co-chaired Trump’s 2020 Illinois campaign but voted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has the support of nearly all 35 provincial party chairmen in the district and has vowed to “reimplement” Trump’s policies, including shielding the US-Mexico border.
In the suburbs of Chicago, meanwhile, reclassification means both Democratic Reps Sean Casten and Marie Newman are running for the state’s 6th congressional district, a blue seat.
Newman is a progressive first elected in 2020, when she defeated longtime Representative Dan Lipinski, one of Congress’ last anti-abortion Democrats. She faces an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation into whether she has promised federal employment to a political opponent.
Casten overturned a suburban seat in 2018 that Republicans had held for decades.
FLOOD OF CANDIDATES FOR ILLINOIS OPEN SEATS
More than 20 candidates compete for the chance to win the 15-term Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush, the only lawmaker to ever beat Barack Obama in a race. Obama challenged Rush in a 2000 US House primary and lost.
The heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District was redrawn after the 2020 census and now stretches from Chicago’s South Side to Kankakee.
Among the field to replace Rush is Jonathan Jackson, the son of civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson; Karin Norington-Reaves, a Rush-endorsed federal personnel trainer; Pat Dowell, a Chicago City Council member whose ward is in the district; and businessman Jonathan Swain.
Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos is also not seeking reelection to the 17th Congressional District in northwest Illinois, a largely rural job Republicans hope to change in November.
Republican Esther Joy King, who came close to beating Bustos in 2020, is once again running for the GOP nomination and is well ahead of her main rivals in fundraising. The Democratic field includes former meteorologist Eric Sorenson, Rockford City Council member Jonathan Logemann and educator Angie Normoyle, who has served on both her local school board and county council.
TWO RARE MISSISSIPPI RUNOFFS
Republican Representative Michael Guest is seeking a third term after the vote to create an independent commission to investigate the January 6 uprising in the United States Capitol. Fellow GOP representative Steven Palazzo is seeking a seventh term after being accused in a congressional ethics report last year of abusing his office by mis-spending campaign funds.
Both Guest and Palazzo failed to cross the 50% threshold to win outright in their June 7 primary. Gast now faces former Navy fighter pilot Michael Cassidy, while Palazzo takes on Mike Ezell, the sheriff of a coastal county.
Congressional runoff is rare. The Associated Press investigated state records dating back 70 years, to 1952, and found that not a single US representative from Mississippi had run in a primary during that time.
NEBRASKA SPECIAL ELECTION OVERLAP WITH JUDGMENT
Former Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska will be jailed Tuesday for lying to federal agents, just as voters choose a replacement for the rest of his term.
Fortenberry resigned in March after being convicted of deliberately misleading FBI agents over his knowledge of an illegal $30,000 campaign contribution from a Nigerian billionaire during a 2016 fundraising drive in Los Angeles.
Two state legislators, Republican Mike Flood and Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks, are running in a special election to replace Fortenberry, who served nine terms in the Republican heavy district that includes Lincoln and dozens of smaller rural communities. They will compete again in November to determine who serves a new term, starting in January.
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