The 2022 primaries show that a Trump endorsement can rack up wins for conservative America First candidates. Arizona and Michigan stood out on Tuesday and Wednesday with some impressive winners.
Arizona
All of the Trump-endorsed candidates in Arizona won their primaries. Katie Hobbs' 2018 promise to make "votes count and voices matter" rang hollow again with the August primary. The election was fraught with issues starting with early voting through election day. A number of local races were left off ballots in Pinal County during early voting. Pinal County also reported that 63,000 mail-in ballots were delivered to the wrong voters. Issues with open WIFI, unattended dropboxes, running out of ballots, inaccurate poll books, and jammed tabulators were also reported.
In addition, Arizona seems to have problems finding the right ballot-marking pen. There were multiple reports of poll workers asking voters to use pentel pens instead of ballpoint pens despite the previous issues with bleedthrough on the ballots. Snarky election officials insisted ballpoint pens are worse. Frankly, the reports pouring into VotifyNow referencing the Sharpie conundrum show how ridiculous pen/Sharpie-gate was. Voters shouldn't have to argue with polling officials about what kind of pen they can use on their ballots.
Arizona may well be a bellwether state for the Trump movement. Honestly, it's no wonder. Between the irregularities found in the forensic audit and years of swampy McCain politics, I am surprised that a candidate like Kari Lake didn't win in a landslide. Dr. Kelli Ward has been uncommonly outspoken (for a GOP Chair) on behalf of the state's MAGA candidates. As a result of her efforts, Trump's endorsement, and some bold candidates, conservative Arizonans turned up the heat.
Hard-hitting candidates like Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Republican Mark Finchem won their races. Finchem won handily with 41 percent of the vote, probably due to his strong stance on election integrity. He says he won so big— his victory should be considered a mandate to fix elections. Finchem wants to replace machines with secure paper ballots and hand counts. He wants to eliminate mass mail-in voting. Finchem faces Democrat Adrian Fontes in November. Fontes is the former Maricopa County Recorder and was the opposite of helpful during the Arizona forensic audit. He received hundreds of complaints during the 2020 election due to issues with ballots, delays in opening polls, and poor training of poll workers. He was also heavily involved in the SharpieGate shenanigans, which caused high adjudication rates in the county.
What's Up with Maricopa County?
Kari Lake's race against Karrin Taylor Robson was initially a nailbiter for conservatives, but as election day results rolled in, she pulled ahead. The well-oiled Robson campaign allegedly tried to press the Lake campaign to concede when Lake was down 10 points earlier in the evening. However, Lake is not one to go quietly into the night. A former news anchor, she has made a name for herself by fighting the media with Trump-like pugnacity. She is articulate, sure on her feet, and embodies the fighter MAGA voters yearn for. Lake vows to fix the immigration issue and wants to clean up elections in the state.
Lake has taken every county but Maricopa and Maricopa is an absolute mess. They are taking forever to count the votes, shutting down for hours and then reopening later. Don't let anyone lull you into thinking it is okay to count votes for days.
AZInformer on Twitter comments that counties and countries with many more voters somehow manage to count and verify their votes by the end of election day. The media seems more than willing to help with Stephen Richer's election administration. The Maricopa County Recorder denied there were issues in the 2020 election.
The Library on Telegram shared a Gateway Pundit article that stated, "Maricopa County had 106,588k voters show up Tuesday to vote in-person. Of those, a record-breaking percentage voted for the GOP. In Tuesday’s Primary, 80.0% who voted in person selected a Republican Party ballot. Only 23.4% used the Democrat ballot." GWP also wrote that the percentage of registered Republican voters in Maricopa is 34%, 30% Democrat, and 34% Independent. The graphs from a "Democrat analytics organization" shows an election day "blowout" for conservatives.
U.S. Army veteran and former Maricopa County prosecutor Abraham Hamadeh was also endorsed by Trump. He won 32 percent of the vote and will face Kris Mayes, the only Democrat running for state attorney general. Republican Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers was given a resounding boot in the rear end. As a result, Trump-endorsed candidate Sen. David Farnsworth took a huge lead, 64 percent, in Arizona's 10th District. Conservatives in the state have been disappointed in Bowers' stance on Jan. 6 and the 2020 election. Bowers was censured on July 19 by the Arizona Republican party for sponsoring numerous bills that went blatantly against the Republican platform.
Blake Masters, also a Trump endorsee, beat Arizona's Attorney General Mark Brnovich in the Senate primary. He won about 39 percent of the vote and will face Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in the fall. Masters was backed by megabucks millionaire Peter Thiel. Brnovich has disappointed Trump supporters with his lackluster pace in investigating the election. Many conservatives were disappointed with the showing by businessman Jim Lamon. He was a promising and humble America First candidate.
Janae Shamp
RINO, David Schweikert won 43 percent of the vote in AZ01. Eli Crane won in AZ02. Incumbent and Trump endorsee, Paul Gosar, won handily with 65 percent of the vote. Gosar voted to overturn the 2020 election results. Rep. Debbie Lesko won but was unopposed. Trump endorsed candidate Wendy Rogers won in LD7 with an 18 percent margin. Robert Scantlebury (LD9), Anthony Kern (LD27), and Arizona's "favorite Cowgirl" Janae Shamp (LD29) all won their state senate primaries and all were Trump-endorsed candidates.
Michigan
Michigan's biggest wins were Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon and Republican congressional candidate John Gibbs in MI-3. Dixon will have her work cut out for her in November against the current school-lockdown-loving governor Gretchen Whitmer. Whitmer has been mentioned as a possible presidential nominee for the Democrats in 2024. Gibbs trounced one-term House Rep. Peter Meijer. Meijer was the only freshman Republican to vote to impeach Trump last year. Of note, the rude, radical progressive Rashida Tlaib held her own in the newly redistricted 12th District Democratic primary with 63 percent of the vote. Among those who endorsed her are the Democratic Socialists of America, Bernie Sanders' organization, Our Revolution, and Planned Parenthood. Republican Steven Elliott won his nomination in the 12th with a lead of 55 percent.
Matt DePerno, the attorney who went mano-a-mano with Whitmer and SOS Jocelyn Benson over the results of the 2020 election, and Secretary of State Candidate, Kristina Karamo will not be chosen by primary vote. Rather, they are expected to receive the Republican nomination at the convention in August. Both candidates have been heartily endorsed by former President Trump.
Three's a charm for Iraq veteran John James, with close to 87 percent of the vote in House District 10. Props for persistence! He was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in both 2018 and 2020. James ran a very competitive race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Gary Peters in 2020. Some think his 2020 loss was a casualty of election fraud in the state, and many wanted him to contest the race. Other noteworthy Michigan races can be found here.
Washington
Washington's primary "puts all candidates on one ballot and advances the top two vote-getters to the general election, regardless of party." The Democrats dominate politics in the state, and the primary races are proof positive of the bias. Money moves mountains and elections. Retired Green Beret Joe Kent failed to win his U.S. House race in part because he was "crushed by SuperPACs."
Kansas
Kansas surprised many with its vote against a proposed state constitutional amendment that would end protections for abortion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the amendment "would have allowed the state's legislature to ban or impose tighter restrictions on the procedure." It was a landmark event in part because there were no other compelling races to drive turnout at the polls. The measure failed with a healthy margin, 58 to 41 percent. Gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt and U.S. Senate candidate Jerry Moran both won with 81 percent of the vote. Schmidt is currently the Kansas Attorney General. Democratic nominee Mark Holland says Moran is "too extreme for Kansas" and says he will defeat Moran in November.
Missouri
Former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens lost his nomination for Senate to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Issues made public about Greitens' personal life may have swayed conservatives in the state. Greitens was a bold, unapologetic candidate favored by the likes of Bannon's War Room posse. He could have been helped by Trump but Trump stopped short of endorsing either candidate.
Some voters are concerned about Schmitt's commitment to following through with staunch America First policies, given Schmitt's alleged support of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Schmitt also shied away from support for Trump's 2020 election claims. Incumbents for Congress Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO3), Sam Graves (MO6), and Jason Smith (MO8) all won their Republican nominations with ease. The very young 23-year-old Mazzie Boyd won her nomination for the District 2 State Rep seat. She beat incumbent Randy Railsback with a whopping 62 percent of the vote. She was an executive assistant in the Trump White House.
November Election Should Be Fun
Republicans have a lot at stake in the upcoming General Election. However, they better gird their loins because the Uniparty plays for keeps. There is no doubt many Democrats and various RINOs are busy dreaming up other plagues to make way for mail-in ballots and late-night tabulation hokum. Throw in a dash of climate disaster, and you have a perfect recipe for an excuse to skip the election altogether and just appoint a bunch of people. The Democrat majority in the U.S. House is thin, and the Senate is split 50-50. This 2022 interactive House Election map shows the upcoming races. Currently, the House has 224 Democrats, 212 Republicans, and 6 vacant seats because of today's tragic death of Indiana's U.S. Rep Jackie Walorski. All House seats are up for grabs. The Senate has 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats, and two Independents who caucus with the Democrats. 35 of the 100 seats are up for regular election. 14 of those seats are Democrats, and 21 are Republicans.
