Voters’ messages in Florida, Wyoming, Alaska primaries
The biggest news from Tuesday’s primaries is from Florida.
“State Representative Angie Nixon, a progressive firebrand who ran such an underdog campaign that she could not afford a single television ad, won the Democratic Senate nomination in Florida on Tuesday in a shocking upset,” says The New York Times.
Nixon easily defeated retired Army Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, a former National Security Council official who delivered “searing testimony” against President Trump in his 2019 impeachment trial, says The Associated Press. Vindman had outraised Nixon by more than 16-to-1, with Nixon bringing in less than $1 million.
Nixon joined the Democratic Socialists of America in June, though the DSA hasn’t endorsed her candidacy, the Times says.
She’ll face Sen. Ashley Moody in a race to fill the last two years of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s former Senate term. Moody was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis after Rubio stepped down.
Also in Florida, two candidates endorsed by Trump — scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills and former administration official Catalina Lauf — lost their bids for Congress.
“People are frustrated, frankly, with both parties,” Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, a former legislator and chair of the Republican Party of Florida, tells Politico.
In the race to succeed Florida’s term-limited Gov. DeSantis, Trump-endorsed Rep. Byron Donalds will face David Jolly, a former GOP congressman and prominent Trump critic who became a Democrat. If elected, Donalds would be the state’s first African American governor.
After the redrawing of Florida’s congressional map, longtime Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz easily won the most contentious House race, beating Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and three other African American candidates in a South Florida plurality-African American district.
Wasserman Schultz, a former national party chair seeking a 12th term in Congress, was the only white candidate competing to represent an area of Broward County that’s helped send African American Democrats to Congress since 1992.
Her decision to run had created deep animosity, including charges by one rival that “she stabbed us in the back.”
Wyoming
“The power of Trump’s endorsement took another blow after his preferred candidate in Wyoming’s gubernatorial primary, Megan Degenfelder, lost to state Sen. Eric Barlow,” says The Washington Post. Barlow had years of experience in party leadership in the state legislature, as well as a cash advantage.
Alaska
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R, and former Rep. Mary Peltola, D, advanced to the general election in Alaska’s Senate race. Sullivan is one of Democrats’ biggest targets this year in their efforta to retake control of the Senate.
Peltola, who previously was the state’s sole House member, was recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and has been an “adept fundraiser,” says the Post.
Here are complete results of the primaries and a California runoff, from AP.
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You can call the Capitol switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and be connected to the offices of your representative and senators. To email your House member and your two senators, you can connect to their websites at Congress.gov. Most lawmakers seem to only accept emails from their constituents, but these leaders accept emails from Americans nationwide, at:
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer
Senate Majority Leader John Thune