Tuesday primaries show Trump’s sway, Shapiro’s wins in key races

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President Donald Trump’s role in Tuesday’s primaries stood out across multiple states, with the GOP contests in Kentucky and Georgia drawing particular attention. In Kentucky, Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein defeated Rep. Thomas Massie in the Republican House primary, a result presented as another test of how far Republican voters will follow Trump’s lead even when he is at odds with sitting members of their party.

The Kentucky result ended Massie’s congressional career that began in 2012, though he remains in office until his term ends in January. The loss came after a feud with Trump, and the AP account described Massie as having pushed for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, opposed the war with Iran and voted against Trump’s signature tax legislation last year. In that same AP roundup, the Massie-Gallrein contest followed what was described as the most expensive U.S. House primary in history.

The AP roundup also tied the outcome to a broader message about Republican primary politics and intraparty control. It said Gallrein drew significant support from AIPAC and pro-Israel groups, with AdImpact estimating those groups provided about half of the money benefiting Gallrein’s candidacy. Even with that backing, the AP story emphasized Trump as the key factor, pointing to other recent primary results in which Trump backed candidates advanced or dislodged Republican incumbents.

Trump’s influence also surfaced in other parts of the GOP ballot on Tuesday, including Georgia’s gubernatorial nomination race and Senate endorsements elsewhere. In Georgia’s governor primary, the roundup described a battle between Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire Rick Jackson that led to a June 16 runoff, with Trump backing Jones despite Jackson’s reported spending advantage and Jones having received $19 million while Jackson put more than $83 million into the race. The same AP account said Trump stayed out of Georgia’s Senate race primary, and instead endorsed Rep. Barry Moore for Senate to replace Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor, as well as making other Senate endorsements including Attorney General Ken Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn.

While Republicans drew most of the focus, the AP roundup also highlighted Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s strength in his own party’s contests. It said Shapiro endorsed four Democratic House candidates—Paige Cognetti, Bob Brooks, Bob Harvie and Janelle Stelson—and that all four won their Democratic primaries, including three in contested contests. The AP story described the group as ranging from a mayor in Scranton to state and local officials and a former television news personality, and it quoted Democratic Pennsylvania Party chairman Eugene DePasquale as telling an election night crowd that “no one” is more invested in flipping seats and “taking back the country” than Shapiro.

Georgia offered another example in the AP roundup of how party alignment and Trump-related disputes can affect outcomes. It described Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan as two of the few Republicans willing to speak out against Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 loss, and it said both lost decisively in the governor primary. The roundup tied those losses to an election-year environment in which the AP account said Trump continued to falsely insist he lost in 2020 because of fraud and spread baseless fears about the upcoming midterms.

Alabama’s primary voting rules also complicated the picture. The AP roundup said more than 100,000 people cast ballots in four of Alabama’s seven congressional districts that may not count because Republican Gov. Kay Ivey postponed the primaries until Aug. 11, citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act. It said the secretary of state planned to void ballots cast Tuesday in the Alabama 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th congressional districts and restore previous Republican-drawn district boundaries, while adding that the district lines remain subject to litigation, including by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other groups.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, the AP roundup pointed to voter backlash against a major policy proposal in Oregon. It said Oregon voters rejected a 6-cent gas tax increase proposed by the state’s Democratic lawmakers, with results described as failing by large margins in every county across political lines. The AP account said Democrats had backed the tax increase last year along with related fees for road improvements and that Republicans responded with a successful referendum campaign to put the issue before voters.

The AP roundup also framed a Democratic primary upset as a sign of shifting politics inside the party. It described the death of late Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., as a moment that fueled restlessness among Democrats over aging leadership, saying Scott was 80 when he died and was seeking a 13th term. It said Scott’s name appeared on the ballot in the Democratic primary but that votes for him will not be counted, and it reported that state Rep. Jasmine Clark won the nomination Tuesday night and was almost certain to win the general election in a district that strongly favors Democrats, while also pointing to young Democrats challenging older lawmakers in primaries around the country.