Trump reshapes GOP primaries as party notches big win in House special

Former President Donald Trump continued his drive to punish even partial opposition inside the GOP in Tuesday's primaries, while the party also flipped a longtime Democratic House seat in a South Texas special election.

Rep. Tom Rice, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president, lost his primary to Trump-endorsed state Rep. Russell Fry. It's the first time this year that a Republican impeachment backer has faced a challenger backed by Trump — and the results were emphatic, with Rice's party support crashing to just a quarter of the vote.

Trump also endorsed a challenger against Rep. Nancy Mace in the state, where the occasional Trump critic won her Republican primary with a bare majority.

Meanwhile, Republican Mayra Flores won a longtime Democratic House seat in Texas — the latest datapoint outlining significant Republican gains among Latino voters in recent years.

GOP voters also cast ballots for key statewide races in Nevada, including battleground elections for Senate and governor along with three contested House seats, one of which also featured a Bernie Sanders-endorsed primary challenger running against a Democratic member of Congress.

Two other states — Maine and North Dakota — also held their primaries on Tuesday.

Texas special election shows GOP's Latino gains

A special election in South Texas to replace former Democratic Rep. Filemón Vela, who retired earlier this year to join a lobbying firm, won’t have long-term impact by itself on the partisan split in the House, since the seat is disappearing soon due to redistricting. But the trends at play as Flores carried the district are a datapoint on the GOP’s rapid improvement with Latino voters.

Biden carried the district by 4 points in 2020 — down from double-digit margins for previous Democratic candidates. And Flores pushed the gains even farther in defeating Democrat Daniel Sanchez.

The seat was transformed during the redistricting process to be much bluer, with Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez jumping over from a neighboring district and running here for a full term in November.

But Tuesday’s election will be under the old lines, in what could amount to an early warning sign for Democrats about the party losing support among Latino voters in the region. Both national Republicans and Democrats are spending money for a special election for a member that will ultimately only be seated for a handful of months.

Trump looks to grow his stamp on the House

Rice has long been one of the most imperiled House Republicans in the country due to his vote to impeach Trump. The five-term congressman has not backed down from his vote, telling reporters and voters on the trail that he doesn’t regret his decision.

Mace, meanwhile, did not vote to impeach Trump. She has mixed occasional criticism of the former president with effusive praise. Nevertheless, Mace picked up her own Trump-endorsed challenger in Katie Arrington, a former state lawmaker who lost the general election in the district in 2018, after defeating then-GOP Rep. Mark Sanford in a primary.

Battleground primary battles

Both of Nevada’s top-of-the-ticket contests have competitive GOP primaries to face off against Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Gov. Steve Sisolak.

In the Senate primary, former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt held off Sam Brown, an Army veteran. Laxalt has the support of both Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo easily won the GOP nomination for governor in a crowded field that also includes former Sen. Dean Heller, party-switching North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee and former boxer Joey Gilbert, among many others. Lombardo led in public polling, even before Trump endorsed him.

There are also crowded Republican primaries in all three of the Democratic-held House seats in Nevada. After redistricting, President Joe Biden carried all three seats by single digits — making them all potential pick-up opportunities in November for Republicans.

Two Nevada incumbents are also facing primary challengers. Democratic Rep. Dina Titus easily dispatched primary challenger Amy Vilela, a progressive who picked up a late endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

And GOP Rep. Mark Amodei also defeated perennial Republican candidate Danny Tarkanian in the state’s lone safe Republican district, with national Republican groups spending on behalf of the Amodei.

In another influential Nevada contest, Republican Jim Marchant — a former state lawmaker who has become a ringleader of Trump-aligned election deniers trying to take over election administration positions across the country — easily won the party's nomination for secretary of state. Democrats nominated attorney Cisco Aguilar, who ran for his party’s nod uncontested. The winner will be the chief election officer in battleground Nevada during the 2024 presidential election.

Maine's 2nd District, too, will see Republicans select a battleground district nominee to take on Democratic Rep. Jared Golden. Former Rep. Bruce Poliquin is lined up in the GOP primary.

Sorting out the statewides

In Maine, voters finalized a matchup between the state’s two most recent governors: incumbent Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and former Republican Gov. Paul LePage.

And while GOP Sen. Tim Scott and GOP Gov. Henry McMaster are both heavy favorites to win their respective elections in South Carolina in November, the primary to face McMaster was a bitter one between former Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham, the nominee, and state Sen. Mia McLeod.