Primary Results: A Day of Thrills and Spills

Four states wrapped up their primaries Tuesday, August 4. The Governors of both Minnesota and Connecticut decided not to seek reelection. DNC vice chair and U.S. Representative, Keith Ellison, gets his shot at leaving Washington to serve as Minnesota Attorney General in November, and the DNC probably blew their chance of flipping Paul Ryan’s seat in Wisconsin. In Vermont, Bernie Sanders has no competition, though he’s not feeling so independent these days. The big news in The Green Mountain State is that so-called Republican Phil Scott might actually lose the governorship to the first transsexual person to win a gubernatorial primary, Christine Hallquist. Vermont hasn’t given an incumbent governor the boot since 1962, and the closest Hallquist has to political experience is having served as the chief executive of the Vermont Electric Cooperative. However, Scott betrayed conservative voters with a trio of anti-gun bills he signed into law back in April, and he brought home about 3,000 fewer votes than Hallquist Tuesday night.

MINNESOTA

Governor Minnesota’s Democrat governor, Mark Dayton, isn’t seeking a third term, and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (DFL) offered up five candidates – including the state’s attorney general, Lori Swanson. As of midnight local time (1 AM Eastern), Tim Walz comes in at 41.7% with 241,666 votes. His nearest competitor has 32.1% and 185,987 votes, making Walz the clear winner for the DFL primary with 99% of all precincts reporting. Former AG Swanson came in third, with 24.4% and 141,529 votes, leaving Tim Holden in fourth and Ole Savior dead last with 1.1% and 0.7% respectively. Despite recent <a href="/keith-ellison-abuse-ignored-and-dismissed/">allegations</a> of abuse, DNC vice chair Keith Ellison still managed to take Swanson’s place – at least in the primary – with 49.9% of the vote. Republicans only had three choices, and 167,523 of them chose Jeff Johnson, making him the Republican winner with 52.6% of the vote. Tim Pawlenty came in second at 43.9%, and Matt Kruse only managed to rake in 11,204 votes – a meager 3.5% Libertarian Josh Welter and Chris Wright, the Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party (GRP) and Legal Marijuana Now joint party candidate, both ran uncontested. U.S. Senate Democrat Amy Klobuchar, the incumbent senator, annihilated her competition with 95.7% - over half a million votes. Of her four competitors - Steve Carlson, Stephan Emery, David Groves, and Leonard Richards - none managed to break 2%, with the last two falling below even 1%. For the Republicans, Jim Newberger brought in 200,490 votes or 69.5%. Number two in the line-up, Merrill Anderson, only brought in 15.7%, leaving Rae Hart Anderson and Roque De La Fuente with 8.9% and 5.9%. Paula Overby will represent the Green Party and Dennis Schuller the Independent Party. Both ran uncontested. For the U.S. Senate special election, Tina Smith took 76% of the Democratic vote, and Karin Housley landed 62% of Republicans.

WISCONSIN

Governor

  With 99% of all precincts reporting, Tony Evers takes the Democratic primary in Wisconsin with 41.7%, or 224,432 votes. The runners-up are Mahlon Mitchell at 16.4%, Kelda Roys at 12.8%, then Kathleen Vinehout, Mike McCabe, Matt Flynn, Paul Soglin, Andy Gronik, Dana Wachs, and Josh Pade – none of whom broke 10%. Incumbent Governor Scott Walker took the Republican primary – no surprise there. He defeated his sole challenger, Robert Meyer, landing 91.6% of the 455,904 votes tallied so far. Michael White and Phil Anderson both ran uncontested, for the Green and Libertarian Parties, respectively.       U.S. Senate Incumbent Tammy Baldwin ran uncontested for the Democrats and will square off against Republican Leah Vukmir, who defeated the next runner-up, former Democrat Kevin Nicholson, 49% to 42.9% with all but two precincts reporting. George Lucia took only 4.2%, despite almost certainly being a favorite amongst Star Wars fans for the uncannily similar name, and Griffin Jones and Charles Barman brought up the rear with 2% and 1.8%. U.S. House – A Special Case For the soon to be vacant seat of everyone’s favorite RINO, Paul Ryan, the Democrats cranked up the heat. Alas, their flame may have burned <em>too</em> hot. Randy “Ironstache” Bryce will lead the blue team in November, but, incredible nickname aside, he might not have the clout to flip the seat. He’s had his fair share of media gaffes and has faced uncomfortable questions about prior arrests due to marijuana use, a DUI, and his failure to pay child support. His opponent, Cathy Myers, focused much of her campaign on attacking Bryce’s character. While it wasn’t enough to win her the primary, it might well be enough to kill any chance Bryce had of flipping Ryan’s seat.

VERMONT

Governor Republican incumbent Phil Scott managed to defend his spot in the primary against the sole contender, Keith Stern, despite falling approval after <a href="/vermont-succumbs-to-the-fear-of-the-gun/">signing</a> three very Democrat-like gun control bills back in April. He raked in 24,206 votes with 99% of precincts reporting, giving him 67.5% over Stern’s 32.5%. Four Democrats vied for the opportunity to face Scott in November, and in what progressives from sea to shining sea are bound to call a great step forward, transgender “woman” Christine Hallquist took the lead with 48.3%, or 27,558 votes. She beat out James Ehlers, Brenda Siegel, and Ethan Sonneborn. Sadly, this means that Vermont will either have to forgive Phil Scott his anti-Second Amendment transgressions or elect the transgender Democrat – who, as you might guess, supports an “assault weapon” ban, $15 per hour minimum wage, and healthcare and high-speed internet for all. As it stands right now, the progressive Democrat has over 3,300 more votes than the incumbent governor formerly known as Republican.   U.S. Senate – and Then Some! It looks like Bernie Sanders will be changing his alphabetical alignment from I to D once again, as he took in 94.4% of the Democratic primary vote to defend his seat in the Senate. For the Republicans, Brooke Paige took a narrow lead over Lawrence Zupan - 39.6% to 37.9% - a mere 436 vote lead with two precincts still to go. But that’s alright, we know neither of them will unseat Bernie Sanders in November, and even if Zupan does manage to oust Paige for the GOP spot, she’ll still have a shot at some other office. Paige is running for Senate, House (leading the GOP primary with 63.4%), and uncontested amongst Republicans for Attorney General, Secretary of State, Auditor, and Treasurer. Wow, what a trooper!

CONNECTICUT

Governor Dannel P. Malloy, Connecticut’s two-term Democratic governor, did not seek reelection. However, conservatives probably shouldn’t get their hopes up for a Republican governor, as the runner-up in the Democratic primary, Joseph P. Ganim, brought home just over 1,000 fewer votes than the Republican winner, Bob Stefanowski. Bob’s 41,957 votes seem unlikely to approach Democratic primary winner Ned Lamont’s 171,658. Stefanowski only took 29.4% of the Republican vote, while Lamont brought in 81.2% of Democrats, which amounted to almost 30,000 more votes than all the GOP candidates received combined. U.S. Senate Christopher S. Murphy, the incumbent Democrat, faced no competition from his own party, and GOP hopeful Mathew Corey beat his single opponent with 76.5% of the Republican vote – 99,630 votes to 30,539. In all other primary categories in which more than one candidate vied for the top slot, the Democratic frontrunner had considerably more support than the Republican, meaning that this entire state will likely remain more or less entirely blue in November.