Trump has mixed primary night; Progressives romp in DC
by Jared Gans and Sarah Fortinsky - 06/17/26 7:28 AM ET
President Trump notched key wins and at least one big loss Tuesday in primaries, while the most progressive candidate in the D.C. mayor’s race is poised to avoid a runoff, setting up an adversarial two years ahead.
One Trump-endorsed candidate won a runoff in Georgia for the GOP nomination for one of the top Senate contests in the country this year, while another fell short. The president’s preferred candidate prevailed in an Alabama Senate runoff, while his choice for Oklahoma governor must head to his own runoff to get through.
Trump goes 2 for 3, with jury out in another
A proxy battle between Trump and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) was one of the key storylines of the evening.
The Trump-backed Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) defeated former college football coach Derek Dooley, who was supported by Kemp, by a double-digit margin. Collins is now set to face Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) in a critical Senate battleground that Republicans are hoping to flip.
Trump and Kemp have clashed on a few occasions, going back to a split over the certification of Georgia’s election results in the 2020 presidential race. The president unsuccessfully tried to oust Kemp during his 2022 reelection bid, and the two seemed to have mostly made amends in 2024.
But they were on opposite sides of the Senate runoff. Trump praised Collins ahead of the runoff as a “WARRIOR,” while Kemp called Dooley a “conservative fighter.”
Trump and Kemp both took a defeat in the runoff for governor, as their endorsed candidate, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R), lost to billionaire Rick Jackson by a few points. The rebuke is relatively rare for the president, though it may be more significant for him than for Kemp, who only backed Jones right before the runoff.
Trump had endorsed Jones, an ally who backed his false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, months before the first round of voting.
The president was more successful in Alabama, where Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) comfortably defeated former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson in a runoff for Senate. The Trump-backed Moore will be the heavy favorite in the general election in the solidly red state.
And more time will be needed to decide if Trump will be successful in the GOP primary for Oklahoma governor. The president surprised many observers when he endorsed former state Sen. Mike Mazzei, who advanced to a runoff against state Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
Mazzei and Drummond will face off in August.
Left-wing domination in nation’s capital
D.C. held some of its most consequential primaries in more than a decade Tuesday, and progressives seem poised for sweeping success.
In the pivotal primary for mayor to succeed outgoing Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, leads moderate former Council member Kenyan McDuffie by double digits. As of early Wednesday morning, Lewis George is ahead with about 53 percent of the vote, compared to McDuffie’s 37 percent.
Lewis George’s victory isn’t entirely assured. About a third of the vote remains uncounted, and the city’s ranked-choice voting system requires a candidate to win an outright majority to avoid a second round.
But even if Lewis George ticks below 50 percent in the first round, McDuffie would have a significant deficit to overcome.
In the primary to succeed retiring longtime Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, progressive Council member Robert White easily defeated moderate Council member Brooke Pinto.
A key seat on the D.C. Council appears likely to shift to the left as Elissa Silverman, a progressive former Council member who lost a reelection bid four years ago, has a comfortable lead in a special election to fill the remainder of McDuffie’s term.
Silverman is well ahead of McDuffie’s interim replacement, Doni Crawford, and Jacque Patterson, the president of the D.C. Board of Education — both moderates.
And Oye Owolewa, the current shadow representative for D.C. in the House, leads in the primary for another open Council seat, having sought to position himself as the strongest progressive in the race.
https://thehill.com/newsletters/morning-report/5927658-trump-kemp-georgia-primary-progressives-dc-iran-blanche/
