Georgia election results: Trump foe Brian Kemp wins primary as Herschel Walker secures GOP Senate nom
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Your support makes all the difference.Key primaries in several US states today saw high-profile Republican candidates facing off against each other and in some cases trying to triumph over rivals endorsed by Donald Trump.
In Georgia, incumbent Governor Brian Kemp won a decisive victory over his main challenger, Trump endorsee David Perdue, whose campaign failed to catch fire despite the ex-president’s interventions. Mr Trump’s former deputy, Mike Pence, campaigned for Mr Kemp.
The state’s GOP senate primary saw the nomination of controversial ex-footballer Herschel Walker, a very popular grassroots figure coaxed into the race by Trump himself whose sometimes erratic behaviour, business dealings and history of personal problems have left some Republicans worried about his general election chances.
And in Alabama, Congressman Mo Brooks hopes to make a comeback in the Republican senate race despite having lost Mr Trump’s endorsement earlier this year. At the time he was sinking in the polls, and also called on his supporters to start “moving on” from the 2020 election, thus provoking Mr Trump’s disdain.
Five things to watch in the Georgia, Texas and Alabama primaries
Anti-abortion Democrat Henry Cuellar primary race is too close to call against progressive challenger
Ken Paxton beats George P Bush in Texas attorney general’s race
Brian Kemp staves off Trump’s effort to oust him in Georgia
Trump-backed Herschel Walker wins Republican nomination for US Senate in Georgia
Who is Brian Kemp, the man who just dealt Donald Trump a blow in Georgia?
Brian Kemp is headed for a rematch with Stacey Abrams after winning his primary on Tuesday against David Perdue, an ex-senator who enjoyed the endorsement of former President Donald Trump in his bid to unseat the governor.
But who is the one-term governor whose conservative bonafides were enough to outweigh an endorsement from the GOP’s supposed kingmaker?
Read more from The Independent’s John Bowden:
Meet Brian Kemp: The man who could deal a blow to Donald Trump in Georgia
Brian Kemp charges into Tuesday’s primary with a double-digit polling lead over Trump-backed David Perdue
Ken Paxton reissues call to arm teachers amid primary victory and deadly mass shooting
Texas’s attorney general is doubling down on his call for teachers and other school officials to carry firearms after a deadly mass shooting at an elementary school in his state rocked the nation on Tuesday.
Ken Paxton responded to the news as his primary campaign ended in a victory over his challenger, George P Bush.
“The reality is we don’t have the resources to have law enforcement at every school,” he said. “It takes time for law enforcement, no matter how prepared, no matter how good they are to get there. So having the right training for some of these people at the school is the best hope.”
Read more in The Independent from Eric Garcia:
Texas attorney general calls for teachers to be armed after massacre in Uvalde
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton repeated his call to arm teachers after a shooter killed more than a dozen children and one teacher at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Meet Herschel Walker, the man who will take on Raphael Warnock
Herschel Walker is headed to a November showdown with Sen Raphael Warnock, the state’s first Black US senator, after easily winning the state’s Republican Senate primary on Tuesday.
A three-time Heisman winner who first met Donald Trump in the 80s, Mr Walker is far from your typical senator.
Learn more about his unique background in this profile from The Independent:
Meet Herschel Walker, the football-player-turned-Trump-acolyte in Georgia
Walker hopes to flip one of Georgia’s two Senate seats back red in November
ICYMI: Marjorie Taylor Greene easily wins nomination in Georgia
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is once again the GOP’s nominee for the 14th congressional district of Georgia after easily winning her primary on Tuesday.
She avoided making enemies in the state’s Republican congressional delegation, and enjoyed a national profile as an acolyte of Donald Trump and frequent purveyor of his falsehoods about the 2020 election.
Ms Greene now heads for the general election in a district redrawn to include more Democratic areas than before.
Read more in The Independent from John Bowden:
Marjorie Taylor Greene wins GOP primary in Georgia
Controversial congresswoman managed to avoid angering her own constituents
Stacey Abrams in trouble for out-of-context “worst state” comments
Democrat Stacey Abrams, who has become a nationwide leader in the battle against restrictions on voting rights, is the Democratic nominee to challenge Brian Kemp for the governorship of Georgia, putting the two in a rematch after Mr Kemp bested the then-secretary of state in an extremely narrow race in 2018.
As Mr Kemp pivots away from attacking David Perdue to focus on her, Ms Abrams is under fire for comments that Republicans say show she holds the state of Georgia in disdain and simply views the governor’s mansion as a stepping stone to the White House.
In fact, Ms Abrams was talking about the state’s extremely poor record on health outcomes, standards of living and incarceration. Here’s what she actually said:
“I am tired of hearing about being the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live. When you’re No. 48 for mental, when you’re No. 1 for maternal mortality, when you have an incarceration rate that’s on the rise and wages that are on the decline, then you are not the No. 1 place to live in the United States.
“You see, Georgia is capable of greatness. We just need greatness to be in our governor’s office.”
Graig Graziosi has the story.
Stacey Abrams forced to explain why she called Georgia the ‘worst state’ to live
‘Let her go back to where she came from’ rival David Perdue said
ICYMI: Trump rambles about a possible Pence challenge in 2024
The sight of Mike Pence campaigning for Brian Kemp, whom Donald Trump disdained for declining to endorse his lies about the 2020 election, was accompanied by a New York Times interview in which the ex-vice president clearly left open the door to a 2024 presidential campaign.
Asked during a phone-in appearance about the possibility that he could be challenged by his own former deputy, Mr Trump went into a typically free-flowing rant about Mr Pence’s refusal to illegally overturn the election in Congress on 6 January 2021. Have a listen below...
Watch: Herschel Walker gives incoherent gun control answer
As he celebrated his victory in the Georgia Senate primary, Herschel Walker was asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether the Texas elementary school shooting indicates it is time for new gun safety laws. His answer was not just generic but also strikingly incoherent – the kind of mumbling statement that has some Republicans worried about his viability in November.
“Call me Lazarus”: Mo Brooks headed for runoff in Alabama
Despite his un-endorsement by Donald Trump, congressman Mo Brooks has lived to fight another day in Alabama’s GOP Senate primary. He was a dogged ally of the former president right to the last, even speaking at the 6 January rally outside the White House, but when he began to sink in the polls and suggested that Republicans should move on from the Trumpist fixation on the 2020 election, Mr Trump hung him out to dry.
Mr Brooks initially responded by telling tales out of school, describing how he had had to explain to Mr Trump that there was no legal way for him to be reinstalled as president and that he should stop clinging to the idea. However, Mr Brooks continued to campaign using the ex-president’s prior approving words about him, and he managed a last-minute rebound.
“Two months ago, the experts declared our campaign was dead in the water,” he said in his victory speech last night. “Today, I guess, call me Lazarus.”
Raffensperger’s survival in perspective
Brad Raffensperger’s surprisingly strong victory in Georgia last night means that Donald Trump has failed to satisfy one of his deepest post-2020 grudges. But as Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report points out, that Mr Raffensperger has survived doesn’t mean Georgia’s GOP voters have taken a turn away from the right...
Anti-abortion Democrat Henry Cuellar declares runoff victory over progressive challenger
Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, an anti-abortion Democrat who has been supported by the House leadership despite his politics, says he has triumphed in his runoff race against progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros, albeit by less than 200 votes.
However, even with more than 95 per cent of the vote counted, the race has not been officially called yet.
Mr Cuellar’s views on abortion and his relative conservatism on gun rights have earned him the intense disdain of left-wing leaders, including within his own party.
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