At the Races: Will Trump run off with it?

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By Daniela Altimari and Mary Ellen McIntire

Tuesday’s elections include a pair of Senate runoffs that will test the power of President Donald Trump’s endorsement in a Republican primary. 

In battleground Georgia, two-term Rep. Mike Collins, who picked up the president’s backing over the weekend, faces former football coach Derek Dooley in the race to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. 

And in deep-red Alabama, Trump-backed Rep. Barry Moore and political newcomer Jared Hudson, a former Navy SEAL, are vying for the Republican nod for the seat Sen. Tommy Tuberville is vacating to run for governor.

Collins has positioned himself as a fierce supporter of Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda. In a social media post early Sunday morning, the president called Collins “a WARRIOR and WINNER” who “has been with me from the very beginning.” (Trump has also picked sides in the gubernatorial primary, backing Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who faces businessman Rick Jackson in a runoff Tuesday.)

Dooley, who has the backing of Gov. Brian Kemp, a onetime Trump antagonist, has emphasized his outsider status and branded Collins, the son of a former congressman, a “typical D.C. politician.” 

Collins topped Dooley in the May 19 primary, but did not clear the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid the runoff. 

The race in Georgia could help determine which party controls the Senate next year. Ossoff, the chamber’s most vulnerable Democrat, is seen as a formidable opponent with a massive fundraising advantage. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the contest a Toss-up. 

The winner of the Alabama runoff, in contrast, is all but certain to become the state’s next senator. Moore, a member of the hard-line conservative Freedom Caucus, finished first in last month’s Republican primary with 39 percent of the vote, while Hudson took around 26 percent. 

Polling has been mixed, with some surveys showing Moore up and others finding Hudson with a lead.

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The campaign has gotten tense in the final stretch, as a super PAC supporting Hudson ran an ad accusing Moore of misrepresenting his military service, prompting Moore’s own allies to push back.

Oklahoma

Republican Rep. Kevin Hern faces four largely unknown opponents in the Senate primary and is heavily favored to win the seat in November.

The contest for Hern’s Tulsa-centered 1st District has drawn a crowd of Republicans, including pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who has Trump’s support; businessman Nathan Butterfield; state Rep. Mark Tedford; former congressional aide Jed Cochran; and Kim David, chairman of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates public utilities and transportation in the state.

If no one takes more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to an Aug. 25 runoff.

District of Columbia

With the planned retirement of Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s non-voting House seat is open for the first time since 1990. Among the Democrats competing for the deep-blue seat are D.C. council members Brooke Pinto and Robert White. The election marks the first time D.C. voters will use ranked choice voting.

California

Voters in California’s 14th District are selecting a candidate to serve out the rest of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term, after the Democrat resigned in the face of sexual assault allegations. If no one takes a majority of the vote in the all-party primary, the top two finishers will face off on Aug. 18. 

Among those running in the special primary election are two Democrats — state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Bay Area Rapid Transit board president Melissa Hernandez — who will also compete against one another in November for a full term.

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