Election 2024 live updates: Virginia primary test Trump’s influence despite absence from ballot – NBC News
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Reporting from Racine, Wisconsin
Trump harshly criticized Biden’s executive action to shield undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation, calling it “lawless” and “unconstitutional amnesty.”
The former president said Biden “is sending a message to the world that he rewards illegal entry” during a rally in Racine, Wisconsin.
The establishment v. insurgent dynamic in the GOP primary in Virginia’s 2nd District is worth keeping an eye on.
Two special forces veterans — former Green Beret Derrick Anderson and former Navy SEAL Cameron Hamilton — are squaring off for the Republican nomination. Anderson is backed by Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as by groups with ties to McCarthy and GOP megadonors.
Hamilton is supported by a super PAC affiliated with Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, a key figure in the anti-establishment wing of the GOP, and other like-minded Republicans.
It’s a dynamic that used to dominate in Republican primaries, but a one that’s gotten messier in recent years with Trump’s influence at times creating strange bedfellows. But since Trump hasn’t weighed in here, we’re seeing a purer distillation of these battle lines.
Biden is taking executive action to protect undocumented spouses of American citizens — a move that would shield about 500,000 immigrants from deportation.
The White House announced the election-year policy Tuesday, framing it as “new action to keep families together.”
The new policy will allow non-citizens who have been in the country for at least 10 years and are married to a U.S. citizen, and their children, to apply for permanent residence without leaving the country.
During a ceremony at the White House, Biden called the steps as a “common-sense fix” to a system that is “cumbersome, risky and separates families.”
He said the order would go into effect this summer and stressed that it would not benefit people who recently came into the country. Instead, it would help people who are “paying taxes and contributing to our country” and their family members.
Read the full story here.
A long list of Republicans are lining up to take on Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine in November, including the Trump-endorsed Hung Cao, a Navy veteran who is focusing much of his campaign on the topic of border security.
“What is happening at our southern border with Mexico is an invasion,” Cao writes on his campaign website. “As Senator, I will stop it. We will build the wall, we will secure the border through advanced technology, we will support the Border Patrol and border states, and we will repel this invasion.”
Whoever wins the GOP primary for Senate in Virginia will have an uphill battle this November. The last Republican to hold a US Senate seat in Virginia was the late John Warner — who was last re-elected 22 years ago.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who recently met with Trump in northern Virginia, is staying out of his party’s primaries — avoiding any statewide endorsements until the nominees are known.
Trump has been involved in a handful of today’s primaries to varying degrees. Here’s a quick look at the candidates he’s backing.
Georgia’s 3rd District: Brian Jack, Trump’s former White House political director.
Virginia Senate: Hung Cao, a military veteran who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2022.
Virginia’s 5th District: John McGuire, a state senator who’s challenging Rep. Good.
Virginia’s 1st District: Rep. Rob Wittman.
Virginia’s 2nd District: Rep. Jen Kiggans.
Virginia’s 6th District: Rep. Ben Cline.
Virginia’s 9th District: Rep. Morgan Griffith.
Why is this primary night different from others? Because two incumbents are at risk of going down.
Only one sitting member of Congress has lost a bid for renomination so far this cycle — and it was a very unique situation. Alabama Republican Rep. Jerry Carl lost an incumbent-on-incumbent primary to Rep. Barry Moore in March after congressional lines were jumbled due to court-ordered redistricting.
So far, every other incumbent has survived, which is one reason why all eyes are on Good and Cole tonight.
It’s all about money and name recognition in one of the closest-watched House races today in Virginia. In the 7th Congressional District, former National Security Counsel deputy legal adviser Eugene Vindman is running in the Democratic primary to replace sitting Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who is vying to be Virginia’s next governor.
Vindman gained notoriety back in 2019, when his brother, retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, testified during Trump’s first impeachment hearings about the president’s dealings with Ukraine. He and his brother earned the praise of many in Democratic circles after the two served as whistleblowers, and subsequently ended up losing their jobs.
Vindman has greatly outraised his six Democratic opponents, some of whom have served in local government roles, with $4.5 million more in the bank than his closest opponent, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
On the Republican side, you have another example of the proxy fight between the House Freedom Caucus and Republican leadership. Navy veteran Cameron Hamilton, supported by the likes of Reps. Eli Crane and Cory Mills, is up against Derrick Anderson, an Army veteran who has the backing of Speaker Mike Johnson, House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer and Rep. Derrick Van Orden.
The results of the Republican primary will provide a good glimpse into the power of the GOP establishment heading into what’s expected to be a competitive November election in the 7th District.
There are two GOP primary runoffs today for House seats in Georgia, where candidates fell short of winning majorities of the votes in the May primaries.
In the 2nd District, former Trump administrational official Wayne Johnson and Chuck Hand, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense in connection with the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, are competing head to head. The Republican nominee will face an uphill climb against Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop in the fall.
In the conservative 3rd District, Trump’s endorsement will be put to the test as his former White House political director, Brian Jack, faces state Sen. Mike Dugan in a primary runoff. The winner will be favored to win in November to replace retiring Rep. Drew Ferguson.
Read more on what to watch in today’s primaries.
Rep. Tom Cole is facing a primary challenger from the right in Oklahoma as GOP incumbents across the country have seen their margins of victory shrink in recent years.
It’s the most competitive primary Cole, the chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has faced since he was first elected in 2002. And it’s been a bitter contest — almost as bitter as the storied rivalry between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and the University of Texas Longhorns, which has become a subplot in the race.
The congressman’s chief primary opponent, businessman Paul Bondar, has spent more than $5.1 million of his own money on the race. But Bondar has faced a potentially damning accusation in Sooner country: that he’s actually a Texan.
“It’s not good to move into a place to run for Congress when you’ve never lived in it, but if you’re coming from Texas into Oklahoma, that probably adds an extra dimension,” Cole, a lifelong Oklahoman and member of the Chickasaw Nation, told NBC News last Thursday.
Read the full story here.
GOOCHLAND, Va. — For Rep. Bob Good, today’s primary is about much more than the next member of Congress representing Virginia’s 5th District.
“The nation is watching,” the Virginia Republican told a few dozen supporters gathered outside the historic county courthouse on a muggy Friday evening. He warned that this race is about the “D.C. establishment swamp who wants to buy your seat.”
Good, who chairs the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, told his supporters that he is former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s top target, as McCarthy looks to take down the small group of Republicans who ousted him late last year. McCarthy’s first effort fell short last week when Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina won her primary.
But McCarthy is just one player lined up against Good in a race that could see him become the first member of Congress to lose to a primary challenger this year. There’s also the most important endorsement in Republican politics working against him: former President Donald Trump.
Trump endorsed Good’s opponent, state Sen. John McGuire, a former Navy SEAL and “Stop the Steal” rally participant, late last month. The former president made a veiled reference to Good endorsing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the presidential primary, writing on social media that Good “was constantly attacking and fighting me until recently.”
Read the full story here.
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