Politics

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The insurgent candidate backed by former President Donald Trump appears to be stalling in a crowded field of Republicans challenging the GOP incumbent for a U.S. House seat in conservative central Washington state.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, a four-term congressman, has drawn primary challengers thanks in part to being among the few in his party who voted to impeach President Donald Trump. Perhaps the best known outside candidate in Washington’s 4th Congressional District’s intraparty feud is Loren Culp, who’s running against his own Republican Party as much as he is against Newhouse.

Culp, a former small town police chief who lost the 2020 governor’s race to Democrat Jay Inslee but refused to concede, won Trump’s endorsement in February, but has lagged other candidates in reported fundraising figures.

Trump’s influence among GOP voters is being tested in midterm elections across the country this year as he looks to flex his power and punish his enemies ahead of a possible 2024 presidential campaign. Trump has vowed to take down the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him over the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and four have already announced they won’t be seeking re-election. So far, Trump has found mixed success in his endorsement record, but it’s still early in the primary season.

In addition to Culp, four other GOP candidates are running against Newhouse in the Aug. 2 primary. Because of Washington’s top-two system, two Republicans could end up on the fall ballot. The top two primary vote-getters advance, regardless of party.

Todd Schaefer, a political scientist at Central Washington University, said he has been surprised by how little money Culp has raised, given his high-profile run for governor two years ago.

“On paper he should have good name recognition,” Schaefer said. “You would think he’d get a lot of grassroots support.”

Culp was invited to visit with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in late February. Trump’s endorsement of Culp read in part: “Loren Culp is running against RINO Congressman Dan Newhouse … Loren will always defend your personal liberty, our under-siege Second Amendment, election integrity and law enforcement.”

The other GOP challengers in the race are Jerrod Sessler, a Navy veteran and former NASCAR driver who has raised the most money; Corey Gibson; state Rep. Bradley Klippert, R-Kennewick; and Benanacio Garcia III.

As of the March 31 filing deadline, Culp had raised just $191,000 and had just $23,000 in cash on hand. Sessler had raised $444,000 and had $146,000 in the bank. Democrat Doug White had raised $230,000 and also had $146,000 in the bank. Gibson, Klippert and Garcia had raised little money.

Culp’s campaign has declined to return telephone calls from reporters but has made statements on Facebook. He lashed out recently at Republican Party officials who do not share his conservative views.

“The party can come and go … the Constitution is first and foremost,” Culp said. “God, family, country. That’s what’s important.”

Culp served as a police officer and then police chief of the small town of Republic for a decade. His job was eliminated because of budget cuts shortly after the 2020 election. He has since moved to Moses Lake.

Schaefer isn’t surprised so many Republicans decided to challenge Newhouse.

“The vote to impeach Trump put a target on him,” Schaefer said, noting that Newhouse otherwise seems a good fit for the district. The 4th runs from the Canadian border to the Columbia River through the agricultural heartland of the state east of the Cascade Range. The district is home to apple and cherry orchards, vineyards and wineries and a bounty of other farm crops and its biggest population centers are the Tri-Cities and Yakima.

Newhouse, who won 66% of the vote in 2020, so far has run a low-key campaign campaign, although he has veered to the right in an effort to fend off the challengers.

Newhouse, first elected in 2014, has raised $1.2 million and had $928,000 in the bank as of March 31.

“Dan is going to win because voters see that he’s a real conservative who works hard and gets results for the people he serves,” Newhouse campaign manager Derek Flint wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

The Washington State Republican Party will not endorse a candidate prior to the primary, chair Caleb Heimlich said.

The party last year decided it was “disappointed” with Newhouse and U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington’s 3rd District for voting to impeach Trump. The party said it would treat the incumbents and any GOP challengers as equals this year.

“We want to make sure we hold the seat,” Heimlich said. “It’s up to the voters of the 4th Congressional District who they want to represent them.”

Heimlich predicted that two Republicans will likely emerge from the primary to the general election in what is considered the state’s most conservative district.

But Schaefer said with so many Republicans in the primary, it is possible that White, the lone Democrat in the race, could finish in the top two and advance to the November general election.

“But whoever gets the Republican nomination will have the advantage,” in the general election, Schaefer said.

The endorsement of Culp continued Trump’s pattern of seeking to oust politicians who have refused to echo his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Trump has also endorsed Joe Kent, a challenger to Herrera Beutler.

Like Trump, Culp has lobbed false claims of widespread voter fraud.

He refused to concede the 2020 gubernatorial race after losing to Inslee by 545,000 votes. Culp also filed a lawsuit over the results but quickly withdrew it after his attorney was threatened with sanctions for making meritless claims in a court of law.

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor said Thursday that he was ending his campaign and endorsing rival Lou Barletta, a move that comes as GOP leaders warn that leading candidate Doug Mastriano is too far right to win in a general election.

Jake Corman, Pennsylvania’s ranking state senator, announced his endorsement of Barletta at a news conference just days before the state’s Tuesday primary and amid hand-wringing by establishment Republicans that a Mastriano victory would doom their chances of flipping the governor’s mansion in November in the battleground state.

Corman’s name will remain on ballots statewide, and mail-in voting has been underway for weeks. It’s unclear what, if any, effect Corman’s decision to end his campaign will have on the race, since polls have showed him gaining little traction.

Mastriano has shown strength in recent polls, while being a prominent peddler of conspiracy theories, including former President Donald Trump’s false claims that widespread fraud marred the 2020 election and resulted in his loss in Pennsylvania. Mastriano also floated a plan to overturn the election results, helping draw a subpoena from the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

For weeks, party officials behind the scenes have urged candidates in what was originally a 10-deep field to step aside and coalesce around one candidate to help defeat Mastriano. One dropped out early enough in the race to remove his name from ballots, but eight candidates still remain.

Both Corman and Barletta declined to say why they think Mastriano cannot beat the presumptive Democratic nominee, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Barletta acknowledged Thursday that there is very little in policy difference between him and Mastriano. Rather, he pointed to his experience winning elections as mayor in small-city Hazleton and in winning four terms in Congress.

Mastriano earlier this week said the Republican establishment “is in a panic mode” at the prospect that he will be the party’s nominee. Meanwhile, two other Republicans who remain in the race, Bill McSwain and Dave White, derided the Corman-Barletta alliance as one career politician endorsing another career politician.

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Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics

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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter

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LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — A handful of curious voters mingled on a suburban Denver brewpub’s patio one recent evening as Pam Anderson told them she could restore professionalism to the office of Colorado secretary of state.

Anderson rattled off her resume — former county clerk, head of the state clerks’ association and ardent defender of Colorado’s mail voting system — making clear that she fit the profile of the sort of technocrat whom Republicans used to back for the top election post in Colorado.

“I’m the only person in this election, including the primary, who has a real record in election integrity,” Anderson said.

Anderson was taking a swipe at her better-known primary rival, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who has become the prime example of the GOP’s new approach to running elections.

A grand jury earlier this year indicted Peters for her role in breaking into her own county’s election system during a hunt for evidence of conspiracy theories fanned by former President Donald Trump. A judge already barred Peters from running last year’s local elections due to the controversy and this week blocked Peters from administering this year’s, too. Still, she’s become a heroine to those who disbelieve the actual results of the 2020 elections.

“I’ve taken their best shot. They made me sleep on the concrete jail floor for 30 hours because I protected your election data,” Peters told a crowd of 3,000 GOP activists and officials at the state party’s convention last month. “They know who to be afraid of.” Sixty percent of attendees voted to place her atop the ballot for secretary of state in their June 28 primary.

For nearly a century, U.S. elections have relied on a sort of partisan truce. They are run by thousands of local officials, often elected in partisan races, and usually overseen by secretaries of state who run statewide along with candidates for hotly contested offices like attorney general and governor. But, typically, election administration itself has been done in a nonpartisan manner, and those who run for positions overseeing it are more technocrats than crusaders.

That is changing after Trump’s 2020 loss. The former president is recruiting a class of partisan secretary of state candidates who parrot his lies about losing the election due to fraud and argue he should have remained president. The contest between Peters — she joined Trump at his Florida headquarters of Mar-a-Lago last week — and Anderson is perhaps the starkest battle in the GOP between those traditions.

The two candidates will face each other at a debate Thursday night in suburban Denver, along with the third Republican in the race, businessman Mike O’Donnell, another election denier.

There’s no question that the election deniers are winning the fight within the Republican Party. In Michigan last month, Kristina Karamo, a community college professor endorsed by Trump, won the GOP nomination to run for secretary of state after fanning suspicion of the 2020 election results. Candidates with similar stances are running in GOP primaries in every swing state, including for secretary of state in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.

An Associated Press-NORC poll last year found that two-thirds of Republicans doubt Biden was legitimately elected president. Trump continues to fan the myth that massive voter fraud swung the election. He and his supporters have lost more than 60 court cases trying to demonstrate such fraud. His own Justice Department, along with numerous other investigations and audits, found no significant fraud.

Though Trump’s election denial has caught on among the party’s rank and file, many GOP strategists fear it could backfire on them in November. In Colorado, some Republicans dread the idea of Peters on the general election ballot.

“The Democrats are going to love it and do everything they can to make every Republican candidate look like they came from the same DNA as Tina Peters,” said Scott McInnis, a former GOP congressman who is now on the Mesa County Commission.

McGinnis and other Republican Mesa County commissioners have long clashed with Peters. The local district attorney, a Republican, is overseeing her prosecution. McGinnis predicts that Anderson will win the primary.

“I don’t think Republican voters are going to vote for someone who has nine felony charges,” McGinnis said of Peters.

Still, the enthusiasm for Peters in some parts of the GOP is considerable. She raised $158,000 in the eight weeks since she announced her campaign, compared to $50,000 by Anderson, who reported only having $5,000 left on hand at the end of April. At the state GOP convention, one of a bevy of aspirants for governor won enough votes from the crowd to secure a spot on the primary ballot simply by promising to pardon Peters if elected.

“I agree with what she did. I don’t think she did anything illegal,” said Pam Utterback, 67, an ordained minister who banged on a drum appreciatively as Peters spoke at a pre-convention rally in Denver.

Peters flew to the rally with MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, at whose election conspiracy seminar she spoke last year after the data breach in Mesa County election machines. That data soon appeared on election conspiracy websites and Lindell insists it proves massive, internationally run fraud that put President Joe Biden in office. He told reporters he’s paid $800,000 to Peters’ legal defense fund.

Peters’ legal jeopardy extends beyond the charges of identity theft, attempting to influence a public official and criminal impersonation filed by the grand jury. She was also arrested after kicking at a police officer trying to serve a search warrant for her iPad, to see if Peters had illegally recorded a court hearing of a deputy accused of burglary and cybercrimes.

Peters’ supporters are convinced she’s a martyr for the cause. Even if they can’t explain precisely what it is Peters claims to have uncovered, they’re convinced something went wrong in 2020.

“I think the reason everyone is attacking her is she’s for election integrity,” said Adrianna Cuva, 45, a volunteer for a Peters-affiliated candidate who has met Peters. “I think the election was rigged. That’s why we’re seeing all these problems in our economy.”

It’s a stark contrast with the sentiment at the brewpub in the Denver suburb of Littleton, where the small group of Anderson supporters stressed the importance of competent, nonpartisan election administration.

“That’s what you want, someone who’s played it straight,” said Paul Schauer, a former Republican state legislator.

Anderson grew up in Southern California. Her father was a highway patrolman, part of a long line of law enforcement in a family that’s instilled in Anderson a reverence for law enforcement. She was elected clerk of the suburban city of Wheat Ridge in 2003 and then of the suburban swing county around it the following year.

She’s been witheringly critical of Trump’s election lies since they began in 2020 and sits on the board of a nonprofit that distributed $350 million in donations from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife to help fund the 2020 elections, an act that fueled conservative suspicions.

“We need to restore sanity,” Anderson said in an interview.

But she also got into the race because of frustration with the Democratic secretary of state, Jena Griswold, who she contends has politicized the office for Democrats.

And Anderson has been frustrated at how Griswold and other Democrats attack Republicans as a party for election misinformation. She cites some Republicans who have stood up for truth and nonpartisanship in election administration. One is Stephen Richer, the clerk in Arizona’s Maricopa County, who pushed back strongly against a conspiratorial, Trump-supported pseudo-audit of the election.

“There are Republicans across the country fighting the good fight on elections,” Anderson said.

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Legislation to make abortion legal throughout the United States was defeated in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, amid solid Republican opposition.

Democrats had sought to head off an impending Supreme Court opinion that is expected to overturn the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision that established the national right to abortion. Wednesday’s effort was a protest gesture that never stood much chance of success.

With 49 votes in support and 51 against, the “Women’s Health Protection Act” was 11 short of the 60 votes needed to be fully debated in the 100-member Senate.

All 50 Republicans voted to block the bill. They were joined by one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin.

Before the vote, more than two dozen House Democrats, mainly women, marched from the House of Representatives to the Senate chanting “My body, my decision.” They then entered the Senate chamber and sat quietly along a back wall while senators debated abortion rights.

Last September, the House voted 218-211 to pass an abortion rights bill nearly identical to the Senate bill.

Although the Senate defeat was widely expected, Democrats hope the vote will help propel more of their candidates to victory in the Nov. 8 midterm elections, as public opinion polls show deep support among voters for abortion rights.

That, in turn, could bolster future attempts to legalize abortion through legislation.

America’s decades-old battle over abortion rights exploded anew last week when the Supreme Court confirmed the authenticity of a draft opinion that signaled it will soon overturn Roe v. Wade.

Such a decision would leave it up to individual states to determine their abortion policies.

The high-court ruling is expected by the end of its current term, which usually concludes in late June.

At least 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion if the top court strikes down Roe, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for sexual and reproductive health rights.

Following the vote, Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters in the Capitol: “Sadly, the Senate failed to stand in defense of a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body… what we are seeing around this country are extremist Republican leaders seeking to criminalize and punish women for making decisions about their own body.”

Republican Senator John Cornyn called the legislation “a radical abortion-on-demand bill” that goes further than Roe v. Wade and “essentially makes abortion available on demand from the time of conception to the time of delivery.”

Closed-door talks were held on a possible compromise abortion-rights bill, although it was unclear whether Democratic and Republican negotiators would be able to come to agreement, much less lure the 60 votes needed for any such measure.

Opinion polls have shown the right to abortion to be broadly popular. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week found 63% of respondents, including 78% of Democrats and 49% of Republicans, would be more likely to back candidates in November’s elections who support abortion rights.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Chris Gallagher; Editing by Scott Malone, Lisa Shumaker and Rosalba O’Brien)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Republican-leaning states of Nebraska and West Virginia held primary elections on May 10 for the U.S. House of Representatives and other offices.

Following are notable races that could help shape the Nov. 8 midterm elections when Republicans hope to win control of the U.S. Congress.

NEBRASKA GOVERNORSHIP

Trump’s endorsement power took a knock in the Republican gubernatorial primary in Nebraska, where Trump-backed Charles Herbster lost to University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen, according to a projection by Edison Research.

Herbster, a farming executive, was recently accused by several women, including a Republican state senator, of groping them. He denied the allegations but trailed Pillen across the largely rural state.

Pillen, who was endorsed by the departing Republican governor and the Farm Bureau, will face Democratic state senator Carol Blood in a contest seen as an easy win for Republicans.

WEST VIRGINIA’S 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Former President Donald Trump’s pick, U.S. Representative Alex Mooney, prevailed in a contest against fellow incumbent Republican Congressman David McKinley, according to a projection by Edison Research. The two were pitted against one another because their state, West Virginia, lost a U.S. House seat due to its shrinking population.

Mooney will likely win in November as the district is solidly Republican.

NEBRASKA 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Centered around Omaha, the state’s largest city, the 2nd district is seen as a potentially competitive race in November and has been held by Republican Don Bacon since 2017.

Bacon, who Trump had urged voters to oust from office, fended off a primary challenger and will face Democratic state Senator Tony Vargas in November, according to a projection by Edison Research.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Rosalba O’Brien)

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By Andy Sullivan and Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Donald Trump’s favored candidate fell short in Nebraska’s Republican primary election for governor on Tuesday, but the former president’s pick prevailed in a congressional primary contest in West Virginia.

Tuesday’s elections delivered a split result for Trump, who has endorsed more than 150 candidates as he tries to shape his Republican Party ahead of a possible 2024 presidential run.

In Nebraska, his choice for governor, Charles Herbster, lost to rival Jim Pillen, according to Edison Research, even though Trump had hosted a rally for him a little more than a week earlier.

But in West Virginia, voters opted for Representative Alex Mooney, a candidate who has backed Trump’s false claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Tuesday’s elections are part of a series of nominating contests that will set the stage for Nov. 8 elections in which Republicans are favored to win control of at least one chamber of Congress, which would give them the power to bring Democratic President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda to a halt.

Trump’s influence will be put to the test in high-profile Senate contests later this month in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.

The Nebraska contest had been dominated in recent weeks by accusations that Herbster, an agriculture executive, had sexually harassed several women, which he has denied.

Edison Research projected that Pillen, a hog farmer and university board member, would defeat Herbster and win the nomination. Pillen was endorsed by the current governor, Pete Ricketts.

In West Virginia, Mooney, Trump’s preferred candidate, defeated rival David McKinley, who was backed by the state’s governor, Jim Justice.

McKinley had campaigned on his support for Biden’s infrastructure law, which will send billions of dollars to the state for roads, bridges and other projects. Both are incumbents in a state that has lost a seat due to a shrinking population.

“I am honored the voters of West Virginia’s new 2nd congressional district have chosen me to carry the conservative banner as we begin the sprint to November,” Mooney said on Twitter. “Tonight is a monumental night for West Virginians & I look forward to being their trusted conservative voice in Congress.”

Also in Nebraska, Representative Don Bacon was on track to win the Republican primary after Edison Research predicted he would hold off challenger Steve Kuehl. Trump had urged voters to reject Bacon due to his criticism of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Bacon will face a competitive November election in the Omaha-based district against Democrat Tony Vargas, who was projected by Edison Research to win his party’s primary.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan, additional reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell, Rosalba O’Brien and Kim Coghill)

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Today in History

Today is Wednesday, May 11, the 131st day of 2022. There are 234 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On May 11, 2010, Conservative leader David Cameron, at age 43, became Britain’s youngest prime minister in almost 200 years after Gordon Brown stepped down and ended 13 years of Labour government.

On this date:

In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant (STY’-veh-sunt) arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor of New Netherland.

In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.

In 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded during a banquet at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

In 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration was created as one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.

In 1946, the first CARE packages, sent by a consortium of American charities to provide relief to the hungry of postwar Europe, arrived at Le Havre, France.

In 1953, a tornado devastated Waco, Texas, claiming 114 lives.

In 1960, Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 1973, the espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo in the “Pentagon Papers” case came to an end as Judge William M. Byrne dismissed all charges, citing government misconduct.

In 1981, legendary reggae artist Bob Marley died in a Miami hospital at age 36.

In 1996, an Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.

In 1998, India set off three underground atomic blasts, its first nuclear tests in 24 years. A French mint produced the first coins of Europe’s single currency, the euro.

In 2020, Twitter announced that it would add a warning label to tweets containing disputed or misleading information about the coronavirus. Jerry Stiller, best known for his role as George Costanza’s father in “Seinfeld” and earlier as part of a comedy duo with wife Anne Meara, died at 92.

Ten years ago: A Chicago jury convicted Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s former brother-in-law, William Balfour, of murdering her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew. (Balfour was sentenced to life in prison.)

Five years ago: President Donald Trump signed an executive order launching a commission to review alleged voter fraud and voter suppression, building upon his unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. (Trump disbanded the commission in January 2018 amid infighting and refusals by numerous states to cooperate.)

One year ago: The confrontation between Israel and Hamas, sparked by weeks of tensions in Jerusalem, escalated; Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while the Israeli city of Tel Aviv came under fire from a barrage of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. The Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River was closed after authorities said they found a crack in the span linking Arkansas and Tennessee. (The bridge remained closed for nearly three months.) More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts said was unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day. Stage and screen actor Norman Lloyd, known for his role as a kindly doctor on TV’s “St. Elsewhere,” died at his Los Angeles home at the age of 106; his career had earlier put him in the company of Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin and other greats.

Today’s Birthdays: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is 89. Jazz keyboardist Carla Bley is 86. Rock singer Eric Burdon (The Animals; War) is 81. Actor Pam Ferris is 74. Former White House chief of staff John F. Kelly is 72. Actor Shohreh Aghdashloo (SHOH’-reh ahg-DAHSH’-loo) is 70. Actor Frances Fisher is 70. Sports columnist Mike Lupica is 70. Actor Boyd Gaines is 69. Actor Martha Quinn is 63. Actor Tim Blake Nelson is 58. Actor Jeffrey Donovan is 54. Actor Nicky Katt is 52. Actor Coby Bell is 47. Cellist Perttu Kivilaakso (PER’-tuh KEE’-wee-lahk-soh) is 44. Actor Austin O’Brien is 41. Actor-singer Jonathan Jackson is 40. Rapper Ace Hood is 34. Latin singer Prince Royce is 33. Actor Annabelle Attanasio (TV: “Bull”) is 29. Musician Howard Lawrence (Disclosure) is 28.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-leaning states of Nebraska and West Virginia will hold primary elections on May 10 for the U.S. House of Representatives and other offices.

Following are notable races that could help shape the Nov. 8 midterm elections when Republicans hope to win control of the U.S. Congress.

WEST VIRGINIA’S 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

The race between two incumbent Republican U.S. representatives could be another test of the power of former President Donald Trump’s endorsements. Polls suggest a tight race between Alex Mooney, who is backed by Trump, and David McKinley, who was endorsed by West Virginia Governor Jim Justice.

The two incumbents are facing one another because West Virginia is losing a House seat due to a shrinking population. The winner of the nomination contest will likely win in November as the district is solidly Republican.

NEBRASKA GOVERNORSHIP

Trump’s endorsement power gets another test in the Republican gubernatorial primary in Nebraska, where Trump-backed Charles Herbster was recently accused by several women, including a state senator, of groping them. Herbster, a farming executive, has denied the allegations.

While recent public opinion polls have largely come from political campaigns rather than independent pollsters, they have pointed to a potentially competitive race between Herbster and University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen, who has been endorsed by the departing Republican governor and the Farm Bureau.

The November contest is seen as an easy win for Republicans.

NEBRASKA 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Centered around Omaha, the state’s largest city, the 2nd district is seen as a potentially competitive race in November and has been held by Republican Don Bacon since 2017.

While Bacon is not expected to face stiff internal competition in May, the Democratic Party primary pits state Senator Tony Vargas against mental health practitioner Alisha Shelton. Vargas has touted his support for banning assault rifles while Shelton has pledged to help improve access to voting.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Voters in Republican-leaning Nebraska and West Virginia go to the polls on Tuesday to pick candidates for U.S. Congress and other state races, with multiple matchups again testing former President Donald Trump’s sway with voters.

The contests are part of a series of primaries that will set the stage for Nov. 8 elections in which Republicans are favored to win control of at least one chamber of Congress, which would give them the power to bring Democratic President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda to a halt.

Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates this year as he lays the groundwork for a possible presidential bid in 2024, among them “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance, who secured the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Ohio last week. He has also endorsed in high-profile Senate primaries in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia later this month.

In Nebraska, Trump has endorsed business executive Charles Herbster in the governor’s race, even though several women have accused him of sexual harassment, a charge he denies. Herbster faces Jim Pillen, a hog farmer and university board member who has drawn the backing of the current governor and many other political figures in the Midwestern farm state.

In West Virginia, Trump has endorsed Representative Alex Mooney, a conservative who has backed the former president’s false accusations of fraud in the 2020 election, over Representative David McKinley, a centrist who is backed by Governor Jim Justice.

McKinley was one of 13 House Republicans to vote for Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, which will send billions of dollars in new spending for roads, bridges and other projects to the low-income state.

The unusual race pits two incumbents against each other, as the state lost a congressional seat due to its shrinking population. The winner of the primary contest is likely to win re-election in November in a new district that encompasses the northern half of the state.

In Nebraska, the race to succeed retiring Republican Governor Pete Ricketts has centered around accusations that Herbster had groped multiple women in recent years. Herbster has denied the charges and filed a defamation lawsuit against one of the accusers, state Senator Julie Slama. Slama has filed a countersuit alleging battery.

Trump, who also faces multiple accusations of harassment and sexual assault, said at a May 1 rally that he believed Herbster is innocent.

At that rally, Trump also urged his supporters to “vote like hell” against Republican Representative Don Bacon, who has criticized Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump said he backed challenger Steve Kuehl. The winner of that primary contest will face a competitive November election in the Omaha-based district against the Democratic nominee, either Tony Vargas or Alisha Shelton.

Also in Nebraska, Republican voters in the eastern part of the state will pick a nominee to succeed former Representative Jeff Fortenberry, who resigned in March after being convicted of lying to federal investigators about illegal campaign contributions.

State senator Mike Flood is favored to win that contest, which would put him in line for victory in November in the solidly Republican district. Flood has already won the Republican endorsement for a June 28 special election to fill Fortenberry’s vacant seat through January 2023.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democratic Del. Danica Roem, who made history as an openly transgender candidate in her initial bid for state office, announced Monday she is jumping into a 2023 race for an open northern Virginia state Senate seat.

In an interview, Roem said she did not expect a primary challenger in her bid to represent the competitive, newly redrawn 30th Senate District, which encompasses part of Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, partly overlapping with Roem’s current district.

Roem’s mix of legislative experience, fundraising ability and her national profile will make her a formidable candidate in a year when Democrats will be looking to defend or expand their 21-19 Senate majority. So far only one Republican, former Manassas city council member Ian Lovejoy, has gotten in the race.

“I will not be outspent, I will not be out-organized, I will not be out-hustled,” she said.

With the news, the 37-year-old former journalist became the latest candidate to firm up plans for next year, when every seat in the House and Senate will be on the ballot. Thanks to last year’s redistricting process, the election cycle could result in a significant reshuffling the General Assembly’s membership.

Lawmakers must live in the district they represent, and the new lines were drawn without concern for incumbents’ addresses. The result was some lawmakers being doubled or tripled in a single district while other districts were left open.

Roem said she recently moved to an address that’s in both her current House district, as well as the 30th Senate District. An analysis by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project shows the new 30th has leaned Democratic in recent years but Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin lost it by less than four points last fall.

A former reporter who covered the region before running to represent it, Roem has made local transportation issues and expanding access to school meals a focus of her time in office and said Monday she would continue doing so.

“My slogan this campaign is ‘fixing roads, feeding kids,’” she said.

Roem also said she would continue to advocate for LGTBQ rights, emphasizing in a video announcing her candidacy a wave of legislation in Republican-controlled states focused on LGBTQ youth.

Roem became the only openly transgender state legislator in the U.S. in 2018 and the first to both get elected and take office after defeating one of Virginia’s longest serving and most socially conservative lawmakers.

She was reelected in 2019 and 2021 by wide margins.

In her announcement, Roem acknowledged a pending lawsuit from a Democratic activist that seeks to force new House elections this year. The lawsuit argues that because last year’s House elections were held under old legislative boundaries because of pandemic-related delays in census results, members should run again sooner under the new lines.

Asked whether she thought delegates should have to run again this year, Roem said only that she would be “ready either way” and would seek reelection in the fall if the judge orders elections.

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