Mike Lee, one of the Senate’s most conservative members, rejected the two leading Utah Republican candidates who were critical of his unwavering loyalty to Trump.

Lee’s clear victory shows just how strong Trump’s grip on the Republican Party is, and how risky it is for Republicans critical of Trump to try to fight him.

Lee was challenged in the November election by independent former Republican Evan McMullin, who received a fifth of the vote when he ran against Trump in 2016 in Mormon state, which is deeply conservative, but where many are skeptical of Trump’s abusive behavior. McMullin received support from Democrats who were holding back from running.

The Trump-backed candidate also won elsewhere in Tuesday’s primary in seven states. Among other things, one of the most extreme members of the House of Representatives, Lauren Boebert, famous in Colorado, and Mary Miller, who recently called the Supreme Court’s controversial abortion decision “a victory for white life,” rejected moderate challengers in Illinois.

Not as good as everywhere

But elsewhere, things are not going well for Trump’s staunch candidate. Colorado Republicans rejected two local candidates who believed Trump’s claim that he won the presidential election, including Tina Peters, the election official known nationally for breaking into her city’s electoral system.

One of Peters’ close allies, Ron Hanks, lost the race to become the Republican candidate in this fall’s election to Joe O’Dea.

O’Dea is a businessman who is aware that Joe Biden won the election, and who is a rare Republican supporter of self-determined abortion, while Hanks, who was present at the stampede of Congress in January, opposed all abortions, including when his mother’s life was in danger. .

[ USA-ekspert etter høring: – Avkler Trump politisk ]

Democratic fraud

O’Dea will face Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennet in November after many Democrats gave $4 million to Hanks’ election campaign thinking he would be easier to beat for Bennet.

The same strategy worked in Illinois, where extreme candidate Darren Bailey, who has Trump’s backing, was nominated to challenge Democratic Governor JB Pritzker. The opposing candidate, black mayor Richard Irvin in the state’s second-largest city of Aurora, was seen as a far more dangerous candidate for Pritzker.

[ Dagsavisen mener: Donald Trump er en farlig forbryter ]

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