Primary elections 2022 latest: Trump-backed Republican wins in Illinois as New York’s governor cruises to victory

Voters in eight states will head to the polls on Tuesday. Those states are New York, Colorado, Illinois, Mississippi, Nebraska, Utah, South Carolina and Oklahoma. New York’s primaries tomorrow will include races for statewide seats like the governor and lieutenant governor, while other seats including those in the state legislature and Congress will have their races conclude in August.

Rep Lauren Boebert, one of the House’s most controversial members, is set to face Don Coram in Tuesday’s GOP primary for the 3rd congressional district of Colorado.

She’s favoured to win, but faces a competitive challenger in Don Coram, a member of the state legislature, due in no small part to her own controversial remarks and actions. Two major PACs, the Fire Boebert PAC and the Better Than Boebert PAC, are backing her opponent.

Gov Kathy Hochul is expected to sweep the field in tomorrow’s Democratic primary as she seeks to win her first full term. Previously the state’s lieutenant governor, she took office after Gov Andrew Cuomo resigned in 2021.

She faces Juumane Williams, a popular progressive who lost to her in the lieutenant governor’s race in 2018, as well as Tom Suozzi, a conservative Democrat.

A crowded field of GOP candidate is vying to face her (or whichever of her rivals wins Tuesday’s primary) in November, though the election of a Republican governor in New York would be a rare occurrence.

Tuesday’s elections will see the first time New York voters get the chance to vote for (or against) a Giuliani in decades.

Known by some as “America’s Mayor” after the 9/11 terrorist attacks struck his city during his mayoral tenure, Rudy Giuliani saw his reputation diminish to a great extent with his performance as lead attorney for Donald Trump’s ill-conceived effort to overturn the 2020 election in the courts. Now, just under two years later, his son Andrew is a candidate in the Republican primary for New York governor. It’s his first foray into politics at any level.

Mr Giuliani (the younger) is not likely to win his primary on Tuesday; Rep Lee Zeldin is the frontrunner for the GOP contest. If he loses, it will likely be because many voters did not want to trust the governor’s mansion in one of the US’s biggest states to a political newcomer.

A Republican congressman who voted to create an independent commission to investigate the January 6 attack is at risk of losing his seat on Tuesday.

Rep Michael Guest of Mississippi is facing a Trump-backed challenger in his state’s runoff. The congressman previously trailed him by a few hundred votes in the state’s primary election earlier this month.

His opponent, Navy veteran Michael Cassidy, has used his vote against him as well as his support for sending military aid to Ukraine, a prospect opposed by the isolationist far-right of the GOP.

Lauren Boebert’s office has released a statement to The Washington Post denying a claim from an embattled GOP county clerk whose efforts to prove nonexistant fraud in the 2020 election led to actions that resulted in her indictment on numerous criminal charges.

Now Mesa County clerk Tina Peters is claiming in statements to journalists that Ms Boebert “encouraged” her actions.

Read more in The Independent from John Bowden:

Donald Trump’s conservative ally in Utah, Mike Lee, is facing two primary challengers today. The two well-funded candidates, Ally Islom and Becky Edwards, have hit Mr Lee on a number of issues including his support for discredited conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell and her efforts to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election.

He also faces lingering bad blood in the Mormon-heavy state after comparing Mr Trump to Captain Moroni from the Book of Mormon at an event. Mr Lee himself is a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.

If he loses today, a fairly unlikely prospect, it will send a significant message about Utah’s GOP electorate which in recent years sent impeachment-supporting Mitt Romney to the Senate as Mr Lee’s colleague.

J.B. Pritzker is running for reelection as the popular Democratic governor of Illinois, home state of former first lady Michelle Obama. He’s emerged as a leader among Democratic state governors around the country, particularly given last year’s resignation of New York’s Andrew Cuomo.

On Tuesday, he’s expected to coast to victory against one primary challenger. For that reason, the millionaire-turned-governor and his Democratic allies have spend upwards of $30m attempting to sink the campaign of a centrist Republican candidate running in Tuesday’s primary in the hopes of seeing him fall to a Trump-backed rival who is seen as less electable in the purple-blue state.

Read more about the dynamics of the race from The Associated Press:

A new poll released on Sunday from CBS News indicates a troubling dynamic arising for Republican candidates ahead of November’s midterms.

Following Friday’s ruling by the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs Wade, the survey shows independents and Democrats particularly more energised by the issue and eager to vote this fall. And clear majorities of both groups opposed the ruling.

That could be a problem for Republicans trying to win back the House and Senate as more and more GOP-led state legislatures around the country pursue restrictions and outright bans on abortion care services.

Read more from The Independent’s John Bowden:

Voters are heading to the polls in deep-red Oklahoma on Tuesday to decide the fate of the state’s two US Senate seats, a rare occurrence that is only happening due to the early retirement of incumbent Sen Jim Inhofe.

His colleague, Sen James Lankford, is facing a candidate in the state’s GOP primary who raising claims of RINOism due to Mr Lankford’s refusal to support Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

Mr Inhofe’s seat, on the other hand, will likely go to one of numerous candidates in a crowded Republican field for the open seat; currently-serving Rep Markwayne Mullin is among the challengers.

Read more from The Associated Press: