The Republican party in the race for governor of Wisconsin on Tuesday features competing candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump and his Vice President, Mike Pence. Democrats choose a candidate to face two-term Republican Sen. Ron Johnson for control of the closely divided chamber.
Meanwhile, Vermont voters choose a replacement US Senator Patrick Leahy as the oldest member of the chamber retires. In Minnesota, American MP Ilhan Omar is facing a Democratic primary challenger who helped defeat a voter referendum to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety.
What to watch in Tuesday’s primary elections in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont and Connecticut:
WISCONSIN
Tim Michels, co-owner of the construction company has Trump’s endorsement in the governor’s race and has been spending millions of his own money, touting both the former president’s support and his years working to turn his family’s business into the most big from wisconsin Michels is running as an outsider, though he previously lost a campaign to unseat then-U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold in 2004 and has been a longtime prominent GOP donor.
Establishment Republicans, including Pence and former Gov. Scott Walker, have endorsed it former Lt. Gov. Rebecca KleefischWHO along with Walker, they survived a 2012 recall effort. He argues that he has the experience and knowledge to pursue conservative priorities, including dismantling the bipartisan commission that runs elections.
With control of the Senate up for grabs, Democrats will also choose to run against Johnson. Democratic support coalesced around Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes late in the race, when his three main rivals dropped out and they gave him their support. He would become the state’s first black senator if elected.
Several lesser-known candidates remain in the primary, but Johnson and Republicans have treated Barnes as the front-runner, viewing him as too liberal for Wisconsin, a state Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020.
Four Democrats are also running in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat that opened with the retirement of veteran Democratic US Representative Ron Kind. The district has been leaning Republican, and Derrick Van Orden, who narrowly lost to Kind in 2020 and is backed by Trump, is unopposed.
MINNESOTA
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz faces a little-known challenger as he seeks a second term. His likely rival is Republican Scott Jensena doctor and former state legislator who has made vaccine skepticism a centerpiece of his campaign and faces token opposition.
Both men have been on the virtual campaign trail for months, with Jensen attacking Walz over his handling of the pandemic and bashing the governor over rising crime in Minneapolis. Walz has highlighted his own support for abortion rights and suggested Jensen would be a threat to decriminalize the procedure in Minnesota.
Crime has become the main issue in Rep. Omar’s Democratic primary. He faces a challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, who opposes the move to defund the police and last year helped defeat efforts replace the city’s police department. Omar, who supported the referendum, has a substantial cash advantage and is expected to benefit from a strong grassroots operation.
The most confusing part of Tuesday’s vote was for the 1st Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who he died earlier this year of cancer Former Republican state Rep. Brad Finstad and Democrat Jeff Ettinger, former Hormel CEO, are running concurrently in the primary to determine the November showdown for the next two-year term representing the southern Minnesota district, as like a special election to end the last one. few months into Hagedorn’s term.
CONNECTICUT
It’s been roughly three decades since Connecticut had a Republican in the U.S. Senate, but the party isn’t giving up.
In the Republican primaries to assume Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthalhas endorsed the party former state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides. She is a social moderate who supports abortion rights and certain gun control measures and says she did not vote for Trump in 2020. Klarides says her experience and positions may persuade voters to oppose Blumenthal, a two-term senator who recorded a 45% employment rate in May. approval rating, his lowest in a Quinnipiac poll since taking office.
Klarides is being challenged by conservative attorney Peter Lumaj and Republican National Committeewoman Leora Levy, whom Trump endorsed last week. Both candidates oppose abortion rights and more gun restrictions, and support Trump’s policies.
VERMONT
Leahy’s upcoming retirement has opened up two seats in Vermont’s small three-person congressional delegation, and the opportunity for the state to send a woman to represent it in Washington for the first time.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, the state’s at-large congressman, quickly launched his Senate bid after Leahy announced he was stepping down. Leahy, who is president pro tempore of the Senate, has been hospitalized a couple of times in the past two years, including after breaking his hip this summer.
Welch has been endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and is the favorite to win the seat in November. She faces two other Democrats in the primary: Isaac Evans-Frantz, an activist, and Dr. Niki Thran, an emergency room physician.
On the Republican side, former US Attorney Christina Nolan, retired US Army officer Gerald Malloy and investment banker Myers Mermel are vying for the nomination.
The race to replace Welch has resulted in Vermont’s first open campaign for the US House since 2006.
Two women, including Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and State Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, are the top Democratic candidates in the race. Gray, elected in 2020 in her first political bid, is an attorney and former deputy state attorney general.
The winner of the Democratic primary will be the heavy favorite to win the general election in the liberal state. In 2018, Vermont became the last state without female representation in Congress when Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate.
Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis.; Doug Glass in Minneapolis; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; and Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vermont, contributed to this report.
Meg Kinnard can be contacted at