President Donald Trump’s endorsement is put to the test in three crucial statewide Deep South races Tuesday as voters from Alabama and Georgia go to the polls.
In the Yellowhammer State, Trump-endorsed Rep. Barry Moore (R-GA) seeks to hold off a late charge from former Navy SEAL sniper Jared Hudson in the Republican primary runoff to replace Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-GA), who avoided a primary runoff in his quest for Alabama’s governor.
In the Peach State, two statewide Republican primary runoffs feature a Trump-endorsed candidate versus political newcomer.
In the gubernatorial race, longtime Trump-ally and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (R-GA) faces billionaire Rick Jackson, who is reported to have spent over $100 million of his fortune in his quest for the seat. The winner will face former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November. In the Senate, Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), fresh off a late endorsement from Trump, faces former football coach Derek Dooley.
Moore, the favorite after earning 39.2 percent in the primary to Hudson’s 25.6 percent, nevertheless stumbled in the final stretch as his campaign has struggled to push back against “stolen valor” allegations and Hudson tying Moore to Washington.
Notably, a list of Moore’s endorsements posted by his campaign Monday left off Thune.
Yet Moore has the Trump endorsement and has benefited from over $10 million in spending on his behalf from Washington-based Club for Growth and PACs tied to the crypto industry.
Across the Chattahoochee River, Collins is seen as the heavy favorite over Dooley, who was recruited to the race by Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA), who has had a rocky relationship with Trump (the two appear on good terms lately). Dooley and Kemp campaigned together throughout the race, with the two co-headlining campaign events in the final days.
Yet Trump did not endorse Collins until the weekend before the campaign, after polling showed Collins the favorite.
The winner will face fundraising juggernaut Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in November. Ossoff, who has raised more than any incumbent this cycle, is widely believed to harbor ambitions to run for the presidency in 2028.
But first, Ossoff must win in November in increasingly-purple Georgia.
In the state’s gubernatorial race, Jones is working to leverage his Trump endorsement to defeat Jackson – and his fortune. Kemp, the current governor, endorsed Jones in the leadup to Election Day.
Ossoff’s presidential aspirations add another wrinkle to the gubernatorial race. If he were to win the presidency (or vice presidency) in 2028, the next governor would appoint Ossoff’s senatorial successor until a special election could be held.
With margins expected to remain razor thin in the Senate, that seat could even determine who holds the majority.
Other noteworthy races include those in DC, which will choose its first new mayor in a dozen years as well as its non-voting delegate to Congress, a seat held for an astounding 36 years by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who was forced into retirement after widespread scrutiny over her ability to handle the rigors of the role.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has nevertheless had a relatively smooth working relationship with Trump, who in his second term briefly took over the city’s police force and sent in national guardsmen to enforce law and order in a city notoriously lacking both. Her replacement is likely to emerge from the party’s radical fringes.
Oklahoma has a handful of important primary races, although no fireworks are expected. In additional to gubernatorial primaries, the state’s Republicans are expected to nominate Trump-endorsed Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) to fill the remainder of now-Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin’s term (Sen. Alan Armstrong was appointed by term-limited Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt to serve through the special election in November.)
The state holds its congressional primaries as well, with the Republican battle in the First District the most notable.
Finally, California voters in the special primary election in the 14th Congressional District will choose who will replace disgrace Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Polls close in Georgia at 7 p.m. ET. In DC, Alabama, and Oklahoma, polls close at 8 p.m. ET. In California, which votes largely by mail, polls close at 11 p.m. ET.
UPDATE 9:50 p.m. ET:
NBC News calls it for Rep. Barry Moore in Alabama. With 58.4 percent in, Moore sits at 59.5 percent. Trump’s endorsement and millions in cash from the Club for Growth and crypto industry put this one out of reach for Jared Hudson.
UPDATE 9:35 p.m. ET:
Moore has a commanding lead in the Alabama Republican Senate primary. With 38.5 percent of the vote in in a very low turnout runoff, Moore sits at 58.8 percent to Hudson’s 41.2 percent. This might be called soon.
UPDATE 9:27 p.m. ET:
NBC News projects Rick Jackson to defeat Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. With almost 80 percent of the expected votes tallied, Jackson has 53 percent to Jones’s 47 percent.
Jones put up a good fight, but in the end he could not overcome the vastly better-funded Jackson. Although Trump endorsed Jones, Don Jr. spoke highly of Jackson in the days before the election – although making clear it was not an endorsement – which bodes well for the Trump machinery getting behind Jackson in his general election race against Bottoms.
UPDATE 9:15 p.m. ET:
Three-quarters of the expected vote is now in in Georgia, and Jones remains over six points down. It would take a remarkable over performance with the remaining vote for him to pull ahead. His Election Day comeback is looking as if it will come up short, but the race has not yet been called.
UPDATE 9:04 p.m. ET:
In Alabama,just over ten percent of the vote is in, with a disproportionate percentage from Moore’s base in the Wiregrass (Southeastern part of the state), giving Moore an advantage of about 14 points.
Hudson is from Birmingham, in the northern half of the state which nonetheless contains about two-thirds of the population. His home county of Jefferson is usually late in reporting its vote.
UPDATE 8:48 p.m. ET:
The National Senatorial Campaign Committee (NRSC) and other affiliated groups in Washington will be all-in for Collins in what will be an incredible expensive general election campaign against Ossoff. Here’s a statement from a spokesman for the Thune-affiliated Senate Leadership Fund from a release which includes a laundry list of radical positions Ossoff has taken:
“Senate Leadership Fund congratulates Mike Collins on his victory in Georgia’s Republican Senate Primary. Collins’ opponent, Jon Ossoff, is wildly out of step with Georgia voters, spending the last six years advancing radical liberal priorities at the expense of working families. Ossoff is a rubber stamp for Chuck Schumer and the Far-Left, and we look forward to his defeat in November.”
UPDATE 8:42 p.m. ET:
Collins now has a greater percentage of the vote in the Senate contest than Jackson holds in the gubernatorial race. The Trump factor is propelling Jones into a race that some prognosticators thought was out of reach due to Jackson’s astronomical self-funding.
Jones is hardly there yet, but Jackson is surely feeling squirmy.
UPDATE 8:30 p.m. ET:
In Georgia, Jackson’s lead over Jones is dwindling – although it is still larger than Collins’s lead over Dooley, and that race has been called for Collins. with 52.2 percent of the vote in, Jackson is now at 55.5 percent to Jones’s 44.5 percent.
Jones has an uphill battle, but his hope is that Trump continuing to beat the drum for him turned out voters on Election Day. Jackson is probably feeling good right now.
UPDATE 8:15 p.m. ET:
Rep. Mike Collins is the projected Republican nominee to take on Sen. Jon Ossoff. Decision Desk HQ and NBC News called the race about 70 minutes after polls closed. With 44.1 percent of the projected votes in, the Trump-endorsed Collins bested Dooley 53.2 to 46.8 percent.
UPDATE 8:05 p.m. ET:
In addition to Georgia, polls are now closed in Alabama, Oklahoma, and Washington, DC.
Some down the ballot statewide have already been called in Georgia, but not the two big ones. That could change soon.
UPDATE 7:46 p.m. ET:
With over 38 percent of the expected votes counted in Georgia, Collins holds a 51.7 to 48.3 percent advantage over Dooley, and Jackson holds a 58.8 to 41.2 percent advantage over Jones. Many more votes to count.
Bradley Jaye is Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
Read the full article here