Arizona, Michigan and Kansas: Trump-endorsed candidates win primaries

The former president's support is proving decisive in securing the Republican nomination for the November midterm.

Candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump have won the Republican primary elections for governors of the states of Michigan and Kansas. They are Tuxor Dixon and Derek Schmidt, respectively, who will fight in November to return these states to the Republican side.

This victory for Trump-endorsed candidates is compounded by the results we are learning from the Republican primary in Arizona. These are the cases of Robert Scantlebury, Blake Masters and David Farnsworth (candidates for the Senate); Eli Crane (candidate for Congress); Mark Finchem (candidate for Secretary of State) or Abe Hamadeh (nominee for Attorney General). All have been victorious in their respective races and all have in common the support of the former president.

This succession of names is a show of Trump's strength ahead of the possibility of running for president in 2024. In Michigan, one of the so-called swing states that gave him victory in 2016 but returned to the Democratic side in 2020, has won the primary the conservative Tudor Dixon. His campaign, focused on education, promises to veto gender ideology in elementary schools. He also opposes widespread abortion and defends the Second Amendment.

His case is a clear example of the popularity that comes with Trump's endorsement. The local media reports several testimonies of voters who claim to have opted for her after learning of the former president's endorsement. Dixon will face Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer in the November midterm.

Something similar has happened in Kansas, a traditionally conservative state but currently governed by a Democrat. There, the Republican primary has been won by Attorney General Derek Schmidt, also backed by Trump and who will try to wrest the seat from Governor Laura Kelly in November.

Trump endorsements

In recent weeks, the Trump-backed candidates have won Republican Senate primaries in Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In contrast, candidates with his endorsement lost the primaries for governor of Georgia and for the House of Representatives in South Carolina.

(Update August 5, 2022)

To these names, Kari Lake has been added in the last few hours. The candidate supported by the former president has won, after a two-day vote count, the Republican nomination for governor of Arizona. The candidate was competing with Taylor Robson for the nomination and finally won. Robson was endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence.