Primaries: Nancy Mace withstood McCarthy's proxy challenge, Kelly Armstrong won in North Dakota and Democrats surprised in Ohio

This Tuesday, June 11, voters from different states went to the polls to choose their candidates for the upcoming November elections.

In particular, three races garnered national attention: Nancy Mace’s triumph in South Carolina, Kelly Armstrong’s victory in North Dakota, and the Democrats’ performance in Ohio as they almost won a seat in a markedly Republican district, generating concern among several conservative analysts.

Mace withstood McCarthy’s proxy onslaught

One of the races with the greatest interest was, of course, that of Representative Nancy Mace in South Carolina, who had a difficult challenge ahead of her: the proxy of the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy, who retired from Congress after Mace and seven other Republicans joined the Democrats to remove him from the House of Representatives, decided to support Mace’s main rival, the former state official Catherine Templeton, who served in the local administration of the former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley.

Templeton, who received 28.8% of the vote Tuesday, was boosted by spending from McCarthy-linked super PACs.

In total, Templeton’s campaign received multimillion-dollar donations that boosted her career and put Mace in serious trouble, but she managed to withstand the challenge thanks, in part, to the support of former President Donald Trump.

Mace not only won the primary, but she avoided a runoff after receiving 57.6% of the vote. She will seek a third term in Congress in the November general elections.

Third place went to veteran Marine and financial planner Bill Young, who received 13.6% of the votes. If Young and Templeton had scored about eight points between them, Mace would have had to go to the second round.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) celebrated Mace’s victory on his X account by sending a message to McCarthy: “Congratulations Nancy Mace! The McCarthy Revenge Tour bombs in its opening night.”

Kelly Armstrong, running for governor of North Dakota

In another high-profile Republican primary, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) crushed the state lieutenant governor, Tammy Miller, thanks in part to Trump’s support in a contest marked by the challenge between the former president and Governor Doug Burgum, who decided to leave the office to seek to be Trump’s running mate.

In the end, the Trump-backed Armstrong clearly defeated Miller, Burgum’s pick as his successor.

Trump’s support for Kelly came only at the end of May when polls placed him as the favorite.

“In Congress, Kelly strongly defended me through two SHAM Impeachments, and is 100% MAGA,” Trump posted May 30 on Truth Social.

Burgum, in a rare interview with CNN, attempted to be impartial between Kelly and Armstrong, arguing that either candidate would make a great governor.

“I’m supporting one, President Trump is supporting the other,” Burgum said during the interview. “But whoever wins that primary in about 12 days from now, North Dakota is going to have a great governor.”

Finally, Armstrong will face Democratic state senator Merrill Piepkorn, who won an unopposed primary.

North Dakota is a strongly Republican state that has not elected a Democratic governor in nearly 40 years. So Armstrong is the big favorite.

Democrats almost caused a political earthquake in Ohio

Warning signs for Republicans? Although the primaries in recent months have not generated great expectations, a phenomenon almost occurred in Ohio: the Democrats were very close to coming back in a markedly Republican district.

This is the special election for Ohio’s 6th district, where Republican Michael Rulli won the Ohio House seat vacated by Republican Bill Johnson.

However, the distance between Rulli and the Democratic candidate, Michael Kripchak (D), was less than ten points: 54.6% to 45.3%.

To measure the Democrats’ progress in this district, ABC News reported that, in this district, Republicans have an average lead of 32 points, which means that Democrats outperformed by 22 points. This result caused alarm for some Republican analysts.

“Warning sign. If low propensity voters don’t show up, we underperform. We are a low prop party now. Time to wake people up. If we don’t do the work NOW, we will lose to Joe Biden. Get to work,” wrote commentator Charlie Kirk.