Chris Lange, FISM News
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Voters in five states will head to the polls today in Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, and Pennsylvania to decide their party’s candidate ahead of November’s midterm elections.
All eyes are on Pennsylvania’s tight GOP senate race to determine who will succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey. The contest has turned into a near dead-heat between Trump-endorsed candidate and celebrity surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz; veteran and conservative commentator Kathy Barnette, who received a major boost in the race’s final days with the backing of several prominent conservative groups; and businessman and Gulf War veteran Dave McCormick, who served as a Treasury Dept. official under the George W. Bush administration.
On the Democratic side, progressive Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has been considered the frontrunner over rivals U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta. However, Fetterman’s camp was thrown a major curveball Sunday when the 52-year-old revealed that he had suffered a stroke. Fetterman said he is on the road to making a full recovery, but it remains to be seen if the news will hurt his chances.
Also in Pennsylvania, Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro is unopposed for the governorship within his party. Trump has endorsed state Sen. Doug Mastriano as the Republican nominee. Mastriano has been vocal in the past about his belief that the 2020 election was stolen from the former president, an issue that has led to sharp division amongst Americans.
Meanwhile, Democratic socialist state Rep. Summer Lee and moderate Steve Irwin are vying for the 12th Congressional District in a race that has become decidedly contentious in recent weeks.
Another state to watch is North Carolina, where Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn is facing seven challengers in his bid for renomination to the 11th Congressional District nomination after a series of personal and political missteps.
Several GOP leaders have distanced themselves from the 26-year-old freshman congressman over unsupported comments he made on a podcast during which he said he had been invited to an orgy in Washington and had personally seen politicians claiming to lead the fight against drug addiction doing lines of cocaine. Cawthorn later walked back the comments, but many Republican lawmakers furious over the unfounded remarks have been slow to thaw.
Cawthorn also faced fierce criticism for calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug” shortly after the Russian invasion.
On a personal level, Cawthorn has been pulled over for speeding three times since October and has twice been caught with guns at airport checkpoints as recently as last month. Videos showing Cawthorn in sexually suggestive poses have also recently emerged. Cawthorn dismissed the clips as attempts at humor and said they were several years old.
Still, Cawthorn has garnered Trump’s endorsement, which has helped propel 58 out of 59 candidates backed by the 45th president to victory in other primaries. Trump recently asked conservative voters to give Cawthorn a second chance.
State Sen. Chuck Edwards, Cawthorn’s chief rival, has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and top Republican lawmakers in the state. A super PAC allied with Tillis has run several attack ads against Cawthorn, including one that called him a “reckless embarrassment” and “dishonest disaster.”
Elsewhere, in Oregon’s 5th District, moderate Democrat incumbent U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader faces an uphill battle for his party’s nomination after breaking with Democrats on some key votes. Schrader has been endorsed by President Biden, while progressives are largely backing former House candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner.
Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin is challenging her boss, Gov. Brad Little, in Idaho’s GOP primary. McGeachin garnered headlines last year when she took it upon herself to ban mask and vaccine mandates in two separate instances while Little was out of state.