Progressive gubernatorial candidate secures upset win in Florida, while primaries end as predicted in Arizona.
8/29/2018 9:00
Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma held primaries Tuesday with highlights emerging from the late U.S. Sen. John McCain’s home state of Arizona, and from Florida – a clear swing state that President Donald Trump narrowly won in 2016.
In a defeat unanticipated by election watchers, Progressive candidate Andrew Gillum beat U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, D-Fla., in the Democrat race for the Florida governor’s mansion, The Hill reports . Gillum surged ahead with support on the campaign trail from former presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. On Tuesday polls indicated that Gillum, Tallahassee’s mayor, was trailing Graham and Philip Levine, former mayor of Miami Beach, the article said.
In November, Gillum will face U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, a Florida Republican who was endorsed by Trump.
“The win by the Tallahassee mayor proved a progressive can win a primary in Florida. But it remains an open question whether that same agenda can win over voters in the general election,” The Hill reports.
Also in Florida Tuesday, Gov. Rick Scott won 88.6 percent of the votes in the Republican primary over Roque De La Fuente for the U.S. Senate, The New York Times reports. Scott will face Democrat Bill Nelson, who ran unopposed.
In Florida’s 16th congressional district, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, a six-term Republican incumbent who ran unopposed in the primary will face attorney David Shapiro in November. Shapiro defeated Jan Schneider with 54.7 percent of the votes, according to The New York Times.
Meanwhile in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R- Ariz., Republican congresswoman Martha McSally defeated state Sen. Kelli Ward and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for the 2nd Congressional District.
McSally will face U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., in November.
Arizona’s gubernatorial primary resulted in a win for Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who is also tasked with choosing a GOP candidate to serve out McCain’s term until 2020.
Potential successors for McCain include Ducey’s chief of staff Kirk Adams, former ambassador to Finland Barbara Barrett, and former Sen. Jon Kyl, CBS News reports.
Ducey will oppose Democrat Doug Garcia in the midterms.
Read complete results in the Arizona primaries in The New York Times.
Finally in Oklahoma, the state held runoff elections in several races after a low voter turnout in the June primaries, according to a report from The Oklahoman.
The gubernatorial primary proved successful for Republican candidate Kevin Stitt, according to results in The New York Times. He will face Libertarian Chris Powell in the midterms.
Leading up to Election Day Nov. 6, primaries remain in Massachusetts, Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and New York throughout September.
It remains unclear as to whether the midterms will result in a power shift in the House or Senate.
Currently, Republicans hold a 236-193 majority in the House of Representatives, with six vacancies. Democrats need a net gain of 24 seats to reach a majority in 2018.