Progressive Squad member from Minnesota Ilhan Omar narrowly prevailed in the Democratic primaries on Tuesday over a moderate opponent who questioned the incumbent’s commitment to the “defund the police” campaign.
Another progressive, Becca Balint, had a much easier time of it after she won Vermont’s Democratic House primary and secured her position as the state’s first female congresswoman.
To fill the remaining months of the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn’s tenure in Minnesota, a Republican was running for office.
Meanwhile, a crucial election was taking place in western Wisconsin, where Democratic Rep. Ron Kind’s retirement after 26 years in service opens a seat in a Republican-leaning district.
The GOP candidate running to succeed Kind is a former Navy SEAL who was present at the “Stop the Steal” event in Washington on January 6, 2021, which took place before the uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
leading elections include:
Omar, who represents Minneapolis and is one of the most prominent representatives of the left in Congress, has championed demands to divert public safety spending more toward neighbourhood-based initiatives.
She faced a battle against former city councilman Don Samuels, whose neighbourhood in north Minneapolis experienced more violent crime than other areas of the city.
Omar, according to Samuels, is polarizing and was instrumental in last year’s loss of a ballot initiative that aimed to establish a new public safety agency in place of the local police force.
Along with others, he was successful in suing the city to compel it to maintain the minimum police personnel levels stipulated in Minneapolis’ charter.
If this had been the general election, there is little question that we would have triumphed, according to Samuels, who said that Omar can be defeated.
Omar argued in opposition, saying, “Tonight’s triumph is a monument to how strongly our district believes in the communal ideals we are fighting for.”
Omar was described as “too far to the left” by Barb Atkinson, a 53-year-old part-time radio station event director who supported Samuels.
“Even though I respect Ilhan Omar and what she has accomplished, I do not support the defunding of the police. That language, in my opinion, conveys the incorrect message, said Atkinson. We need our leaders to collaborate to find a solution, she continued.
Omar, who is running for her third term in the House, bested a similar primary battle from a well-funded but lesser-known opponent two years prior.
She has already experienced a lot of hardship and resistance. I don’t think her work is finished, said Kathy Ward, a 62-year-old Minneapolis apartment complex property manager who voted for Omar. “She needs a chance,” the speaker said.
The Democratic primaries for two additional Squad members, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, were won last week.
The same seat being filled by Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who passed away earlier this year from cancer, was up for election in two different contests in southern Minnesota.
In a special election, Republican Brad Finstad, who formerly worked for the US Department of Agriculture under President Trump, was elected to fill the remaining months of Hagedorn’s tenure.
In a closer-than-expected contest in the Republican-leaning district, Finstad defeated Democrat Jeff Ettinger, a former Hormel Foods CEO. To qualify for the election on Tuesday, both had won a special primary on May 24.
After each won his party’s nomination on Tuesday, Finstad and Ettinger will compete in November for a seat in the district, which encompasses Rochester and Mankato.
While state representative Jeremy Munson was easily defeated by Finstad, Ettinger faced little primary opposition. Even though federal, state, and Trump’s own attorney general declared there was no convincing proof the 2020 presidential election was corrupted, Munson said he doesn’t believe President Joe Biden’s victory was genuine.
In Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, where Democratic incumbent Kind is stepping down, Republicans see a chance to pick up a seat.
La Crosse and Eau Claire are included in the district, which spans several counties along Wisconsin’s western border with Minnesota. Trump has endorsed Republican Derrick Van Orden, who won his primary on Tuesday with no opposition.
In the general election of 2020, Kind narrowly defeated Van Orden. He reportedly went to Trump’s “Stop the Steal” event close to the White House, but he claims he never set foot on Capitol grounds during the uprising.
To win the Democratic primary, state senator Brad Pfaff defeated three other candidates. He will take on Van Orden in the fall. Former state agriculture secretary Pfaff was recommended by Kind because of his prior employment with him.
The last state to add a female representative to its congressional delegation is Vermont. The first openly gay member of Congress from Vermont would be Balint, who is now the front-runner in the general election in November.
Some of the most prominent left-leaning figures in the country, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Pramila Jayapal of Washington, D.C., supported her.
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Balint said in a statement that she would be delighted to represent Vermont in Congress since the state had “selected a bold, progressive vision for the future.”
Rep. Peter Welch, who is running for the Senate and comfortably won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, is leaving the state’s only House seat open.
Balint is competing to take his place. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the longest-serving senator, is stepping down and Welch is running to replace him. This is the first open Senate seat for Vermont since 2006 when Sanders replaced Jim Jeffords.
Molly Gray, a former Welch worker who had the support of Leahy and former Vermont governor Howard Dean, was defeated by Balint. She will compete in November against Bellows Falls resident and Marine Corps veteran Liam Madden.
