The results are in for several closely watched primaries in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Here are the top takeaways from Tuesday night.
Omar fends off challenger: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) handily won her primary against Don Samuels in a rematch from 2022. Last cycle, Omar narrowly beat Samuels, a former member of the Minneapolis City Council. This time around, Omar won by roughly 14 points taking more than 56% of the vote. Samuels hit Omar on her stance on the war in Gaza.
Omar’s victory in Minnesota’s 5th District is a huge win for progressives and the Squad, which lost two of its members — Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) — in heated primaries this year.
But unlike those contests — the most expensive House primaries in history — AIPAC didn’t play in Omar’s race. That said, Omar still raised a significant amount of money this cycle, bringing in nearly $6.8 million. As of now, Omar still has nearly $700,000 cash on hand.
Gallagher’s successor: The race to replace former moderate Rep. Mike Gallagher (R) in Wisconsin’s 8th District was all about former President Donald Trump. State Sen. André Jacque, former state Sen. Roger Roth and Trump-backed political outsider Tony Wied all tried to out-MAGA each other by repeatedly emphasizing their ties to Trump. In the end, Wied came out victorious.
Trump endorsed Wied, former owner of the “Dino Stop” gas station chain, in April.
Cooke will take on DVO: Rebecca Cooke will face Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) in November.
The heated Democratic primary was mainly a contest between state Rep. Katrina Shankland and Cooke, a small business owner. Shankland was the favorite among progressives, while Cooke was backed by several Democratic Frontliners and members of the Blue Dog Coalition. Cooke beat Shankland by nearly nine points.
Democrats are determined to flip Wisconsin’s 3rd District, which leans Republican. Van Orden succeeded former Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, who retired in 2022.
Hovde cruises to general: As expected, multimillionaire business executive Eric Hovde cruised through his GOP primary and will take on Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in November.
Baldwin and Hovde have already been going after each other, so the race has been on for some time. Baldwin is taking her race seriously, even skipping part of the Democratic National Convention to go campaign next week.
There’s also going to be a lot of money poured into this contest. Hovde has been self-funding his campaign for the most part, loaning himself $8 million earlier this year. As of now, he’s got over $3 million cash on hand.
Baldwin also has impressive fundraising numbers. The incumbent has over $6.3 million cash on hand.
Lone Star State: Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner won the precinct chair election to replace the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on the November ballot. Turner had the support of Jackson Lee’s children.
Also: EMILYs List endorsed Washington State Sen. Emily Randall for the 6th District race. Retiring Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) currently represents the safe Democratic seat. Randall would be the first queer Latina elected to Congress.
