What Went Down During The May 24 Primary Elections

I want to digest things a bit more, but if the role of the press is to “root for democracy” (I could write a long critique about what is and isn’t implied by that phrase) then I think it’s important to note that a lot of the more anti-democratic candidates didn’t perform well tonight, and that’s probably more important than the horse-race implications. As for Trump, I think there’s an argument to be made that his influence is waning, but I think a candidate like DeSantis is more likely to be the beneficiary of that than one like Pence.

All right, we’ve got some results from the GOP primary for Senate in Alabama worth reporting on now. With 13 percent of the expected vote in so far, Britt leads with 44 percent, not that far from the 50 percent threshold a candidate needs to avoid a runoff. And perhaps back from the dead, Brooks is in 2nd with 29 percent, followed by Durant with 24 percent. However, it does look like we have a fair bit of the vote in from Madison County in northern Alabama (home to Huntsville), which is Brooks’s turf in the House, so that might be overselling his strength at this point.

With 35 percent of the vote in, the race is pretty tight in the Democratic primary in Texas’s 15th District. Ruben Ramirez is slightly ahead with 53 percent of the vote. He’s running as more moderate and has been endorsed by Blue Dog PAC. But Michelle Vallejo, who’s been endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other progressives, isn’t far behind. Meredith is watching how progressive candidates fare across the country. It’s a battle playing out in red states, too, as Democrats try to figure out what kind of candidates can win in heavily Republican or Republican-leaning districts.