Key takeaways from Kansas, Michigan, Ohio primaries
FBN’s Stuart Varney on the midterm elections and the impact of President Trump’s endorsement of a candidate.
Three things emerged from yesterday’s voting.
One: An endorsement from President Trump is valuable. It helps. In Kansas, at the last minute, the president came out in strong support of Kris Kobach who was running against a sitting Republican governor. Kobach came from behind, and is now leading, albeit by a very small margin. In Michigan’s Senate race, underdog John James received the presidential nod. He came from behind and won. This suggests the Republican Party is Trump’s party.
Two: An endorsement from the socialist left is not so valuable. In Michigan, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders campaigned for Abdul El-Sayed. It was a well-publicized, high-octane endorsement. El-Sayed lost, badly. Ocasio-Cortez had also campaigned aggressively for Cori Bush in St. Louis. She lost by 20 points to an establishment Democrat. Across the board, Democrat moderates did well. The socialists did not.
Three: The special election in Ohio suggests that the Republicans have an uphill struggle to keep control of the House in November. The election was held in a district that gave solid support to Mr. Trump in 2016, and had been a Republican stronghold for years. Well, the GOP candidate Troy Balderson is in a virtual dead heat with Democrat Danny O'Connor. Balderson leads by 0.9%. With 4% growth, a manufacturing revival and record low unemployment, it shouldn’t have been that close.