From a Friend of McHenry County Blog:
At Least Two Trump Candidates Lost June 2 Primary
President Trump’s endorsed candidates in this year’s primary elections have, for the most part, succeeded in winning.
That does not mean they will win in November, but in order to get to the general election they have to first win the primary.
On June 2, Trump’s streak of successful endorsements was broken when at least two candidates fell short.
In neighboring Iowa, Republican voters chose Zach Lahn even though Trump endorsed Randy Feenstra, a congressman.
The race has been called, Feenstra has conceded the election, and Lahn appears to be in the lead 37.8% to 37% according to NBC.
Lahn was endorsed by former Iowa congressman Steve King, who lost his primary to none other than Randy Feenstra back in 2020.
Some in the media dubbed Feenstra’s loss as “Revenge of the Steve King voter.”
Others described it as “MAHA vs MAGA” (MAHA = Make America Healthy Again) because apparently many in the “MAHA” movement favored Lahn due to his criticism of pesticides.
Another key endorsement landed by Lahn was from conservative commentator Steve Deace.
The other big loss for Trump happened in South Dakota.
There, Republicans had a four-way race for governor featuring incumbent governor Larry Rhoden, congressman Dusty Johnson who was endorsed by Trump, businessman Toby Doeden, and state representative John Hansen.
This was a close race but Trump’s preferred candidate Dusty Johnson finished in third place.
Advancing to a runoff election are Toby Doeden who won the most votes and runner-up Larry Rhoden.
It is unclear what is a bigger shocker in this race: the incumbent governor getting fewer votes than someone new to politics or a Trump endorsed candidate who is also the congressman for the entire state finishing in third place.
What Iowa and South Dakota elections had in common was that both Lahn and Doeden were viewed as “outsiders.”
This proves that a person running against the Republican “establishment” or even against someone endorsed by Trump can still win a Republican primary, but it is more of the exception than the rule.
Overall, Trump had more wins than losses yesterday.
One last thing: Trump has been rolling out some of his endorsements very late in the game — sometimes the day or night before the election — and if he is serious about winning, he should not wait until it is that late because some voters presumably would not be aware of his endorsement if it only happened the day (or night) before the election.
