Primary elections across three states and Washington DC are setting the stage for a series of consequential November matchups, with Donald Trump's grip on Republican voters facing fresh scrutiny in contests where money, loyalty, and political muscle are all on the line.
In Alabama, Trump-backed Senate candidate Barry Moore is battling Jared Hudson in a Republican primary runoff, offering another gauge of how effectively the former president's endorsement translates to votes. The stakes are particularly high in Oklahoma, where Trump has backed Kevin Hern for the Senate seat vacated by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Oklahoma has not elected a Democratic senator since 1990, making the seat a near-certain Republican pickup regardless of the primary outcome.
But Georgia is where Trump's political sway faces its most formidable challenge this election cycle. In the Republican gubernatorial primary, Trump-endorsed Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, who participated in Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, is squaring off against healthcare billionaire Rick Jackson. Jackson has injected more than $93 million of his own fortune into the race, saturating television and digital platforms with advertising in a way few self-funded candidates can match. Jones has earned Trump's vocal praise for what the president views as unwavering loyalty, but Jackson's spending power represents something Trump cannot easily overcome: a competitor with nearly unlimited resources and no party establishment backing to oppose.
In the Senate race, Republicans are selecting between U.S. Representative Mike Collins and former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley. The Republican victor will face Democrat Jon Ossoff, a rising star in the party, in November. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia's secretary of state and a longtime Trump adversary, was eliminated from the governor's race when he finished third in an earlier phase.
Washington DC voters are selecting a Democratic nominee for mayor in November's general election, the first mayoral contest the city has held in more than a decade.
Trump's track record in 2026 primaries has been formidable, with numerous preferred candidates securing their party's nominations. Yet the Georgia governor's race could prove to be an inflection point, given Jackson's capacity to outspend and out-advertise a Trump-backed candidate on his own.
The primary elections are unfolding against a backdrop of escalating federal action on voting access. The Trump administration has launched a multi-pronged campaign to restrict voting, using Justice Department lawsuits seeking sensitive voter data from 30 states, FBI investigations into debunked fraud allegations in Georgia, Wisconsin, and other states Trump lost in 2020, and an executive order issued in late March that tightens rules on mail-in voting. Election experts and former officials say the moves mirror Trump's unfounded claims that voting fraud cost him the 2020 election. The executive order granted the U.S. Postal Service new powers to establish stricter mail-in voting regulations. These actions have prompted legal challenges from states and nonpartisan voting rights organizations, even as federal law reserves election rule-setting authority to individual states and Congress.
Trump's Justice Department has also installed numerous figures who promoted 2020 election denialism into key positions across agencies including the DOJ and FBI, intensifying efforts to pursue widely debunked fraud allegations. Election experts warn that such activities can intimidate election workers and voters in swing states.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump's endorsement remains potent in Republican primaries, but Georgia's governor's race shows the limits of his influence when a candidate has a $93 million war chest and no qualms about spending it."
Comments