A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
Another Tuesday brings another set of primary elections that tell us how American voters are feeling about the state of politics.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Yeah. That includes a set of runoffs in Georgia, which got some major endorsements over the weekend.
MART脥NEZ: NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler is covering this from Atlanta. All right. So there are Georgia runoffs for the Republican nominations for governor and U.S. Senate. What do we need to know there?
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Let's start with the Senate. Jon Ossoff is, on paper, the most vulnerable incumbent on the ballot for Democrats, and whoever wins this Republican primary will set up a high-profile, big-money matchup in November. So in the wee hours of the morning Sunday, after early voting already finished, President Trump made a lengthy endorsement for his pick to try and beat Ossoff - Congressman Mike Collins. Trump dinged Collins' opponent, former football coach Derek Dooley, for not living in Georgia, for not voting in 2016 and 2020 and for saying that Trump lost Georgia in 2020, which he did.
Dooley has the financial and political support of outgoing Governor Brian Kemp, whose argument, among other things, is that Dooley is the more electable candidate in a purple state like Georgia in a year that will likely be harder for Republicans at the ballot box.
MART脥NEZ: Yeah. Kemp also rejected Trump's falsehoods around the 2020 election. The two have not had the best relationship since then. Was that a factor in the endorsement?
FOWLER: Republican strategists and voters alike that I've talked with in the last little bit say that that certainly didn't help Dooley's chances. And the Collins endorsement is not inherently a surprise if you're paying attention. Mike Collins has been one of the more prototypical Trump-era congressmen. He's very brash online and with his campaign messaging, especially when it comes to emphasizing Trump's policies around immigration. What was surprising is Governor Brian Kemp's endorsement Sunday in the race to replace him of current Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, who also has Trump's backing.
MART脥NEZ: Why was that surprising?
FOWLER: Well, in that conversation about electability in a divided state like Georgia, Jones is the more hard-right candidate, and he's less appealing to middle-of-the-road voters than this billionaire healthcare executive outsider, Rick Jackson, who's also in the runoff. Burt Jones was heavily involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. And he's the leader of the state Senate, where he helped shepherd through some of the more controversial legislation in recent years in Georgia, around everything from abortion restrictions to voting law changes. So Kemp's argument that Trump's candidate isn't right for the Senate but is right to be the next governor highlights this big divide in the Republican Party that we're seeing right now.
MART脥NEZ: All right. There are other primary contests this midterm season, and you've been keeping track of some of them. Well, what else is worth keeping tabs on?
FOWLER: Well, in Oklahoma, there is a series of musical chairs that left seats open after former Senator Markwayne Mullin was appointed the Homeland Security secretary. Mullin's current replacement isn't running for a full term, so you've got a House representative, among others, seeking a promotion, then others looking to earn the nod for that House seat. In Alabama, you've got some runoffs, including both parties' nominee for U.S. Senate, and another case where President Trump has his pick facing somebody else in a runoff. Then there's D.C., where a highly consequential mayoral primary and the race to be the district's nonvoting member of Congress are on the ballot. Plus, A, a rollout of a new ranked-choice voting system for all you election nerds out there, like me.
MART脥NEZ: (Laughter) That's NPR's nerdy Stephen Fowler. Stephen, thanks.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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