Trump-backed Senate candidates advance as billionaire money and grassroots resistance block his picks for governor
Tuesday's primaries showed the limits of Trump’s sway: while his Senate endorsements prevailed in Georgia, Alabama, and Oklahoma, his gubernatorial picks were rejected by voters or forced into run-offs, with billionaire spending and local opposition playing key roles.
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Republican candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump managed to secure Senate nominations in Georgia, Alabama, and Oklahoma on Tuesday, but his attempts to control gubernatorial races met significant resistance from grassroots movements and big-money interests. In Georgia, Trump’s last-minute endorsement of Mike Collins—a former Army officer—helped push Collins past establishment-backed Derek Dooley, who was supported by Governor Brian Kemp. Collins now faces Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, a progressive voice in the Senate, in a race that will test the GOP’s hard-right shift.
The Georgia governor’s race exposed the hollowness of Trump’s influence when pitted against billionaire cash. Trump-backed Burt Jones, despite being lauded by the former president for his supposed “Courage and Wisdom,” lost to billionaire Rick Jackson, who poured an obscene $100 million of his own fortune into the campaign. Jackson, emblematic of the ultra-wealthy buying political power, will face Democrat and former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a champion for working families, in November.
In Alabama, Trump-endorsed congressman Barry Moore, a loyalist to the ex-president’s reactionary “America First” agenda, defeated former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson for the Senate nomination. Moore’s victory signals the continued rightward lurch of the GOP in the Deep South.
Oklahoma’s Republican primary further highlighted Trump’s grip on the party. Former state senator Mike Mazzei, who received Trump’s endorsement just two weeks before the vote, advanced to a runoff with Attorney General Gentner Drummond, showing the party’s ongoing internal strife. In the Senate race, Trump-backed Rep. Kevin Hern, a hardliner, captured 63.7% of the vote, underscoring the party’s embrace of far-right politics.
Elsewhere, a special election in California saw state senator Aisha Wahab emerge as the leading Democratic candidate to fill Rep. Eric Swalwell’s seat, offering hope for progressive representation. Meanwhile, Oklahoma voters rejected a ballot measure to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a setback for working people and a victory for corporate interests.
Overall, Trump’s endorsements produced mixed results in gubernatorial primaries—seven of eleven advanced, two went to run-offs, and two were defeated—while his toxic influence remains entrenched in Senate contests, threatening progress on issues that matter to ordinary Americans.
