Six takeaways from Wyoming and Alaska primaries

Updated on August 17, 2022 17:09 PM by Dhinesh

Wyoming's Jackson

Wyoming's Jackson Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who has become the Republican Party's most vocal opponent of former President Donald Trump since the insurgency at the Capitol, was defeated in her House seat by Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, news channels predicted Tuesday. In Alaska, voters cast ballots in another contest involving the former President, with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski facing Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka in the first of what is expected to be two rounds.

Former Gov. Sarah Palin

Meanwhile, former Gov. Sarah Palin is making a political return in a special election for the state's lone House seat. As Alaskans finish voting, here are six lessons from Tuesday's contest in Wyoming: Trump and his friends have spent the spring and summer turning Republican primaries across the political spectrum into heated battles in which allegiance to the previous President was paramount.

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State Brad Raffensperger defeated Trump-backed rivals

He was defeated in several high-profile contests, notably in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger defeated Trump-backed rivals. However, Trump's candidates won the majority of open-seat contests. And on Tuesday in Wyoming, Trump, who backed Hageman the day she announced her candidacy against Cheney, claimed his biggest triumph yet. Cheney is currently the ninth of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after January 6, 2021, insurgency at the Capitol. Four have decided not to run for reelection, while four more have lost the Republican primary.

Cheney said she was attempting to win the primary on Tuesday. Her plan, however, of seeking to persuade the Republican electorate in a state the former President won by 43 percentage points in 2020 to turn on him, implies she made a different decision: to go down swinging. She outraged Republicans by asking Wyoming Democrats and unaffiliated voters to switch parties and vote in the GOP primary on Tuesday. Cheney chose small, private gatherings over demonstrations on the campaign road, surrounded by US Capitol Police officers. In televised interviews, she slammed Trump.

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Campaign's final message

Her campaign's final message was a television commercial in which her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, referred to Trump as a "coward" who lied to his fans and "tried to steal the last election" with violence. Her election night rally held on a property in Jackson Hole with the sun setting over the Grand Tetons in the background, had no television screens for supporters to observe the results of a contest Cheney was very destined to lose.

She assured fans that she could have gotten cozy with Trump and won with 73% of the vote in the primaries two years before. "I couldn't and wouldn't go down that road," Cheney stated. "No seat in the House, no position in this country is more essential than the ideas we have all vowed to defend. And I was well aware of the political ramifications of doing my duty."

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GOP's most outspoken opponent of Trump

Cheney's choice to go against Trump in the limelight of her high-profile House contest was never going to work in Wyoming. It did, however, endear her to a group of anti-Trump donors and position her as the GOP's most outspoken opponent of Trump. The three-term congressman has not announced her next political move, including if she would run for president in 2024 to oppose Trump. However, she used her address to foreshadow a prolonged struggle against Trump without specifying what those entails.

whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office

"I've maintained since January 6 that I'll do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office, and I mean it. This is a war that we must all fight together "She stated. "I'm a Republican who leans to the right. But I adore my homeland. So, when we leave here tonight, let us commit to standing together, Republicans, Democrats, and independents, against those who would destroy our nation." As she exited the stage, Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" blared over the event's speakers.

The Republican vice-presidential nominee

Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2008 who has not ran for government since, is making a political comeback in the special election to complete the last months of the late Rep. Don Young's House term. However, whether she wins the runoff election against fellow Republican businessman Nick Begich III and Democratic former state senator Mary Peltola will take weeks to determine.

The special election is the first in Alaska to use the state's new ranked choice voting method. The news channels predicted that none of the three candidates would earn more than 50% of the vote in the first round, thus the state will count second-choice votes on August 31. The ranked choice approach might be difficult for Palin, whose decision to resign midway through her one term as governor in 2009 still irritates many in the state. Begich III, the Republican son of Alaska's most renowned Democratic political dynasty (his grandpa Nick Begich was the state's congressman until his plane went missing in 1972, and his uncle Mark Begich was a senator), is hoping to capitalise on Palin's strong opposition.

The top four candidates

The top four candidates from a crowded special primary in June proceeded to the runoff. However, one of those candidates, independent Al Gross, has already dropped out of the campaign, which is expected to increase Peltola's chances of becoming the state's first Alaska Native in Congress. At the same time that Alaska is filling an at-large House member in a special election on Tuesday, the state had a primary for a full term in the same seat in November. News channel predicts that Palin, Begich III, and Peltola will all proceed to another top-four runoff. The fourth position is yet to be determined.

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Republican Tara Sweeney

Republican Tara Sweeney, an Alaska Native backed by the state's major Native-owned enterprises, finished fifth in the June special primary and may be best positioned to win a full term in the November general election. Trump has also targeted Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment hearing. Trump has endorsed former Alaska Department of Administration Commissioner Kelly Tshibaka, and he visited the state in July to host a rally in her support.

Alaska's nonpartisan primary system

However, due to Alaska's nonpartisan primary system (in which the top four finishers, regardless of party, go to the final election), news channel predicts that both Murkowski and Tshibaka will proceed to the general election. Democrat Patricia Chesbro will also run, while a fourth candidate has yet to be named.

The incumbent governor

According to CNN, the incumbent governor, Republican Mike Dunleavy, and his independent predecessor, Bill Walker, will both proceed to the general election in another tight top-four primary in Alaska, with Democrat Les Gara. The fourth candidate has yet to be announced. Walker, who was elected in 2014 but suspended his reelection run in 2018 to support a Democrat who lost to Dunleavy, is backed by some Democrats and moderate Republicans who praise his decision to expand Medicaid and his opposition to abortion restrictions.

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