New York, Aug 12 (IANS) The left flank of the Democratic Party had a setback when its controversial candidate for Governor of Wisconsin, Francesca Hong, lost to a moderate in the Primary belying polls in a state often the weathervane for national political winds.
On the other side, President Donald Trump’s favoured candidate, a right-winger, lost the Republican nomination for Governor of Minnesota in primaries on Tuesday.
In another closely-watched primary, another Trump-backed candidate Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, failed to get a majority in the Republican primary in South Carolina.
Under the state’s rules, she will go into a runoff against Ralph Norman, party hardliner, who came second with eight per cent fewer votes than her in a crowded field.
Mike Lindell, the pillow-magnate backed by Trump, lost the Republican primary for Minnesota Governor to State House Speaker Lisa Demuth by about 11 per cent.
Lindell, who subscribes to the claim that Trump had defeated former President Joe Biden in 2016, characteristically has claimed the primary was rigged.
Hong, a Democrat Socialist with some extreme views, lost to moderate David Crowley in the race to the Democratic Party nomination for Wisconsin Governor by less than half per cent of the votes after polls had given a lead of more than 20 per cent.
Her defeat brought a measure of reassurance for the Democratic Party establishment that fears candidates with radical views could break the party’s momentum in the November election by turning off moderate and neutral voters.
Even progressive leaders Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not back her.
Hong has opposed the Thanksgiving Day celebrations and criticised Valentine’s Day, supported open borders by calling for abolishing the immigration and customs agency, and wanted police defunded.
Wisconsin is what is called a “purple state” because it is not firmly on either side of the political divide with the leads alternating narrowly in recent Presidential election, and has a Democrat Governor and a Democrat and a Republican in the Senate.
It often signals national electoral trends.
Crowley, an African-American, will face Tom Tiffany, a Republican belonging to his party’s right flank, the Freedom Caucus, in Congress, in November.
The defeat of Hong follows a narrow win of less than one per cent by progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed for the Democratic Party Senate nomination in Michigan last week after polls showed him with a huge lead.
Trump called his victory “great news” for Republicans because some of his views could turn the uncommitted and moderate voters from Democrat candidates across the US in November elections.
The Democratic Party now has a 7.1 per cent lead over the Republican Party in generic Congressional polls, according to RealClear Politics aggregation of opinion surveys that could point to a Democratic majority in Congress after the November elections.
The radical views on social issues and on the Israel-Palestine issue could take attention away from the economic issues that could be the Democratic Party’s winning hand and erode its electoral chances nationally.
Republicans are associating all Democrats with the views of progressive and socialist Democrats in a bid to appeal to the middle electorate.
The Democratic Socialist candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who won Democratic Congressional primary nominations have advocated radical positions, with one of them, Muslim convert Avila Chevalier calling for abolition of prisons and opposing inter-racial relations, all grist for Republican campaign mill.
The victories of the socialists and the progressives, though, are sometimes overstated by the media and initial showing in polls.
In New York City, for example, of the seven House of Representative constituencies, only three Mamdani-backed candidates won.
In Minnesota, however, Peggy Flanagan, a progressive who was the state’s Lieutenant Governor, clinched the Democratic Party’s Senate nomination, to succeed Amy Klobuchar who won the nomination for Governor.
Flanagan concentrated on popular issues like government health insurance for all and higher minimum wage, without focusing on divisive issues, and had a 20 per cent lead.
If elected, she would become the first Native American woman in the Senate.
–IANS
al/khz
