US primaries will test Donald Trump’s sway with Republicans
- Month of May brings Donald Trump the biggest test of his political clout since the end of his presidency
- Candidates he has endorsed contest Republican primaries that will set the stage for November’s midterm elections
A series of bruising May primary contests will test Donald Trump’s grip on the Republican Party as voters weigh his preferred candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections, starting Tuesday in Ohio.
A dozen states were holding nominating contests, with a particularly brutal battle playing out on the Republican side among hardline right-wingers adopting the former president’s scorched-earth campaign style.
Trump has made endorsements in most of the contests, making them a litmus test of his influence 18 months after being defeated by President Joe Biden, and of his prospects for another run at the White House in 2024.
Across the key battlegrounds of Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Alabama, nearly four in 10 Republican 2022 Senate primary ads mentioned Trump, according to an AdImpact analysis provided to Punchbowl News.
“The results of the primaries will test whether the Republican base is still the Trump base,” Alexander Heffner, host of PBS’s long-running The Open Mind and co-author of the forthcoming A Documentary History of the United States, said.
“If Trump-endorsed candidates do not perform favourably, the trajectory to the 2024 presidential nomination will appear different, with the potential for independent wings of the party to re-emerge.”