Primary voters will on Tuesday decide the fate of two South Carolina Republicans who are clinging to their seats in the US House after defying former president Donald Trump, while in Nevada an establishment favourite with the former president’s endorsement is facing a tougher than expected challenge for the US Senate.
Meanwhile, in Maine, a bellicose former governor who once said he was “Trump before Trump” has come out of retirement in Florida to challenge a nemesis for his old job.
Also read: Why fate of January 6 probe rests on midterm polls
Primary contests in South Carolina, Nevada and Maine on Tuesday will offer the latest test of the Trump political brand. North Dakota is also holding elections, though Republican US Sen. John Hoeven doesn’t face a serious challenger.
Rep. Nancy Mace worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and earned his endorsement when she ousted incumbent Democrat Joe Cunningham from a coastal swing district four years later.
But shortly after her swearing-in, a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, and Mace went on national TV to declare that Trump’s “entire legacy was wiped out” by the attack.
Also read: Why Los Angeles’ mayor runoff race will be historic
Trump was furious and recruited a challenger, former state Rep. Katie Arrington, who helped oust Mark Sanford from the US House in 2018.
In Congress, Mace has sought to mend fences — sort of. She voted against Trump’s second impeachment and opposed the creation of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the origins of the Jan. 6 attack, which was inspired by Trump’s lies about a stolen election.
Also read: Why Chesa Boudin was recalled as the San Francisco District Attorney
But she also voted to hold former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 investigation. And she has feuded publicly with Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a far-right flamethrower and Trump acolyte.
Mace is not the only South Carolina candidate to draw his ire.
Trump also solicited challengers to primary U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, after he voted to impeach the president over the Jan. 6 insurrection. Now Rice is facing six other Republicans, all of whom have cited the impeachment vote as a chief motivator to their campaigns.
Also read: Democratic incumbents win big in California primary polls
Trump eventually settled on endorsing state Rep. Russell Fry, who has run TV ads likening Rice to villains including Satan. Fry told voters during a recent debate that “we’re going to vote to impeach Tom Rice at the ballot box.”
Rice, on the other hand, has focused on important but far more mundane matters, like his successes securing flood remediation funding and assistance for the region’s farmers over his five terms in office.