As primaries reach midway point, Trump scores big Alabama win but loses again in Georgia

Tuesday’s primaries and runoffs closed with a big win for former President Trump in Alabama and a loss in what has become for him hard-luck Georgia.

In Alabama, Trump-backed Katie Britt won in a runoff against Rep. Mo Brooks. Britt will now face Democrat nominee Will Boyd for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Richard Shelby, for whom Britt was formerly chief of staff. 

Trump originally backed Brooks, until the House member urged voters to move past the 2020 election and Trump's ongoing concerns about voting fraud. Brooks’ also was suffering flagging poll and fundraising numbers. 

In Georgia, former Democrat Vernon Jones, who had Trump’s backing, lost to businessman Mike Collins in a runoff for the GOP nomination in the state's 10th Congressional District.

In all, voters went to the polls in four states and in the District of Columbia – with Virginia and D.C. holding primaries and Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia hosting runoffs. 

In Virginia, GOP voters picked their nominees – state Sen. Virginia Kiggans and Prince William County Board Supervisor Yesli Vega – to face Democrat incumbent Reps. Elaine Luria and Abigail Spanberger, respectively.

Democrats won those districts in the 2018 Blue Wave, but Republican Glenn Younkin took Luria and Spamberger’s districts last year in his surprise gubernatorial win – making them top targets in the GOP's bid to retake the House in November. 

Luria is also a member of the Democrat-led House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

In the nation’s capital, incumbent Mayor Muriel Bowser fended off three challengers, including two City Council members, in yet another race in which high crime rates in big, Democrat-led U.S. cities was a key issue. 

Last year in New York City, Democrat Eric Adams won the mayorship on a get-tough-on-crime platform, and crime is a central issue in the Los Angeles mayoral race, with final, runoff balloting on Nov. 8. 

Also on Tuesday night, the Texas Democratic Party announced the results of a recount showing incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar had defeated progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros in their House runoff.

Cueller, among the House Democratic Conference’s most conservative members, picked up eight votes in the recount, defeating Cisneros in the south Texas congressional district by a total 289 votes.

Trump has had a difficult time in Georgia, having lost the state by 11,780 votes in his 2020 reelection bid.

In this year’s midterms, former GOP Sen. David Perdue, Trump’s preferred Republican primary candidate to unseat GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, lost his race. And GOP Rep. Jody Hice, Trump’s candidate to unseat Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also lost.