Five states held primary elections on Tuesday: Idaho, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. One of the big questions going in was how Trump-endorsed candidates would fare (which many see as a proxy for measuring the former president's influence within the party). The results on that front were a mixed bag.
For instance: Trump-endorsed candidate Tedd Budd—currently a congressman—won in the North Carolina Senate primary, beating out former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory. ("McCrory would seem to be a prototypical Trumpian Republican: As governor, he banned sanctuary cities, extended the waiting period for an abortion from one day to three, and required people to use the public bathroom that corresponded to their biological sex," notes Reason's Joe Lancaster. So McCrory's loss isn't something for libertarians to lament. "But it is concerning when a candidate like McCrory, who made his name on culture war battles, is somehow not MAGA enough.") And 26-year-old Bo Hines, whom Trump endorsed, won the Republican primary for North Carolina's 13th District House seat.
