Listed below are political snippets on congressional and gubernatorial races across the country. Enjoy!

The two most controversial candidates on the primary ballot last Tuesday were both nominated and advance into safe general election campaigns from their respective states.

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minneapolis) withstood a hard-fought and expensive Democratic primary challenge from attorney Antone Melton-Meaux for a 57-39% re-nomination victory in a district election that drew the highest turnout of the night (just over 160,000 voters). Both candidates raised well over $4 million apiece for their respective campaigns.

In Northwest Georgia, businesswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) who has drawn attention for her association with the QAnon movement, a loose organization of individuals who believe that the government’s “deep state bureaucrats” are conspiring to take down President Donald Trump, won the Georgia 14th District Republican runoff election. 

Ms. Greene defeated Rome area surgeon John Cowan by a 57-43% margin from what will likely be over 75,000 voters who participated in the runoff vote. The final turnout number could soar, however, since a relatively substantial number of mailed ballots remain to be counted. The primary election in this district drew over 108,000 voters.  

In the last two days, 14 polls in 13 competitive House districts were publicly released, and they all tell a unique story. The synopsis is below (in alphabetical order):

Ending months of speculation, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that he has chosen California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate for the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Biden pledged to choose a woman as his vice-presidential partner and fulfilled his commitment with Sen. Harris. As time progressed, the pressure became intense for him to choose a woman of color, which he also now has done. The selection marks the third time a woman will appear on a major party ticket, the first being Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and then Sarah Palin in 2008.

Former US Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty* won the Tennessee Senate Republican nomination with a 51-39% victory margin over his chief opponent, Dr. Manny Sethi, a Nashville surgeon, in the nation’s only Thursday primary. Now as the official Republican nominee, Mr. Hagerty becomes the prohibitive favorite in the general election against businesswoman and environmental activist Marquita Bradshaw, who was an upset winner in the Democratic primary despite spending virtually no money on her campaign. When Mr. Hagerty was younger, he worked road construction like his father, mostly shoveling asphalt.

The 2020 election cycle’s wackiest Senate primary ended with a big victory for Kansas Rep. Roger Marshall* (R-Great Bend) as he defeated former Secretary of State and 2018 gubernatorial nominee Kris Kobach and Kansas City Plumbing Company owner and self-funder Bob Hamilton in the statewide Republican primary.

Presidential Race

Gravis Marketing Polls

Gravis Marketing conducted a series of surveys in the Great Lakes Swing states during the July 22-24 period, and came to some interesting conclusions. While President Donald Trump had largely been polling better in Wisconsin when looking at the three regional swing states, Michigan and Pennsylvania being the other two, Gravis sees a different cut.

Since elections always bring changes in the U.S. House and Senate committee structures, it is appropriate to begin looking at which key policy panels have the most known approaching changes. We look at the known committee vacancies due to retirement or primary defeat and identify the members who face competitive political situations. Obviously, a change in party control will fundamentally cause the greatest change, but we will look at those effects once we are closer to the election.

The open Tennessee Senate race has not gotten much national attention, but we now seem to have a close race brewing in the final days leading up to the state’s August 6 primary. The Volunteer State is the only one to host a Thursday primary.

As we approach the August 4 primaries, it’s clear that the Kansas Senate Republican primary will be the top attraction of that election day. An intra-party nomination clash in what should be a relatively safe open seat campaign has devolved into a mixed-message political brawl.