Voters will head to the polls on June 7 in California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota for Republican and Democratic primaries that will decide who the parties’ nominees are for the November midterm general elections.
The 2022 midterms represent the first significant group of elections since President Joe Biden took office in January 2022, as Republicans are feeling confident about their chances to regain control of the House and Senate while Democrats are trying to at least maintain majority rule in both chambers.
Voters in several states also will choose nominees for governor and secretary of state, roles that have tremendous oversight of elections at a time when election integrity is in question.
California
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to win a second term, and most Democrats appear united behind the man who survived a recall campaign earlier this year. However, traditional liberals and the “woke” progressive wing of the party are at odds.“Green” Democrats continue to beat the environmental justice drum to claim that climate change poses an existential threat. Californians are paying more than $6 a gallon for gas at most pumps, yet “green” Democrats continue to push their claim that climate change poses a serious threat to America’s future.
Many old-school Democrats who are moderate have left the party because they don’t agree with the progressive push for critical race theory and transgender activism promoted by far-left leaning teachers’ unions.
Democratic legislators are also facing opposition from some within their own party about mask and vaccine mandates, the rapid rise in crime and homelessness, the drug epidemic, proposed laws that support “gender-affirming care” and puberty blockers for children, and expanded abortion services and plans to make California a sanctuary for out-of-state abortion seekers.
The crisis at the U.S.–Mexico border is severe in Southern California where thousands of illegal aliens are bused into the state almost daily.
The GOP sees this as an opportunity for its gubernatorial candidates. The California Republican Party has endorsed state Sen. Brian Dahle, who is running against Jenny Rae Le Roux. She is backed by the California Republican Assembly.
June 7 will present a showdown between pro-Trump “America First” and “Never Trump” establishment Republican factions. The state’s Republican establishment hasn’t embraced Trump’s “America First” policies. At the California Republican Party convention last month in Anaheim, the mics of a few pro-Trump candidates were cut during their campaign speeches.
As of April 23, Newsom led all fundraising efforts with $1.6 million. Dahle has raised the most among Republicans, at $1.2 million. Michael Shellenberger, an independent, has collected $515,000, while Le Roux has raised $479,000.
Incumbent Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) is campaigning in two separate races for the same U.S. Senate seat.
Because he was appointed by Newsom to fill the Senate vacancy left by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2020, Padilla must defeat seven opponents in a special vacancy election to keep the seat for the remainder of the current Senate term, which ends on Jan. 3, 2023. He also faces more than 20 challengers in the top-two primary election for the next full six-year Senate term.
Republican frontrunners in the race are Mark Meuser, an attorney who is endorsed by the California Republican Party; Cordie Williams, a chiropractor and former U.S. Marine who is endorsed by the California Republican Assembly; and Jon Elist, who runs a medical device company.
Padilla has raised more than $9 million while Meuser has gathered about $330,000, followed by Williams with approximately $300,000, and Elist with about $270,000.
Iowa
Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, 88, is campaigning to secure his eighth term in the Senate for Iowa. He is the oldest Republican serving in the Senate. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1975 and won his Senate seat in 1980.The Iowa native and farmer, who is the longest-serving U.S. senator in the state’s history, faces state Sen. Jim Carlin in the GOP primary.
Carlin, an attorney, was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2017, succeeding the retiring Ron Jorgensen. Later that year, Carlin was elected to the Iowa Senate, a seat he currently holds.
Incumbent Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds is heavily favored to win reelection. She is running unopposed in the primary. Democrat Deidre DeJear and Libertarian Rick Stewart are also candidates for governor
All four of Iowa’s U.S. House of Representative seats are on the ballot this year.
The race to watch is in the newly redrawn 3rd Congressional District, where Republicans hope to unseat incumbent Rep. Cindy Axne, a two-term Democrat.
Financial services professional Nicole Hasso, Iowa state senator and Air Force veteran Zach Nunn, and farmer Gary Leffler are the challengers in the Republican primary. Hasso and Nunn lead in fundraising.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.A. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Americans for Prosperity Action have backed Nunn.
Axne was first elected to the U.S. House in 2018.
Mississippi
All four of Mississippi’s U.S. House members are seeking reelection. While they all face primary challengers, they are expected to receive their parties’ nomination.A congressional ethics review could hurt Rep. Steven Palazzo, a Republican who has won the past six elections in Mississippi’s 4th Congressional District. On March 1, 2021, the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) made public a report that suggested Palazzo “may have violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law.”
The OCE found evidence that Palazzo used campaign funds to maintain and improve a property he owned, may have spent campaign funds on personal expenses, may have asked official staffers to perform campaign and personal work during their workdays, may have spent Congressional allowances on campaign or personal expenses, and may have used his position to ask for special treatment from the Navy for his brother, according to the report.
According to a report by the Campaign Legal Center, a left-wing watchdog group, Palazzo may have used campaign funds to pay himself nearly $200,000.
The state’s House Ethics Committee has classified their probe of Palazzo only as a review.
Palazzo serves on the House Appropriations Committee, which allocates federal spending.
The question is whether he will face punishment by voters. Six candidates are running against him in the Republican primary. One opponent, Carl Boyanton, has raised more funds, while another, Clay Wagner, has raised almost as much as Palazzo.
In a Facebook post, Wagner criticized Palazzo for avoiding candidate forums.
Two Democrats—David Sellers and Johnny DuPree—are running for their party’s nomination in the 4th district, although neither is likely to win in the general election in the extremely conservative district.
Montana
In Montana, voters will choose party nominees in two U.S. House races in newly created districts.Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale, who represents the entire state, is expected to win re-election in the 2nd Congressional District. His primary opponents include pharmacist Kyle Austin, Bozeman resident James Boyette, and environmental contractor Charles Walking Child.
Democratic contenders are former Billings councilwoman Penny Ronning and Billings resident Skylar Williams.
Financial adviser Gary Buchanan is running as an independent.
Before redistricting, Rosendale had represented all of Montana in the House since his election in 2020.
New Mexico
The Democratic Party is working to keep New Mexico a deep blue state. Registered Democrats now outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 200,000, creating an almost insurmountable challenge for GOP candidates going into the 2022 election cycle.Since Barack Obama won the state in 2008, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president has won New Mexico four times in a row.
Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, who represents the state’s 2nd District, is running for reelection in November. She has no primary challenger.
Gov. Michelle Grisham, who was elected to her first four-year term in 2018, could see a challenge in November from Republican front-runner Mark Ronchetti.
Ronchetti, a former TV meteorologist and unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2020, holds a commanding lead over three-term state Rep. Rebecca Dow in the GOP primary.
New Jersey
While Donald Trump was president, Democrats flipped several U.S. House seats in New Jersey.Last November, Phil Murphy, a Democrat, narrowly won reelection over Republican former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli.
This year, all eyes will be focused on how many House seats become truly competitive.
There are 12 congressional districts on the ballot in the primary and general election.
Four of nine Democratic incumbents face challengers, although those races aren’t expected to be close. A 10th Democratic seat is open in the 8th Congressional District with the retirement of Rep. Albio Sires.
While registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 1 million, the GOP has trimmed the gap over the last year. Meanwhile, about 2.36 million registered voters are unaffiliated.
South Dakota
Trump asked Gov. Kristi Noem to challenge Sen. John Thune, a Republican who didn’t support objections to the 2020 presidential election results. Instead, Noem opted to seek reelection as governor.Neither is expected to face a serious primary challenge.
Since the state hasn’t elected a Democrat in decades, incumbents are likely to sail to reelection in the general election in November.
“They have slapped Democrats around in just about every campaign, even running unopposed for a U.S. Senate seat in 2010 and U.S. House seat in 2020,” University of South Dakota political science professor Michael Card told The Epoch Times. “South Dakota hasn’t elected a Democrat for governor since 1974. It’s a solidly Republican state.”
