The Alabama Senate race is just one of the few competitive races on the ballot Tuesday. Democrats will also elect their Senate nominees in Maine and Texas, two states where the party’s official campaign arm backed the candidates.. Both parties will also select their candidates for seats in Congress in Texas and Maine.
In Alabama, Republicans are choosing between Sessions and Tuberville to face Democratic Senator Doug Jones, who is the most vulnerable senator on the ballot this fall. Jones narrowly won a special election in 2017 and is looking for a full term in the deep red state. Limited polls have shown that he is slightly behind either Tuberville or Sessions, but Jones has a massive financial advantage over either of them.
Republicans hope not to lose another race in Alabama after the 2017 special election turned into a slow disaster for the party. Regaining the Alabama seat is essential for the Republican Party, as the party protects its majority in the Senate, which is increasingly threatened.
Most Republicans think either candidate could beat Jones, although some have expressed concern about Tuberville, who is running his first political campaign.
The main one has been largely defined by Sessions’ relationship with Trump, who has often publicly criticized his former attorney general for withdrawing from the Russia investigation at the Justice Department. Trump called Sessions’ appointment the biggest mistake of his presidency, something he repeated in a call with Tuberville and his supporters Monday night.
“I will tell you that I knew Jeff Sessions very well. I made a mistake when I put him on as attorney general, “Trump said on the call.” He had his chance and wasted it. “
Sessions has been increasingly willing to respond to Trump’s tirades on Twitter. But he has also tried to avoid the problem in the primaries and focus on Tuberville. Sessions has repeatedly branded the former football coach for refusing to debate and is unprepared to handle policy issues in the Senate. Tuberville’s allies have ignored those attacks and believe they have less influence with primary voters than Trump’s support.
Elsewhere on the Senate map, Maine Democrat Sara Gideon is a big favorite to win her party’s nomination Tuesday to face Republican Senator Susan Collins, who faces the most competitive reelection of her career while seeking a fifth term. . And Democrats MJ Hegar and Royce West face off in a runoff to become the party’s candidate against Senator John Cornyn. The early returns showed Gideon with a significant advantage, while the Texas race went hand in hand with more than 500,000 votes counted.
Both parties will elect candidates in key districts: Republicans in rural Maine and the suburbs of Houston and West Texas, and Democrats in two seats in Texas.
In Maine, three Republicans: 2018 Senate nominee Eric Brakey, former state representative Dale Crafts, and Adrienne Bennett, former assistant to the then-governor. Paul LePage: Compete for the opportunity to face Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine). The race will almost certainly go to the second round by classified election, which will be calculated by election officials once all the ballots are received and is mandatory if no candidate exceeds 50 percent.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s second round by rapidly diversifying the seat in the Houston area has taken an extremely unpleasant turn, leaving Democrats optimistic about their chances of changing the seat in November. Voters will choose between Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls and mega-donor Kathaleen Wall, who has spent millions on television commercials targeting Nehls.
The Republican runoff for a wide seat in West Texas has turned into a power battle between competing national interests. He faces a Navy veteran backed by House of Representatives leaders against an Air Force veteran backed by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Democrats will choose their candidates to face Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) in central Texas and for a vacant seat in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs. In the McCaul race for the post, the 2018 nominee faces a doctor running downtown.
And the race for a competitive and open seat in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex pits an Air Force veteran against an educator backed by the Black Caucus of Congress and the Hispanic Caucus of Congress.
Republicans will also wrap up the second round in safe, open seats in Texas and Alabama. Among Texas candidates: Ronny Jackson, a former White House doctor, and former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) who is running again in a district 100 miles south of the one he lost in the 2018 midterms. .
