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In the fall, all seats in the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate seats and strategic posts in various states will be filled at the Midterms in the USA. Donald Trump gets involved and tries to send as many candidates as possible who are loyal to him into the race.
Across the country, people were particularly excited about Arizona. In 2020, Trump had lost the swing state in the presidential election. Now his strategy worked in the internal party primaries and his protégés prevailed.
Winner Kari Lake stands behind Trump
The race for the governorship was particularly close. The results were correspondingly long in coming. It is now clear that Kari Lake will be the Republican nominee. The former presenter of the conservative television station Fox calls Trump “Superman” and never misses an opportunity to speak of voter fraud in the presidential election.
Lake’s win is also a win for Trump over former Vice President Mike Pence, behind narrowly beaten challenger Karren Taylor Robson. The two Republican women differed little in their campaign promises. Both want to secure the border from immigrants, reduce crime and get the economy going again.
Different interpretation of the outcome of the 2020 election
In one crucial point, however, the two camps tick differently. The Trump camp, to which Lake belongs, continues to speak of a stolen 2020 presidential election. Robson of the Pence camp respects the Democratic election result. This is explosive because Trump supporters are also competing for the strategic post of Secretary of State, who oversees the elections, and for the Senate seat.
Party split into two camps
The primary shows how divided the Republican Party is. Voters must decide on whose line they see the future of the party: Trump’s or Pence’s. Both are traded as possible presidential candidates for 2024.
The Republicans’ first goal is to gain a majority in the House of Representatives and Senate in the midterm elections in the fall. It remains questionable whether it is the right strategy to back candidates from the Trump camp. There are even democratic voices who see a better chance of asserting themselves against Trump’s preferred candidates than against Republicans who, despite taking a conservative course, respect the results of a democratic election.
Trump is expanding influence over protégés
Donald Trump does not care about these concerns. He continues his strategy of consolidating his own political influence with his protégés. Trump still leaves open whether he will run for president again in 2024. Recently, however, he has indicated several times that he is flirting with it.
The Arizona primary should reassure him that his time is not up and that he remains a big, well-supported figure within the party.