Several Republican candidates supported by U.S. President Donald Trump swept to victories in party primary elections Tuesday, while a 10-term New York congressman was defeated in a stunning upset by a first-time Latina politician in a Democratic party contest.
Trump seemed to take particular delight in the defeat of a fellow New Yorker, veteran Congressman Joe Crowley, a frequent Trump critic who had been mentioned as a possibility to someday replace Nancy Pelosi as the leader of the minority Democratic bloc in the House of Representatives.
Crowley, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, was upset by another vocal Trump critic, 28-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She was outspent by Crowley in the campaign by a 10-to-1 margin, yet still won.
Ocasio has called for Trump’s impeachment and elimination of the country’s immigration control operation run through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
She says it is time that the U.S. sees its immigration system “as a humane way in which people can enter this country in a documented fashion, where people don’t feel like their operating in fear and that we can re-establish justice and what is happening on our border.”
Trump campaigned for South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster at a Monday night rally in the southern state. After the vote, Trump congratulated him in a Twitter comment “on your BIG election win!” adding, “South Carolina loves you.”
Trump also applauded the Senate primary election win in the western state of Utah by Mitt Romney, a sometimes Trump critic who was the unsuccessful 2012 Republican presidential nominee, losing to former President Barack Obama who won a second term in the White House.
”Big and conclusive win by Mitt Romney,” Trump declared. “… A great and loving family will be coming to D.C.,” referring to the District of Columbia, as Washington is sometimes called.
The president also cheered the primary victory for New York Congressman Dan Donovan, saying he “showed great courage in a tough race!” Donovan defeated a former congressman, Michael Grimm, who was trying to return to Congress after serving a prison term for tax fraud.
Political primary elections in the U.S. are scattered over several months, all leading to congressional and gubernatorial elections in November, when the winning Democratic and Republican nominees face off against each other.
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