(Source: The New York Times)
So, yesterday was election day in Ohio, with primaries for president, Congress, and the state legislature. For the congressional primaries, War on the Swamp endorsed 7 candidates, so how did they fare? The short answer is: not well. Almost all endorsed candidates lost their primaries by wide margins, but without further ado, let's go race by race to see just how they did.
In a sea of negative results, let's start with the positives. In the 16th district, I endorsed Aaron Godfrey, who won his primary by a landslide, receiving 67.5% of the vote, to his opponent, Ronald Karpus's, 32.5%. While the district is rated as "Safe Republican," it is only eight points more Republican than the national average, and there are a number of districts just as Republican, or more so, that elected Democratic representatives as recently as 2018. So, this district is more winnable, I believe, than pundits are giving it credit for, and Aaron still has my 100% support moving forward.
In other decent news, Nick Rubando won the Democratic nomination in the 5th district by a sizable margin, with 51.4% of the vote, to Gene Redinger's 26.2%, and Xavier Carrigan's 22.4%. Now, does it suck that Xavier lost? Yes, for sure. As you know, I endorsed him, so obviously, I wanted him to win. But Nick is still a very solid progressive, backed by organizations such as Brand New Congress, and I would've been happy to see either of them win. If you recall, while I endorsed Xavier, I did give Nick an honorable mention, and I was slightly torn between the two as to who to endorse. Again, Xavier was my horse in this race, but I was still happy to see Nick win, and I hereby endorse him for the general election.
So, you're probably thinking, not off to a bad start, right? Well, don't get too excited, because the list of wins last night starts there, and it ends there. It's not gonna be good from here on out.
The Democratic primary in the 3rd district was one of the biggest races of the night. It featured progressive insurgent Morgan Harper -- backed by Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, etc. -- challenging incumbent Rep. Joyce Beatty. I'll be honest, I expected Beatty to win, but I didn't expect her to win by a 68.3-31.7% margin. There's no sugarcoating it, this was not a good result. If Morgan had lost by single digits, then maybe it would've been a different story, but given the large margin she lost by, it's not good. This is definitely a blow to the left, and, given the margin was larger than I expected it to be for Beatty, kind of a tough pill to swallow.
Moving on to the 9th district, Peter Rosewicz got crushed by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the latter winning 90.8-9.2%. While Peter did not have the backing of progressive organizations like Morgan did, it still hurt to see him lose by an almost unanimous vote. As you know, I interviewed Peter, and I was very impressed by him, plus he was a really nice guy, so I wish nothing but good things for him in the future.
In District 10, establishment Democrat Desiree Tims beat progressive Eric Moyer 70-30%. Like with Morgan's race, I expected it to be a lot closer than that, if for no other reason, because it was an open race (as in, there was no incumbent running on the Democratic side). I honestly had no clue what to expect going into it, but apparently, I missed something.
Without a doubt, the most crushing defeat of the night was in District 11, where Marcia Fudge cruised to renomination, winning 90.6% of the vote. Progressive Michael Hood came in third, receiving a mere 3.4%, to Tariq Shabazz's 3.5%, and James Bell's 2.5%. I mean, finishing with over 90% of the vote in a four-way race, regardless of whether or not you're the incumbent, is nothing to scoff at, so there's no doubt that this loss was the largest of the night.
Finally, in the 15th district, Daniel Kilgore lost his primary to Joel Newby 65.9-34.1%. Like with Peter, I interviewed Daniel, and he too impressed me with his policies, particularly the Aaron Burr: Public Servants Trust Act, which would fine members of Congress for taking lobbyist money or insider trading before a vote. Despite his loss, that bill is now high on my radar, and I will still be asking candidates I interview about it.
So, overall, as you can see, not a very good night. Out of seven races, one-and-a-half (if counting Nick Rubando) of them were won by one of War on the Swamp's endorsed candidates. Unfortunately, that is only a win rate of 21.43%. But in spite of our losses, we must keep pushing through and helping progressive get elected to Congress. I'll eventually be rolling out my endorsements for the next round of primaries (Nebraska, May 12, and I promise I'll endorse more than two days in advance this time), and in the meantime, take care, and stay healthy!
Comments