Voters in a handful of major states on Tuesday again rejected the establishment Never Trump wing of the GOP and backed “Make America Great Again” economic nationalist candidates in a sweep for the MAGA movement at the polls nationwide.
The biggest result on Tuesday was state Rep. Katie Arrington’s outright victory over Never Trump congressman Mark Sanford, the disgraced former governor of South Carolina. Arrington’s win came as Sanford has focused his last two years in Congress on bashing President Donald Trump whenever he can, most notoriously falsely accusing the president of being “partially to blame” for the shooter at a Republican baseball practice last year that left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise critically wounded. Scalise has mostly recovered from his shooting wounds.
But Sanford has also attacked Trump on the Stormy Daniels episode, siding with the fake news media over the president of hiss own party, and has been a thorn in the side of the president’s legislative agenda in addition to his frequent public criticisms. Sanford, the former governor of South Carolina, left office after a sex scandal in which he was unfaithful to his wife with a woman from Argentina. The scandal became the butt of national jokes because his staff lied about the whereabouts of the then-sitting governor of South Carolina, saying he was hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was in fact with his mistress in Argentina. Sanford later made a political comeback, winning back his old House seat in South Carolina’s first congressional district by defeating late night comedian Stephen Colbert’s sister in a hotly contested general election. He went on to be a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus and a leading critic of President Trump from the Never Trump wing of the GOP, before losing to Arrington on Tuesday.
The stunning defeat of Never Trump Sanford by the pro-Trump Arrington is something on which Breitbart News was far ahead of the rest of the media. Arrington appeared multiple times on Breitbart News radio on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125, including one appearance about a week before the primary in which she made the terms of the race clear.
“He [Sanford] has no clue what true Republicans in the first congressional district want done,” Arrington said. “We want to support our president. We want to see the border wall built. We want to protect this nation. And he’s just out there, I say, in ‘Mark-Land.’ It’s an academic ideology that does not translate to the actual meat of what America is. It’s really, really sad.”
Arrington also, in a previous Breitbart News radio interview, pledged to join the House Freedom Caucus – a group that currently has no women in it but will when she arrives in Congress next year.
The South Carolina defeat of the Never Trump movement was hardly the only loss for the GOP establishment on Tuesday. Also in South Carolina, state Sen. Lee Bright–a strong supporter of the president and hardcore conservative outsider–is the frontrunner to replace the outgoing establishment Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC). Gowdy, who is retiring, positions himself as an outsider but when it matters always sides with the establishment in Washington on matters ranging from immigration to investigations. Most recently, the establishment Gowdy sided against the president on “Spygate,” saying the FBI did nothing wrong despite reams of evidence to the contrary. Bright will face either William Timmons or Dan Hamilton in the runoff, as the second place vote-getter slot is too close to call at this stage.
Gov. Henry McMaster also finished first in his race and will face John Warren in a runoff–another win for the president. When he was Lt. Governor, McMaster was the first statewide elected official anywhere in America to endorse and campaign for President Trump in the 2016 presidential primaries. After Trump’s win in November 2016, he appointed then-Gov. Nikki Haley as the United Nations Ambassador, elevating McMaster to governor of South Carolina. McMaster is expected to, with President Trump’s support, easily win the runoff.
In Virginia, Trump supporter Corey Stewart won the U.S. Senate nomination–defeating the pro-amnesty Koch Brothers-backed Nick Freitas in the primary. Freitas attempted to position himself as a conservative, but his backing from the Koch Brothers imperiled his campaign as the billionaire globalist mega-donors plunge head-first into yet another push for amnesty for illegal aliens and more immigration to the United States in a desperate gambit for lower wages for the thousands of workers at their companies. The Koch Brothers have also been openly opposing President Trump’s efforts to renegotiate trade deals. Stewart, an actual Trump supporter, has the support of the president going into the general election against Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Hillary Rodham Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential running mate.
Then, in Nevada, Danny Tarkanian–another strong supporter of the president–won his primary to be the GOP nominee for Nevada’s third congressional district, an all-important race where Republicans have an opportunity to flip a seat from Democrat control to GOP control. Tarkanian is one of the only Republicans in Nevada who was on the ballot in 2016 for a national race who stuck with President Trump and did not abandon him when House Speaker Paul Ryan did abandon the president and encouraged other members to do so as well.
The MAGA sweep on Tuesday comes as pro-Trump candidates are defeating establishment failures everywhere in the country and the MAGA movement is on fire at the polls. In West Virginia, for instance, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has emerged as the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate–beating back establishment-backed Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-WV), a former Democrat. Just a week ago, state auditor Matt Rosendale–another solid Trump supporter–won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in Nevada. In Indiana, Trump backer and outsider businessman Mike Braun won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate back in May. In North Carolina, establishment-backed Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) lost his primary to pro-Trump Dr. Mark Harris. In Texas, a slew of pro-Trump candidates won runoffs, defeating establishment-backed politicians, including Chip Roy, Dan Crenshaw, and Ron Wright.
This all comes as Never Trump establishment Republicans like Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) all retire this year, and more pro-Trump candidates like Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in Tennessee and potentially Dr. Kelli Ward in Arizona are expected to replace them. Arizona’s and Tennessee’s primaries are later this year.