GOP voters stick with pro-Trump candidates in Senate primaries

Bloomberg

Republicans wrapped up three crucial US Senate primaries in West Virginia, Indiana and Ohio by nominating candidates who embraced President Donald Trump, while Democratic voters rejected insurgents from the left to stick with the party’s mainstream.
In West Virginia, the GOP establishment dodged a bullet as controversial former coal executive Don Blankenship, who drew Trump’s opposition, placed third in a Senate primary won by state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. The newly-minted nominee showered praise last month on Trump’s commitment to West Virginia, saying his “policies really have made an incredible difference in our state”.
In Indiana, Republican Mike Braun convincingly defeated congressmen Luke Messer and Todd Rokita. All three fought over who was more supportive of Trump. The CEO of automotive products firm Meyer Distributing and a former state representative, Braun prided himself on being a businessman who isn’t a creature of Washington.
Ohio US Representative Jim Renacci won the Republican nomination for Senate to take on Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown, who had no primary opponent. Renacci demonstrated his loyalty to Trump by signing a letter last week nominating the president for a Nobel Peace Prize. Trump endorsed the congressman in the primary.
The Senate races in West Virginia, Indiana and Ohio may be pivotal in determining whether Republicans hang on to their 51-49 majority in the chamber. They are three of the 10 states that Trump won in 2016 and where an incumbent Democrat is running for re-election. Historical trends and Trump’s stubbornly low approval ratings have raised Democrats’ hopes that they can win control of the House, and possibly the Senate, after November 6 elections.

Inviting Targets
Indiana and West Virginia are particularly inviting targets for Republicans seeking to flip a Democratic seat, given Trump’s margins of victory in those states and the party’s dominance in state government.
In Indiana, Braun boasted during a recent debate that he “looks more like Donald Trump” because he’s an “outsider that has done something in the real world.”
Claiming victory, Braun continued to frame the race as a referendum on support for Trump, taking a shot at Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly as insufficiently loyal to the president.
“When he’s in Indiana he acts like one of us, but in Washington he votes against us, against President Trump and in lockstep with the Democrats,” Braun said.
Donnelly, one of the most conservative Democratic senators, ran unopposed for renomination. West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has broken with Democratic leadership to vote for parts of Trump’s agenda, crushed Paula Jean Swearengin.
The races in both states are classified as tossups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.