Two Trump-backed candidates win U.S. election primaries, but two fall short

Republican candidates endorsed by Donald Trump won their party's nominations for governor in Pennsylvania and for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina on Tuesday in the biggest test yet of the former president's influence in his party ahead of November's midterm elections. But Madison Cawthorn, a Trump-backed Republican congressman in North Carolina, lost his bid for a second term after a dizzying string of self-inflicted scandals read more , while Trump's pick for Idaho governor, Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, failed in her bid to oust the incumbent Republican, Brad Little. The biggest election night of the year so far delivered mixed results for Trump and his far-right movement, although votes were still being counted in the high-profile Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania in which Trump-backed TV personality Dr Mehmet Oz was locked in a tight race with former hedge fund executive David McCormick.

Although Trump lost the White House to President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in 2020, his lasting influence over his party has been a central theme of this election as Republicans battle to oust Democrats from control of the U.S. Congress. Report ad Pennsylvania state Senator Doug Mastriano, who has amplified Trump's false claims of 2020 voter fraud and marched on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will face Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro in a governor's race that could have major implications for abortion rights and election integrity. Some Republican Party insiders feared that Mastriano's primary victory would prove Pyrrhic if he turned off moderate voters in the Nov. 8 general election. Report ad Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates as he tries to solidify his status as his party's kingmaker, though his picks have not always prevailed. In Pennsylvania's marquee U.S. Senate race, Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman - a goateed, tattooed liberal whose fondness for hoodies and shorts has given him everyman appeal - won the Democratic nomination despite having been hospitalized since Friday after suffering a stroke. Fetterman, a progressive, defeated moderate U.S. Representative Conor Lamb just hours after having had a pacemaker implanted to address the irregular heart rhythms that caused the stroke. He has said doctors expect a full recovery. In a statement, Biden praised Fetterman while warning that whoever prevails in the Republican contest "will be too dangerous, too craven, and too extreme" for the state.