A trio of elections on Tuesday provided early alert signs to the Republicans and President Donald Trump at the start of an ambitious term, while the Democrats gathered against his efforts to reduce the federal government and the disproportionate role played by billionaire Elon Musk.
In the marquee race for a siege of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, the conservative judge approved by Trump and supported by Musk and his groups up to $ 21 million lost by a significant margin in a state that the president won in November. And while Florida’s Republicans have owned two of the country’s most pro-Trump house districts, the two candidates also considerably underperformed Trump’s November margins.
The elections – The first major competitions since the return of Trump in power – were considered an early measure of the feeling of the voters while Trump works with an unprecedented speed to considerably upset the federal government, compete with the courts and seek revenge while he tests the limits of the presidential power.
The party who loses the presidency in November generally takes over seats in the next mid -term elections, and the results of Tuesday gave hope to the Democrats – who faced a barrage of internal and external criticisms concerning their response to Trump – that they can follow this trend.
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and podcaster whose group worked alongside Musk to stimulate the conservative Brad Schimel in the Wisconsin, supported the loss of the Supreme Court on Tuesday underlined a fundamental challenge for the Republicans, especially in the races where Trump is not on the ballot.
“We have done a lot in Wisconsin, but we have failed. We must realize and appreciate that we are the low party of the accessories now,” he said, referring to low growth voters who did not voted regularly. “The party has been redone. Special elections and out -of -cycle elections will continue to be a problem without changing strategy. ”
Trump won the Wisconsin in November 0.8 percentage points or less than 30,000 votes. During the first major test since he took office, the state of the perennial battlefield moved considerably to the left.
The County of Sauk, northwest of the capital of Madison’s state, is a Bellwether state. Trump won it in November by 626 votes. Sauk moved 16 points to judge Susan Crawford, the liberal favorite supported by national democrats and liberal billionaire donors like George Soros.
In addition to a strong participation in democratic areas, Crawford has done betterly better in the counties of the suburbs of Milwaukee on which the Republicans count to increase their margin throughout the state.
Crawford won the counties of Kenosha and Racine, who were both the subject of Trump against the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. She was in pace to gain 9 points.
In interviews with more than 20 voters in Waunakee, a politically mixed city north of Madison, several Democrats suggested without encouraging that their vote is as much if not more a repudiation of the first months of Trump in office that it was a decision on the direction of the High Court of the State.
“It’s our chance to say no,” said Linda Grassl, a retirement nurse from the Ob-Gyn, after having voted on Tuesday at the Waunakee public library corridor.
Others did not like the richest man in the world playing such an important role.
“I don’t like that Musk spends money for an election in which he should not have an involvement,” said Antonio Gray, a 38 -year -old Milwaukee security guard. “They should let the voters vote for whom they want to vote instead of inserting as they did.”
Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said that part of the challenge for the Republicans had “tried to connect the points” to transform the Court of the Supreme Court of the State at once on Trump – a difficult task in a state court.
“If you are someone who introduced himself to Trump because you feel forgotten, you generally do not show up to vote”
However, Walker warned against reading the tea leaves too closely.
“I would be a little careful to read too much what is happening nationwide,” he said.
Trump was more likely in Florida, where Republican Randy Fine won his special elections in the 6th district to replace representative Mike Waltz, who resigned to be Trump’s national security advisor. But the Democrat Challenger of Fine, Josh Weil, lost 14 points less than five months after Waltz won the district by 33.
“This is the functional equivalent of the Republicans who put a competitive race in the district which is represented by representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” said the Democratic leader of the Hakeem Jeffries room beforehand, invoking a liberal favorite that Trump often disparages. “Kamala Harris won this 30-point district. Do you think that a republican would even be competitive in this New York district, currently held by Alex? Of course, not.”
Jimmy Patronis, the state director of the State, took up a challenge to the Gay Democrat Valimont to win the headquarters in North West Florida left by Matt Gaetz, but also underperform the last margin of victory of Gaetz.
The pair of victories gave the Republicans a margin of 220-213 to the House of Representatives, at a time when the concerns concerning a thin majority of the GOP led Trump to draw the appointment of the representative of New York, Elise Stefanik, the United Nations Ambassador.
For voters of the two districts, the clear draw was Trump.
Teresa Horton, 72, didn’t know much about Tuesday’s elections – but said she didn’t need it.
“I don’t even know these people there,” she said about her ballot. “I just went with my ticket.”
Brenda Ray, 75, a retired nurse, said that she was not knowing about patronis either, but voted for him because she believes that he would vote with our president “.
“That’s all we are looking for,” she said.
Patronis and fine were seriously chanted by their Democrats Challengers. Michael Whatley, president of the National Republican Committee, argued that what was a concern of the GOP before Tuesday evening had been a sign of the party’s strength.
“The American people have sent a clear message tonight: they want elected officials who will make President Trump’s first program progress, and their votes cannot be purchased by national democrats,” he said in a statement.
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The writers of the Associated Press Stephany Matat in Daytona Beach, Florida, Kate Payne in Pensacola, Christine Fernando in Milwaukee, Mark Vancleave à Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Tom Beaumont in Waunakee, Wisconsin and Matt Brown in Washington in Washington.
