He wasn’t on the ballot, but the big winner in a slew of Tuesday primaries was former President Donald Trump.
Since leaving the White House, Trump has used the power of his loyal following to make endorsements in general elections as well as Republican Party primaries. This year, as well-funded candidates are squaring off with Trump-backed opponents, the primary season has been seen as a test of the former president’s ability to make a difference in local elections.
Did he ever.
In the Indiana and Ohio primary races that took place Tuesday, Trump-backed candidates won every time, according to Politico.
All 22 races.
Every Trump-endorsed candidate in Ohio’s Republican primary won tonight #OhioPrimary https://t.co/Z2IFqg6Z1U pic.twitter.com/Ln2dCyhnY4
— Jeremy Pelzer (@jpelzer) May 4, 2022
Although some of the candidates he endorsed had minimal opposition, the victory of J.D. Vance in the Ohio Republican U.S. Senate primary was seen as a major demonstration of Trump’s clout, according to Politico.
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Vance, a former Trump critic, was trailing at the polls until the former president supported him.
He thanked Trump in his victory speech and said, “They wanted to write a story that this campaign would be the death of Donald Trump’s America First agenda. Ladies and gentlemen, it ain’t the death of the America First agenda.”
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Vance will face Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who won the Democratic primary, in the November election.
Politico noted that aside from what takes place in the 2024 presidential election, Trump is “putting an imprint on the party in the midterms that could last for decades.”
Former Trump aide Max Miller, who was backed by the former president, won his Ohio congressional primary handily.
Miller promised that if elected in the fall, he will work in Washington to back Trump’s “America First” agenda, according to Cleveland.com.
Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, also supported by Trump, won another GOP primary for an Ohio House seat.
North Canton attorney Madison Gesiotto Gilbert was projected to win a crowded GOP primary in Ohio’s reconfigured 13th congressional district, defeating six other Republicans who sought the chance to take on former Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes. https://t.co/9DVsoK6vNG
— clevelanddotcom (@clevelanddotcom) May 4, 2022
“The freedoms and the opportunities that we know and love are being threatened by far-left radical members of our society who want us to take steps backwards, that want us to take steps towards socialism, that want to divide us on race, gender, and political ideology,” Gilbert said last month at a Trump rally, according to Cleveland.com.
“And most importantly, they want to destroy what is good about our great nation.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.