(WASHINGTON) — Historic early turnout meant knockout political races in Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama and Texas primary and runoff elections. With the backdrop of another massacre in which at least 19 schoolchildren and two adults were gunned down in a Texas elementary school, voters took to the polls to sign off on the candidates they believe best meet this political moment.
Here are some key takeaways from Tuesday’s pivotal races:
Some “big lie” candidates run out of steam
There’s never been a bigger test of voters’ metabolism for “big lie” candidates than Georgia’s GOP primaries.
Gov. Brian Kemp made a vicious split from the former president after he refused to help him overturn 2020 election results in the state that favored President Joe Biden. David Perdue, former senator and Donald Trump endorsee, took up Trump’s feud, pillaring the sitting governor for his “lack of action” on so-called election fraud. The attacks were endless but clearly did not resonate with voters, who pushed Kemp to primary victory.
In at least three key counties in Georgia where Trump won in both 2016 and 2022 — Baker, Dooly, and Quitman — Kemp won by landslide margins, a testament to how little Trump’s endorsement can mean when the rubber meets the road.
He’ll square up once again with Democrat Stacey Abrams, one of the most vocal voting rights proponents, who will no doubt be quick to link Kemp and Trump’s record, regardless of the inter-GOP love lost. It’s important to note, though, that even though Kemp does not carry the “big lie” in Perdue-ian ways, he still signed a restrictive voting law and referenced the 2020 election as a reason for doing so during a debate.
Still, the Georgia Democratic Party quickly painted Kemp as the “most vulnerable incumbent governor in history” after his race was called.
“As Donald Trump’s favorite punching bag, Kemp is stuck with a deeply divided party, and Georgians won’t forget his dangerous record of making it easier for criminals to carry guns, passing extreme abortion restrictions, and refusing to expand health care for working families,” Executive Director Noam Lee said in a statement.
Looking down the ballot, voters had less appetite for “big lie” firebrand Rep. Jody Hice, serving incumbent Brad Raffensperger a win. Raffensperger was a key character in Trump’s attempt to overturn the election, and his patent refusal to “find” approximately 11,780 extra votes in Georgia launched him to national acclaim. Hice not only pushed Trump’s disproven election conspiracy, he’s also gone so far as to suggest he’d “decertify” the 2020 election — something patently impossible to do.
Another winning Trump candidate raising questions about election integrity is football star Herschel Walker, who faces a challenge from Democrat Rep. Raphael Warnock in November. Without saying the election was outright stolen, Walker has hedged, telling reporters that “everyone knows that something happened in the election.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most conservative members in the House and one of the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the general election results, also won her district’s primary elections.
Now, it’s up to voters in Georgia’s general election to see just how large the “big lie” will loom come November.
Political dynasties live and die
As one political dynasty dies, another emerges. The Bush family’s political reach may have seen its end Tuesday, with the loss of George P. Bush, the fourth-generation Bush family elected official and eldest son of former presidential candidate Jeb Bush, in his runoff bid for attorney general. Bush, the current Texas land commissioner, tried and failed to snag Trump’s endorsement, which went to the winner, incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton. Regardless of his family’s deep ties to Texas politics, Bush was unable to prevail.
But another dynasty lives on in Arkansas, with former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders decidedly winning her primary bid for governor. Her victory underscores a dual legacy. Not only is her father Mike Huckabee, the former governor of the state, he’s also had a prominent political career and ran for president in both 2008 and 2016. Her association with Trump means another win on his midterm scorecard (for those keeping track).
Gun violence candidate advances amid horror
Atlanta area Rep. Lucy McBath, who was forced to abandon her home district and run in the neighboring congressional district, decidedly won her race against Carolyn Bordeaux. McBath’s race was only one of five incumbent-on-incumbent battles this midterm cycle, making it a must-see for those following the impacts of gerrymandering.
McBath has long championed gun reform, garnering serious monetary support from outside groups on that issue. Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety threw $1 million at her campaign by way of a TV advertisement in the closing weeks of the primary.
Her win came just hours after a gruesome and deadly shooting in Texas killed at least 19 children and two adults who were gunned down at an elementary school and amid a month filled with gunfire. Just last week, a white man killed 10 Black people in a racially motivated slaughter in a Buffalo supermarket.
Addressing supporters Tuesday night, McBath decried the shooting in Texas and spoke plainly on the gut-wrenching impact on families. McBath lost her teenage son to gun violence in 2012.
“We paid for unfettered gun access with phone calls to mothers and fathers who gasped for air when their desperation would not let them breathe. Who have sunk to their knees when their agony would not let them stand,” she said.
McBath then spoke about her son Jordan, adding, “And across the country, from Uvalde to Sandy Hook, to Charleston to Buffalo, the violence that took my son is being replayed with casual callousness and despicable frequency.”
(WASHINGTON) — A plane carrying some one million bottles’ worth of specialized infant formula from Europe was set to arrive at an airport in Virginia on Wednesday, the same day top industry executives and federal regulators were to face angry lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The second shipment from overseas — part of President Joe Biden’s “Operation Fly Formula” — will be headed to hospitals for infants allergic to cow’s milk.
The urgently needed shipment comes amid a nationwide shortage that’s sent at least a half a dozen children to the hospital so far and has put enormous pressure on Biden to explain why his administration didn’t act sooner to prevent the crisis.
“There’s no excuse for what’s happening all across this country right now,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, who will lead the hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
The nation’s supply crunch became urgent last February after federal inspectors found a deadly bacteria inside a manufacturing facility by Abbott Nutrition in Sturgis, Michigan.
Abbott agreed to a voluntary recall of its formula and shuttered its facility, even as it insists there is no conclusive evidence that its formula was tied to the illnesses of four infants.
The Abbott facility is now on track to reopen within the next week or so. But the closure proved to be disastrous to a market already plagued by supply chain problems.
Abbot is the largest formula producer in the U.S. and a top contributor to a federal program that supplies formula to low-income families.
Democrats have joined Republicans in raising questions about the Food and Drug Administration’s handling of the Abbott recall. According to inspection reports and congressional testimony, the FDA was aware last fall of sanitation issues at the plant as well as a whistleblower complaint.
“You can’t hide behind an investigation. We need answers. We need them now,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.
Dr. Bob Califf, head of the Food and Drug Administration, told House lawmakers last week that the investigation into the Abbott recall is ongoing.
Califf also said his agency doesn’t have the resources to do the kind of complex analysis that would be needed to monitor the nation’s supply chain and ward off future shortages.
Califf is expected to testify Wednesday alongside other FDA officials, followed by senior executives from Abbott, Reckitt and Gerber.
Chris Calamari, Abbott’s senior vice president for U.S. Nutrition, was expected to tell lawmakers that the company plans to have more formula available at the end of June than it did in January before the recall.
“To all of the families who depend on us for a reliable supply of formula — we let you down. We are deeply sorry and are committed to making sure that a shortage like this never happens again … We plan to resume production at the Sturgis facility the first week of June. From the time we restart production at the site, it will take approximately six to eight weeks before product is available on shelves,” Calamari said in prepared remarks.
Executives from Gerber and Mead Johnson Nutrition also were expected to testify. And like Abbott, they planned to tell lawmakers they were ramping up production dramatically to address the shortage.
To address the crisis, Biden has ordered the FDA to open up the U.S. market to global suppliers and arranged for two shipments of Nestlé hypoallergenic formula to arrive from overseas. He also has invoked the Defense Production Act to ensure domestic manufacturers are first in line to access raw materials and other supplies.
The first shipment of imported formula arrived in Indiana on Sunday aboard an Air Force transport plane, and included a half a million bottles of Alfamino Infant and Alfamino Junior — enough hypoallergenic formula for 9,000 infants and 18,000 toddlers for one week.
The second shipment, scheduled to arrive Wednesday at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C., is expected to include 114 pallets of Gerber Good Start Extensive Hypoallergenic infant formula.
In total, the two shipments would stock provide 1.5 million 8-ounce bottles of the specialty formula.
First lady Jill Biden and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy were scheduled to greet the arrival of the FedEx plane.
As of late Tuesday, five out of the six infants admitted to hospitals in South Carolina and Tennessee in connection to the formula shortage had been released.
One infant who remained hospitalized in South Carolina has not been able to tolerate alternative formulas. This child also has other health complications, a hospital spokesperson tells ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — May ends with another round of notable primary elections on Tuesday, this time in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Texas.
The most-watched races will be in Georgia, with primaries for governor and the Senate.
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 25, 12:21 am
Raffensperger projected winner of GOP nomination for Georgia secretary of state
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will win the Republican nomination, ABC News has projected.
Raffensperger has been running for reelection under the cloud of former President Donald Trump, who has spent much of the 2022 midterm election cycle advocating for the takedown of Georgia’s top officials after they rebuffed his requests to change the 2020 election results.
Trump endorsed Rep. Jody Hice in the secretary of state’s race. The congressman has amplified Trump’s false claims about election fraud and irregularities — a message that didn’t appear to resonate with voters on Tuesday. ABC News has projected that Gov. Brian Kemp — another target of the ex-president — will win the Republican nomination over Trump-backed David Perdue.
May 25, 12:00 am
ABC News projects Katie Britt, Mo Brooks will advance to runoff
In the Alabama Senate Republican primary, ABC News projects that Katie Britt and Rep. Mo Brooks will advance to a runoff.
They are competing to fill the seat left open by retiring Sen. Richard Shelby. The contest will take place on June 21.
Brooks flailed in the race after once securing the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. Trump rescinded his support earlier this year after Brooks, a champion of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, suggested it was time to move on from the presidential race. But Club for Growth, a popular conservative anti-tax group, is still backing him and has spent more than $4.4 million on his behalf.
Britt, a former Shelby aide, has secured the endorsement of the outgoing senator as well as Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
May 24, 11:35 pm
McBath speaks about gun violence in victory speech: ‘We are exhausted’
Addressing supporters at an election watch party on Tuesday night, Rep. Lucy McBath, the projected winner in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, used the moment to discuss gun violence after a mass shooting at an elementary school left at least 19 children and two adults dead in Uvalde, Texas.
“Tonight I came to give one speech but I am now forced to make another,” McBath said after briefly thanking voters and volunteers, “because just hours ago, we paid for the weapons of war on our streets again with the blood of little children sitting in our schools.”
McBath rose to national prominence in 2018, becoming a leading advocate for gun control after her son, Jordan, was shot and killed at a gas station in Florida. She described on Tuesday night the “all-consuming fear” that parents feel about their children’s safety.
“The violence that took my soon has been replayed with casual callousness and despicable frequency,” McBath said, citing the recent shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead, as well as past tragedies in Newton, Connecticut, and Charleston, South Carolina.
“We cannot be the only nation where one party sits on their hands as children are forced to cover their faces in fear,” McBath said. “We are exhausted, all of us, the American majority.”
May 24, 10:24 pm
ABC News projects Lucy McBath will win Democratic primary in Georgia
Rep. Lucy McBath will win the Democratic nomination in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, ABC News has projected, besting Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux after redistricting pitted the two incumbents against each other.
McBath flipped Georgia’s 6th Congressional District from red to blue in 2018. She is now the presumptive front-runner to win the November general election in the solidly Democratic district, which includes the Atlanta suburbs.
Her primary win comes on the same day as a mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas. McBath has been advocating for gun control following the death of her son, Jordan Davis, from gun violence back in 2012. He was shot and killed at a gas station in Florida by a man who complained that his and his friend’s music was too loud.
In a statement, McBath said Tuesday that we as a country our better than this and that it is “imperative we act, and act now.”
May 24, 10:22 pm
Trump congratulates Walker for Georgia Senate Republican primary win
Former President Donald Trump called into Herschel Walker’s victory party on Tuesday night, congratulating the Republican nominee in brief remarks.
“And, you know, you were the greatest football player, and you’ll be an even greater politician and Senator,” Trump said. “I knew it right from the beginning when first I spoke to you and I said, this man is gonna do things that are incredible.”
Walker then thanked his campaign and supporters and made a vague jab at his opponents.
“If you live in the state of Georgia, you’re my family. And these radicals will have to come after me before they get to you. And I won’t let that happen,” Walker said.
May 24, 9:34 pm
Sarah Huckabee Sanders projected to win Arkansas’ Republican primary for governor
ABC News projects that Sarah Huckabee Sanders will win the Republican nomination for governor in Arkansas, beating out her sole competitor, Little Rock radio host Francis “Doc” Washburn.
Sanders, the 39-year-old daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, with her victory upholds a political dynasty in Arkansas. Heading into Election Day, she secured endorsements from former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tom Cotton, among others.
Trump made his last push for Sanders today, sending wide a statement called his endorsee a “warrior” who would do what is right, not what is “political correct.”
May 24, 9:20 pm
Ken Paxton projected winner of Texas attorney general runoff
ABC News projects that in the Texas Republican primary runoff, incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton will win. As of 9 p.m. Eastern, with 29% of the expected vote in, Paxton leads with 66% of the vote, while George P. Bush follows with 34% of the vote.
This race was both a test of Trump’s endorsement and the power of political dynasties, in this case: the Bushes.
Paxton received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in July 2021 but went into the runoff engulfed in scandals that include indictment for securities fraud, FBI investigations into malfeasance and marital infidelity, among others. He denies all allegations.
His opponent was Bush, who is George H. W. Bush’s grandson and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He is the only member of his famous family still in public office, currently serving as commissioner of the Texas General Land Office.
May 24, 9:04 pm
Marjorie Taylor Greene projected GOP winner in Georgia’s 14th district
ABC News projects that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the winner of the Republican primary in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Greene edged out five Republican competitors and overcame a legal challenge to her reelection despite her turbulent tenure in Congress.
As ABC’s Hannah Demissie reported, a group of Georgia voters said that Greene was not eligible to run for reelection due to her alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol, citing the 14th Amendment. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger agreed in early May with the court’s recommendation that Greene is allowed to stay on the ballot.
May 24, 9:03 pm
All polls are now closed
The final polls of the night have closed in Arkansas and Montana.
In Arkansas, voters are picking their party’s nominees for governor and Senate. In Minnesota, there is a special election to choose a replacement for Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died in February.
May 24, 8:31 pm
Brian Kemp projected winner of gubernatorial primary
ABC News has projected that sitting Gov. Brian Kemp will win the Republican nomination in Georgia, defeating former President Donald Trump’s pick David Perdue.
Trump personally courted Perdue to challenge Kemp after the governor refused to indulge his baseless claims about the 2020 election. Despite the former president’s backing, Perdue consistently lagged in polling and fundraising against Kemp.
Kemp’s presumptive victory sets up a rematch between him and Democrat Stacey Abrams, who ABC News has projected to win the Democratic nomination for Senate. Their bitter 2018 race for the governorship was decided by less than 55,000 votes. Abrams admitted defeat but said she refused to call it a “concession,” citing tactics she said were used to suppress the vote.
May 24, 8:13 pm
Polls close in Alabama, most of Texas
Polls are now closed in Alabama and most of Texas.
In Texas, all eyes are on a runoff election between Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar and immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros in the state’s 28th Congressional District. Cisneros is backed by the progressive wing of the party, while Cuellar has maintained support from the Democratic establishment despite his anti-abortion stance.
In Alabama, Sen. Richard Shelby’s retirement has resulted in a competitive Republican primary between Rep. Mo Brooks, attorney Katie Britt and former Army helicopter pilot Mike Durant. Brooks initially won former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race, but later lost it after suggesting it was time to move on from the 2020 election. Trump has not made another endorsement in the contest.
May 24, 7:19 pm
Stacey Abrams projected to win Democratic gubernatorial primary in Georgia
In the Georgia gubernatorial Democratic primary, ABC News projects Stacey Abrams will win.
Abrams’s victory in the primary means November’s general election could be a rematch between her and Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp defeated Abrams in 2018 by a very narrow margin that she claimed was influenced by tactics that suppressed the vote.
Following her election loss, Abrams turned to advocacy and founded a voting rights group in Georgia. She’s credited as a main figure in helping Democrats flip the state from blue to red in the 2020 election cycle.
May 24, 7:07 pm
Polls close in Georgia
Polls have closed in Georgia, where voters are picking their party’s nominees in several highly-watched Senate, House and gubernatorial primary elections. Anyone already in line as of the 7 p.m. close will still be able to cast a ballot.
The Peach State has a fraught history of long lines and voting issues on Election Day, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday afternoon that “everything so far has been smooth sailing.”
Candidates must receive more than 50% of the vote to win the nomination, or they will face a runoff race on June 21.
May 24, 6:54 pm
Georgia elections are biggest test yet for Trump’s “big lie”
Former President Donald Trump has gone all-in on Georgia, where he’s desperately trying to oust sitting Republican officials who pushed back on his baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election.
His picks include fellow election deniers David Perdue, a former senator running against Gov. Brian Kemp; Rep. Jody Hice, who is challenging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; celebrity football star Herschel Walker, who’s seeking a Senate seat; and John Gordon, a businessman trying to unseat Attorney General Chris Carr.
May 24, 6:05 pm
Texas candidates respond to elementary school mass shooting
Democrats Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar, who are competing in a runoff election for a South Texas congressional seat, issued statements after 14 students and one teacher were [killed in a shooting] () at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“This is a devastating tragedy,” Cisneros wrote on Twitter. “How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough? Sending my condolences to the children and families in Uvalde who are experiencing this unthinkable tragedy.”
Cuellar said he was “heartbroken” and urged the public to come together to support the community.
May 24, 5:05 pm
Stacey Abrams speaks after David Perdue’s ‘go back’ attack
Stacey Abrams, a Black Democrat running for Georgia governor, declined on Tuesday to directly comment on Republican David Perdue saying she should “go back to where she came from.”
“No, not at all,” Abrams, said at a news conference in Atlanta, when asked by ABC News whether she wanted to respond to what was widely labeled as racist remarks from Perdue on Monday night while giving a campaign speech in which he also charged she was “demeaning her own race.”
“I will say this,” Abrams told ABC News at Tuesday’s press conference. “I have listened to Republicans for the last six months attack me. But they’ve done nothing to attack the challenges facing Georgia. They’ve done nothing to articulate their plans for the future of Georgia. Their response to a comment on their record is to deflect and to pretend that they’ve done good for the people of Georgia.”
Perdue, running to get the GOP nomination for Georgia governor, seized on Abram’s comments last week that Georgia was “worst state in the country to live,” citing residents’ disparities in mental health and maternal mortality, among other issues.
“She ain’t from here. Let her go back to where she came from,” Perdue, a former senator challenging Gov. Brian Kemp for their party’s nomination, said at a campaign event in the Atlanta suburbs on Monday night. “She doesn’t like it here.”
May 24, 5:03 pm
Early voting surges in Georgia as state navigates new election rules
A historic number of people have voted early in Georgia’s primary elections. According to the secretary of state’s office, approximately 857,401 people voted in-person or through an absentee ballot as of Friday — roughly three times as many as at the same point in the 2018 midterm election cycle.
Republicans are touting increased voter turnout as proof a controversial election law signed last year wasn’t as restrictive as its opponents described, while Democrats say the numbers are indicative of public pushback to the legislation.
“I think it tells us that Georgia voters got the message and the message was, ‘We gotta go vote, and we’ve got to go vote early, and we’ve got to go vote in person,’” Bee Nguyen, the leading Democratic candidate for secretary of state, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks.
May 24, 4:25 pm
Here’s what time polls close in each state
Here’s what time polls close in each state on Tuesday. All times Eastern.
Georgia: 7 p.m.
Alabama: 8 p.m.
Texas: 8 p.m. in most of the state, 9 p.m. in the western tip
Arkansas: 8:30 p.m.
Minnesota: 9 p.m
May 24, 5:07 pm
What races Republicans, Democrats will be watching closely in Tuesday’s primaries
Tuesday’s primary elections, stretching across four Southern states, will continue to test Republican voters’ appetite for former President Donald Trump and his push of the “big lie.”
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Georgia as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — two Republicans who balked at Trump’s requests to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race — face challenges from enthusiastic proponents of Trump’s baseless election claims. Kemp is hoping to fight off former Sen. David Perdue, while Raffensperger is looking to rebuff Rep. Jody Hice.
Another high-profile contest in the Peach State will be the Senate primary, where football star Herschel Walker is running for the Republican nomination to likely challenge Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. Trump-endorsed Walker has been leading the pack despite several controversies, including prior accusations of domestic violence. (Walker has denied some of the allegations and said he doesn’t remember others.)
For Democrats, the most-watched race of the night will be a runoff in Texas’ 28th Congressional District as 29-year-old immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros tries for a third time to unseat nine-term incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar. The heated primary is the first clear test of how abortion rights may motivate voters this election cycle, given Cuellar’s position as the sole anti-abortion Democrat in the House.
And in Georgia, two Democratic incumbents — Rep. Lucy McBath and Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux — are running against each other because of redistricting.
(WASHINGTON) — May ends with another round of notable primary elections on Tuesday, this time in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Texas.
The most-watched races will be in Georgia, with primaries for governor and the Senate.
The results should give more insight into the strength of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement as well as the conservative appetite for the “big lie.”
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.
May 24, 9:20 pm
Ken Paxton projected winner of Texas attorney general runoff
ABC News projects that in the Texas Republican primary runoff, incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton will win. As of 9 p.m. Eastern, with 29% of the expected vote in, Paxton leads with 66% of the vote, while George P. Bush follows with 34% of the vote.
This race was both a test of Trump’s endorsement and the power of political dynasties, in this case: the Bushes.
Paxton received former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in July 2021 but went into the runoff engulfed in scandals that include indictment for securities fraud, FBI investigations into malfeasance and marital infidelity, among others. He denies all allegations.
His opponent was Bush, who is George H. W. Bush’s grandson and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He is the only member of his famous family still in public office, currently serving as commissioner of the Texas General Land Office.
May 24, 9:04 pm
Marjorie Taylor Greene projected GOP winner in Georgia’s 14th district
ABC News projects that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the winner of the Republican primary in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Greene edged out five Republican competitors and overcame a legal challenge to her reelection despite her turbulent tenure in Congress.
As ABC’s Hannah Demissie reported, a group of Georgia voters said that Greene was not eligible to run for reelection due to her alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol, citing the 14th Amendment. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger agreed in early May with the court’s recommendation that Greene is allowed to stay on the ballot.
May 24, 9:03 pm
All polls are now closed
The final polls of the night have closed in Arkansas and Montana.
In Arkansas, voters are picking their party’s nominees for governor and Senate. In Minnesota, there is a special election to choose a replacement for Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died in February.
May 24, 8:31 pm
Brian Kemp projected winner of gubernatorial primary
ABC News has projected that sitting Gov. Brian Kemp will win the Republican nomination in Georgia, defeating former President Donald Trump’s pick David Perdue.
Trump personally courted Perdue to challenge Kemp after the governor refused to indulge his baseless claims about the 2020 election. Despite the former president’s backing, Perdue consistently lagged in polling and fundraising against Kemp.
Kemp’s presumptive victory sets up a rematch between him and Democrat Stacey Abrams, who ABC News has projected to win the Democratic nomination for Senate. Their bitter 2018 race for the governorship was decided by less than 55,000 votes. Abrams admitted defeat but said she refused to call it a “concession,” citing tactics she said were used to suppress the vote.
May 24, 8:13 pm
Polls close in Alabama, most of Texas
Polls are now closed in Alabama and most of Texas.
In Texas, all eyes are on a runoff election between Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar and immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros in the state’s 28th Congressional District. Cisneros is backed by the progressive wing of the party, while Cuellar has maintained support from the Democratic establishment despite his anti-abortion stance.
In Alabama, Sen. Richard Shelby’s retirement has resulted in a competitive Republican primary between Rep. Mo Brooks, attorney Katie Britt and former Army helicopter pilot Mike Durant. Brooks initially won former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race, but later lost it after suggesting it was time to move on from the 2020 election. Trump has not made another endorsement in the contest.
May 24, 7:19 pm
Stacey Abrams projected to win Democratic gubernatorial primary in Georgia
In the Georgia gubernatorial Democratic primary, ABC News projects Stacey Abrams will win.
Abrams’s victory in the primary means November’s general election could be a rematch between her and Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp defeated Abrams in 2018 by a very narrow margin that she claimed was influenced by tactics that suppressed the vote.
Following her election loss, Abrams turned to advocacy and founded a voting rights group in Georgia. She’s credited as a main figure in helping Democrats flip the state from blue to red in the 2020 election cycle.
May 24, 7:07 pm
Polls close in Georgia
Polls have closed in Georgia, where voters are picking their party’s nominees in several highly-watched Senate, House and gubernatorial primary elections. Anyone already in line as of the 7 p.m. close will still be able to cast a ballot.
The Peach State has a fraught history of long lines and voting issues on Election Day, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday afternoon that “everything so far has been smooth sailing.”
Candidates must receive more than 50% of the vote to win the nomination, or they will face a runoff race on June 21.
May 24, 6:54 pm
Georgia elections are biggest test yet for Trump’s “big lie”
Former President Donald Trump has gone all-in on Georgia, where he’s desperately trying to oust sitting Republican officials who pushed back on his baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election.
His picks include fellow election deniers David Perdue, a former senator running against Gov. Brian Kemp; Rep. Jody Hice, who is challenging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; celebrity football star Herschel Walker, who’s seeking a Senate seat; and John Gordon, a businessman trying to unseat Attorney General Chris Carr.
May 24, 6:05 pm
Texas candidates respond to elementary school mass shooting
Democrats Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar, who are competing in a runoff election for a South Texas congressional seat, issued statements after 14 students and one teacher were [killed in a shooting] () at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“This is a devastating tragedy,” Cisneros wrote on Twitter. “How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough? Sending my condolences to the children and families in Uvalde who are experiencing this unthinkable tragedy.”
Cuellar said he was “heartbroken” and urged the public to come together to support the community.
May 24, 5:05 pm
Stacey Abrams speaks after David Perdue’s ‘go back’ attack
Stacey Abrams, a Black Democrat running for Georgia governor, declined on Tuesday to directly comment on Republican David Perdue saying she should “go back to where she came from.”
“No, not at all,” Abrams, said at a news conference in Atlanta, when asked by ABC News whether she wanted to respond to what was widely labeled as racist remarks from Perdue on Monday night while giving a campaign speech in which he also charged she was “demeaning her own race.”
“I will say this,” Abrams told ABC News at Tuesday’s press conference. “I have listened to Republicans for the last six months attack me. But they’ve done nothing to attack the challenges facing Georgia. They’ve done nothing to articulate their plans for the future of Georgia. Their response to a comment on their record is to deflect and to pretend that they’ve done good for the people of Georgia.”
Perdue, running to get the GOP nomination for Georgia governor, seized on Abram’s comments last week that Georgia was “worst state in the country to live,” citing residents’ disparities in mental health and maternal mortality, among other issues.
“She ain’t from here. Let her go back to where she came from,” Perdue, a former senator challenging Gov. Brian Kemp for their party’s nomination, said at a campaign event in the Atlanta suburbs on Monday night. “She doesn’t like it here.”
May 24, 5:03 pm
Early voting surges in Georgia as state navigates new election rules
A historic number of people have voted early in Georgia’s primary elections. According to the secretary of state’s office, approximately 857,401 people voted in-person or through an absentee ballot as of Friday — roughly three times as many as at the same point in the 2018 midterm election cycle.
Republicans are touting increased voter turnout as proof a controversial election law signed last year wasn’t as restrictive as its opponents described, while Democrats say the numbers are indicative of public pushback to the legislation.
“I think it tells us that Georgia voters got the message and the message was, ‘We gotta go vote, and we’ve got to go vote early, and we’ve got to go vote in person,’” Bee Nguyen, the leading Democratic candidate for secretary of state, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks.
May 24, 4:25 pm
Here’s what time polls close in each state
Here’s what time polls close in each state on Tuesday. All times Eastern.
Georgia: 7 p.m.
Alabama: 8 p.m.
Texas: 8 p.m. in most of the state, 9 p.m. in the western tip
Arkansas: 8:30 p.m.
Minnesota: 9 p.m
May 24, 5:07 pm
What races Republicans, Democrats will be watching closely in Tuesday’s primaries
Tuesday’s primary elections, stretching across four Southern states, will continue to test Republican voters’ appetite for former President Donald Trump and his push of the “big lie.”
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Georgia as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — two Republicans who balked at Trump’s requests to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race — face challenges from enthusiastic proponents of Trump’s baseless election claims. Kemp is hoping to fight off former Sen. David Perdue, while Raffensperger is looking to rebuff Rep. Jody Hice.
Another high-profile contest in the Peach State will be the Senate primary, where football star Herschel Walker is running for the Republican nomination to likely challenge Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. Trump-endorsed Walker has been leading the pack despite several controversies, including prior accusations of domestic violence. (Walker has denied some of the allegations and said he doesn’t remember others.)
For Democrats, the most-watched race of the night will be a runoff in Texas’ 28th Congressional District as 29-year-old immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros tries for a third time to unseat nine-term incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar. The heated primary is the first clear test of how abortion rights may motivate voters this election cycle, given Cuellar’s position as the sole anti-abortion Democrat in the House.
And in Georgia, two Democratic incumbents — Rep. Lucy McBath and Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux — are running against each other because of redistricting.
(WASHINGTON) — With the U.S. still reeling from the mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, not even two weeks ago, President Joe Biden addressed Americans in the terrible wake of Tuesday’s shooting at a Texas elementary school that left at least 18 young children dead.
A clearly emotional Biden spoke to the nation from the White House Roosevelt Room about an hour after arriving back from a five-day trip to Asia and about two hours after ordering, from Air Force One, that the flag flying above the White House be lowered to half-staff.
“I’d hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again. Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, second, third, fourth graders,” he said.
“As a nation we have to ask when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby,” he said raising his voice.
“I am sick and tired of it — we have to act,’ he said.
Two adults, including a teacher at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, were also killed by the 18-year-old suspect — said to be a student at Uvalde High School — who also died, according to Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, whom Biden spoke with on his way back to Washington.
Less than two weeks ago, just before Biden traveled overseas he was in Buffalo, condemning a suspected white supremacist accused of killing 10 Black people going about their daily lives at a local supermarket.
There, he called on Congress to “keep weapons of war off our streets.”
A short time before Biden was scheduled to speak, Vice President Kamala Harris, fighting back tears, commented on the shooting as she began her pre-scheduled remarks at a Washington gala.
“Tonight is a rough night, we planned for a great celebration, but I’m sure most of you have heard the tragic news about what happened in Texas,” she said.
“Every time a tragedy like this happens, our hearts break. And our broken hearts are nothing compared to the broken hearts of those families — and yet it keeps happening. So, I think we all know and have said many times with each other: Enough is enough. Enough is enough,” she said.
“As a nation, we have to have the courage to take action and understand the nexus between what makes for reasonable and sensible public policy to ensure something like this never happens again,” she said.
In February, on the fourth anniversary of the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a single gunman killed 17 students and staff, Biden, again, pushed lawmakers to pass legislation requiring universal background checks and banning assault weapons, among other measures to reduce gun violence.
And last December, on the ninth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a single gunman killed 20 first-graders and six teachers, Biden spoke to victims’ families in a speech from the White House, demanding that lawmakers “owe them action.”
“Because of your leadership, we forged a broad coalition and enacted more than 20 executive orders,” Biden said. “We came close to legislation, but we came up short. It was so darn frustrating.”
While serving as then-President Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden was tasked in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting to lead the administration’s effort to enact tougher gun control laws — but in the nearly decade since the nation mourned for Newtown, no action on gun control has passed at a federal level.
Biden, like some of his predecessors, has repeatedly pushed for reforms to address gun violence but has faced a reluctance from Congress to engage on the issue.
Bills aimed at expanding and strengthening background checks have passed through the House’s Democratic majority but have failed to garner enough Republican support to pass the Senate filibuster’s 60-vote threshold.
As president, Biden has used some executive powers instead, like when he announced new regulations on so-called “ghost guns” last month.
But asked about what more he might do to address gun violence when leaving Buffalo last week, Biden conceded there was “not much” he could do through executive action.
“I’ve got to convince the Congress that we should go back to what I passed years ago,” Biden said, referring to the 1994 passage of an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.
Since Sandy Hook in 2012, the U.S. has endured more than 3,500 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
(WASHINGTON) — With the U.S. still reeling from the mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store, not even two weeks ago, President Joe Biden will address Americans in the terrible wake of Tuesday’s shooting at a Texas elementary school that left at least 14 young children dead.
He will speak to the nation at 8:15 p.m. from the White House Roosevelt Room about an hour after arriving back from a five-day trip to Asia and about two hours after ordering, from Air Force One, that the flag flying above the White House be lowered to half-staff.
“President Biden has been briefed on the horrific news of the elementary school shooting in Texas and will continue to be briefed regularly as information becomes available,” White House press secretary Jean-Pierre, traveling with Biden on the long flight back home, tweeted. “His prayers are with the families impacted by this awful event, and he will speak this evening when he arrives back at the White House.”
A teacher at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was also killed by the 18-year-old suspect, a student at Uvalde High School, who also died, according to Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, whom Biden spoke with on his way back to Washington.
Less than two weeks ago, just before Biden traveled overseas he was in Buffalo, condemning a suspected white supremacist accused of killing 10 Black people going about their daily lives at a local supermarket.
There, he called on Congress to “keep weapons of war off our streets.”
In February, on the fourth anniversary of the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a single gunman killed 17 students and staff, Biden, again, pushed lawmakers to pass legislation requiring universal background checks and banning assault weapons, among other measures to reduce gun violence.
And last December, on the ninth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a single gunman killed 20 first-graders and six teachers, Biden spoke to victims’ families in a speech from the White House, demanding that lawmakers “owe them action.”
“Because of your leadership, we forged a broad coalition and enacted more than 20 executive orders,” Biden said. “We came close to legislation, but we came up short. It was so darn frustrating.”
While serving as then-President Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden was tasked in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting to lead the administration’s effort to enact tougher gun control laws — but in the nearly decade since the nation mourned for Newtown, no action on gun control has passed at a federal level.
Biden, like some of his predecessors, has repeatedly pushed for reforms to address gun violence but has faced a reluctance from Congress to engage on the issue.
Bills aimed at expanding and strengthening background checks have passed through the House’s Democratic majority but have failed to garner enough Republican support to pass the Senate filibuster’s 60-vote threshold.
As president, Biden has used some executive powers instead, like when he announced new regulations on so-called “ghost guns” last month.
But asked about what more he might do to address gun violence when leaving Buffalo last week, Biden conceded there was “not much” he could do through executive action.
“I’ve got to convince the Congress that we should go back to what I passed years ago,” Biden said, referring to the 1994 passage of an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.
Since Sandy Hook in 2012, the U.S. has endured more than 3,500 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
(WASHINGTON) — May ends with another round of notable primary elections on Tuesday, this time in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Texas.
The most-watched races will be in Georgia, with primaries for governor and the Senate.
The results should give more insight into the strength of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement as well as the conservative appetite for the “big lie.”
Latest headlines:
Texas candidates respond to elementary school mass shooting
Here’s what time polls close in each state
Stacey Abrams speaks after David Perdue’s ‘go back’ attack
What races Republicans, Democrats will be watching closely in Tuesday’s primaries
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.
May 24, 7:19 pm
Stacey Abrams projected to win Democratic gubernatorial primary in Georgia
In the Georgia gubernatorial Democratic primary, ABC News projects Stacey Abrams will win.
Abrams’s victory in the primary means November’s general election could be a rematch between her and Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp defeated Abrams in 2018 by a very narrow margin that she claimed was influenced by tactics that suppressed the vote.
Following her election loss, Abrams turned to advocacy and founded a voting rights group in Georgia. She’s credited as a main figure in helping Democrats flip the state from blue to red in the 2020 election cycle.
May 24, 7:07 pm
Polls close in Georgia
Polls have closed in Georgia, where voters are picking their party’s nominees in several highly-watched Senate, House and gubernatorial primary elections. Anyone already in line as of the 7 p.m. close will still be able to cast a ballot.
The Peach State has a fraught history of long lines and voting issues on Election Day, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday afternoon that “everything so far has been smooth sailing.”
Candidates must receive more than 50% of the vote to win the nomination, or they will face a runoff race on June 21.
May 24, 6:54 pm
Georgia elections are biggest test yet for Trump’s “big lie”
Former President Donald Trump has gone all-in on Georgia, where he’s desperately trying to oust sitting Republican officials who pushed back on his baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election.
His picks include fellow election deniers David Perdue, a former senator running against Gov. Brian Kemp; Rep. Jody Hice, who is challenging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; celebrity football star Herschel Walker, who’s seeking a Senate seat; and John Gordon, a businessman trying to unseat Attorney General Chris Carr.
May 24, 6:05 pm
Texas candidates respond to elementary school mass shooting
Democrats Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar, who are competing in a runoff election for a South Texas congressional seat, issued statements after 14 students and one teacher were [killed in a shooting] () at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“This is a devastating tragedy,” Cisneros wrote on Twitter. “How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough? Sending my condolences to the children and families in Uvalde who are experiencing this unthinkable tragedy.”
Cuellar said he was “heartbroken” and urged the public to come together to support the community.
May 24, 5:05 pm
Stacey Abrams speaks after David Perdue’s ‘go back’ attack
Stacey Abrams, a Black Democrat running for Georgia governor, declined on Tuesday to directly comment on Republican David Perdue saying she should “go back to where she came from.”
“No, not at all,” Abrams, said at a news conference in Atlanta, when asked by ABC News whether she wanted to respond to what was widely labeled as racist remarks from Perdue on Monday night while giving a campaign speech in which he also charged she was “demeaning her own race.”
“I will say this,” Abrams told ABC News at Tuesday’s press conference. “I have listened to Republicans for the last six months attack me. But they’ve done nothing to attack the challenges facing Georgia. They’ve done nothing to articulate their plans for the future of Georgia. Their response to a comment on their record is to deflect and to pretend that they’ve done good for the people of Georgia.”
Perdue, running to get the GOP nomination for Georgia governor, seized on Abram’s comments last week that Georgia was “worst state in the country to live,” citing residents’ disparities in mental health and maternal mortality, among other issues.
“She ain’t from here. Let her go back to where she came from,” Perdue, a former senator challenging Gov. Brian Kemp for their party’s nomination, said at a campaign event in the Atlanta suburbs on Monday night. “She doesn’t like it here.”
May 24, 5:03 pm
Early voting surges in Georgia as state navigates new election rules
A historic number of people have voted early in Georgia’s primary elections. According to the secretary of state’s office, approximately 857,401 people voted in-person or through an absentee ballot as of Friday — roughly three times as many as at the same point in the 2018 midterm election cycle.
Republicans are touting increased voter turnout as proof a controversial election law signed last year wasn’t as restrictive as its opponents described, while Democrats say the numbers are indicative of public pushback to the legislation.
“I think it tells us that Georgia voters got the message and the message was, ‘We gotta go vote, and we’ve got to go vote early, and we’ve got to go vote in person,’” Bee Nguyen, the leading Democratic candidate for secretary of state, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks.
May 24, 4:25 pm
Here’s what time polls close in each state
Here’s what time polls close in each state on Tuesday. All times Eastern.
Georgia: 7 p.m.
Alabama: 8 p.m.
Texas: 8 p.m. in most of the state, 9 p.m. in the western tip
Arkansas: 8:30 p.m.
Minnesota: 9 p.m
May 24, 5:07 pm
What races Republicans, Democrats will be watching closely in Tuesday’s primaries
Tuesday’s primary elections, stretching across four Southern states, will continue to test Republican voters’ appetite for former President Donald Trump and his push of the “big lie.”
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Georgia as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — two Republicans who balked at Trump’s requests to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race — face challenges from enthusiastic proponents of Trump’s baseless election claims. Kemp is hoping to fight off former Sen. David Perdue, while Raffensperger is looking to rebuff Rep. Jody Hice.
Another high-profile contest in the Peach State will be the Senate primary, where football star Herschel Walker is running for the Republican nomination to likely challenge Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. Trump-endorsed Walker has been leading the pack despite several controversies, including prior accusations of domestic violence. (Walker has denied some of the allegations and said he doesn’t remember others.)
For Democrats, the most-watched race of the night will be a runoff in Texas’ 28th Congressional District as 29-year-old immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros tries for a third time to unseat nine-term incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar. The heated primary is the first clear test of how abortion rights may motivate voters this election cycle, given Cuellar’s position as the sole anti-abortion Democrat in the House.
And in Georgia, two Democratic incumbents — Rep. Lucy McBath and Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux — are running against each other because of redistricting.
(WASHINGTON) — Kellyanne Conway, former campaign manager to Donald Trump, sat down with “The View” co-hosts on Tuesday to discuss her new memoir, her husband’s attacks on then-President Trump and a moment with the former president that she says left her heartbroken.
When Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Conway, who served as Trump’s campaign manager and would become one of his longest-serving aides, became the first woman to successfully run a presidential campaign in America.
While she helped lead Trump to victory in 2016, Conway didn’t take on his 2020 campaign. She left her White House role in August 2020 to spend more time with her family, she announced at the time.
When Trump lost the presidential election in November 2020, he began offering his theory, the so-called “big lie,” of a stolen presidential election. It is a theory Conway does not subscribe to.
Conway, in her new memoir “Here’s the Deal,” writes that losing the presidential election in 2020 was more shocking to Trump than winning it in 2016. When asked if she agrees that Trump lost both the popular vote, the electoral vote and had a free and fair election with President Biden, Conway said, “It’s pretty obvious that Joe Biden is the president. I can’t believe we’re still talking about this, respectfully.”
Conway told “The View” that she “never” lied to former President Trump about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. “I’m the closest person to Donald Trump to tell him the earliest that he came up short. It broke my heart, I wanted him to get reelected,” she said.
“I only wish that the people who were in charge of his 2020 campaign, with the $1.4 billion that they wasted, had won outright and overwhelmingly,” she continued. “He should have won huge, he had all these accomplishments.”
On “The View,” Conway said that “President Trump was told again and again by people in his campaign, ‘You’re going to win in a landslide.'”
With rumors swirling that Trump is looking to run for president again, Conway told “The View” that Trump “would like to run in 2024” because he believes he has “unfinished business” and sees that “Biden is not doing a great job.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was the White House director of strategic communications and assistant to the president in the Trump administration in 2020, was a guest co-host on “The View” Tuesday. She resigned from her position on Dec. 4, 2020, and spoke out after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The two former Trump staffers exchanged strong words at “The View” table.
Griffin asked, “How do you still defend [Trump]? Do you still think he could be a good president after he tried to overturn our democracy?”
“I left three months before you did for my children, I have four of them. And I said, ‘Less drama more mama,’ and that’s exactly what I did,” Conway responded. “I think you stayed a whole month after the election that you were having a problem with.”
Griffin quickly retorted, “I wanted to help my junior staff get jobs. I stayed for three weeks after.”
“I think people should know that,” Conway said. “Because I haven’t seen you since you’ve changed.”
“Just to be clear, I didn’t change,” Griffin said.
“Alyssa, I don’t want to argue,” Conway said. “You get to talk here every day, I’m here as a guest.”
Alyssa told Conway and the audience, “I swore an oath to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump.”
During Conway’s time as a counselor to Trump, her husband, George Conway, who supported her taking the job, was an outspoken critic of the president on Twitter. In her tell-all memoir, Kellyanne Conway wrote about her husband of nearly 25 years, “My husband abandoned me for Twitter.”
“Night after night, I would come home from a busy day at work,” she wrote in her memoir. “While I was minding dishes, dogs, laundry, managing adolescent dramas and traumas, George would be just steps away from me, tucked away in his home office, plotting against my boss and me.”
In the afterword of her memoir, Conway wrote, “Democracy will survive. America will survive. George and I might not survive.”
On “The View,” Conway made it clear that “George does not owe fealty or loyalty to Donald Trump or any political ideology. The vows were to me to love, honor and cherish. And I would not have been able to be Donald Trump’s campaign manager to the level I was had George not said, ‘You are taking your shot and I will help more with the kids and around the house … This guy can actually win with you. Go take your shot.’”
Co-host Joy Behar noted that Conway’s husband “turned” on her. Conway said that “the public nature” of her husband’s anti-Trump position was “so jarring” because of the values about George she appreciates, but he “became publicly bombastic.”
“I felt I couldn’t compete with the tweet, and why would I? Why would I compete with Twitter?” She’s not even hot, she doesn’t even have a personality,” Conway said of her husband’s many tweets bashing Trump. “I felt like there was another woman in our life.”
“George turned on Trump, which would be OK, except it took on this whole folk hero syndrome with the mainstream media,” she added.
George wasn’t the only Conway who took to social media to criticize Trump. Conway’s daughter Claudia, who had also become a critic of Trump, shared frequent posts about her mother and father on social media. Her mother spoke out about how her daughter was treated following her posts.
“Claudia was doing what a lot of teenagers do: pushing back on authority, mom and dad, posting TikToks and getting on Twitter,” Conway said of her daughter. “What I don’t appreciate and will never forgive or forget are a bunch of adults direct messaging my 15-year-old daughter without even trying to reach easy-to-reach parents.”
“It is outrageous. You can’t have a 15-year-old in your audience without a parent. She can’t get her ears pierced, go to an R-rated movie, drive, vote,” she continued.
“People just contacting my daughter. I would never contact your children. By the way, are we supposed to feel better if it were a 35-year-old man contacting Claudia at 1:00 a.m. and promising her fame, fortune, attention? But I’m so proud of her and her three siblings. They are resilient, they are hardy, they have more class, dignity, discretion and judgment in their pinkies than a lot of these adults.”
(WASHINGTON) — May ends with another round of notable primary elections on Tuesday, this time in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Texas.
The most-watched races will be in Georgia, with primaries for governor and the Senate.
The results should give more insight into the strength of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement as well as the conservative appetite for the “big lie.”
Latest headlines:
Texas candidates respond to elementary school mass shooting
Here’s what time polls close in each state
Stacey Abrams speaks after David Perdue’s ‘go back’ attack
What races Republicans, Democrats will be watching closely in Tuesday’s primaries
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.
May 24, 6:05 pm
Texas candidates respond to elementary school mass shooting
Democrats Jessica Cisneros and Henry Cuellar, who are competing in a runoff election for a South Texas congressional seat, issued statements after 14 students and one teacher were [killed in a shooting] () at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“This is a devastating tragedy,” Cisneros wrote on Twitter. “How many more mass shootings do children have to experience before we say enough? Sending my condolences to the children and families in Uvalde who are experiencing this unthinkable tragedy.”
Cuellar said he was “heartbroken” and urged the public to come together to support the community.
May 24, 5:05 pm
Stacey Abrams speaks after David Perdue’s ‘go back’ attack
Stacey Abrams, a Black Democrat running for Georgia governor, declined on Tuesday to directly comment on Republican David Perdue saying she should “go back to where she came from.”
“No, not at all,” Abrams, said at a news conference in Atlanta, when asked by ABC News whether she wanted to respond to what was widely labeled as racist remarks from Perdue on Monday night while giving a campaign speech in which he also charged she was “demeaning her own race.”
“I will say this,” Abrams told ABC News at Tuesday’s press conference. “I have listened to Republicans for the last six months attack me. But they’ve done nothing to attack the challenges facing Georgia. They’ve done nothing to articulate their plans for the future of Georgia. Their response to a comment on their record is to deflect and to pretend that they’ve done good for the people of Georgia.”
Perdue, running to get the GOP nomination for Georgia governor, seized on Abram’s comments last week that Georgia was “worst state in the country to live,” citing residents’ disparities in mental health and maternal mortality, among other issues.
“She ain’t from here. Let her go back to where she came from,” Perdue, a former senator challenging Gov. Brian Kemp for their party’s nomination, said at a campaign event in the Atlanta suburbs on Monday night. “She doesn’t like it here.”
May 24, 5:03 pm
Early voting surges in Georgia as state navigates new election rules
A historic number of people have voted early in Georgia’s primary elections. According to the secretary of state’s office, approximately 857,401 people voted in-person or through an absentee ballot as of Friday — roughly three times as many as at the same point in the 2018 midterm election cycle.
Republicans are touting increased voter turnout as proof a controversial election law signed last year wasn’t as restrictive as its opponents described, while Democrats say the numbers are indicative of public pushback to the legislation.
“I think it tells us that Georgia voters got the message and the message was, ‘We gotta go vote, and we’ve got to go vote early, and we’ve got to go vote in person,’” Bee Nguyen, the leading Democratic candidate for secretary of state, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks.
May 24, 4:25 pm
Here’s what time polls close in each state
Here’s what time polls close in each state on Tuesday. All times Eastern.
Georgia: 7 p.m.
Alabama: 8 p.m.
Texas: 8 p.m. in most of the state, 9 p.m. in the western tip
Arkansas: 8:30 p.m.
Minnesota: 9 p.m
May 24, 5:07 pm
What races Republicans, Democrats will be watching closely in Tuesday’s primaries
Tuesday’s primary elections, stretching across four Southern states, will continue to test Republican voters’ appetite for former President Donald Trump and his push of the “big lie.”
Nowhere is that more apparent than in Georgia as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — two Republicans who balked at Trump’s requests to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race — face challenges from enthusiastic proponents of Trump’s baseless election claims. Kemp is hoping to fight off former Sen. David Perdue, while Raffensperger is looking to rebuff Rep. Jody Hice.
Another high-profile contest in the Peach State will be the Senate primary, where football star Herschel Walker is running for the Republican nomination to likely challenge Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. Trump-endorsed Walker has been leading the pack despite several controversies, including prior accusations of domestic violence. (Walker has denied some of the allegations and said he doesn’t remember others.)
For Democrats, the most-watched race of the night will be a runoff in Texas’ 28th Congressional District as 29-year-old immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros tries for a third time to unseat nine-term incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar. The heated primary is the first clear test of how abortion rights may motivate voters this election cycle, given Cuellar’s position as the sole anti-abortion Democrat in the House.
And in Georgia, two Democratic incumbents — Rep. Lucy McBath and Rep. Carolyn Bordeaux — are running against each other because of redistricting.
(WASHINGTON) — The power of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement and lasting influence over Republican midterm voters faces its biggest test yet on Tuesday in Georgia, where Trump and his former vice president are on opposite sides in a significant statewide race and where Trump’s “big lie” is effectively on the ballot.
So, for Trump, it’s not just politics — it’s personal.
Incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, are defending their offices from challengers — but also from their most vocal critic, Trump, since both men resisted his pressure in 2020 to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory, in a state where three audits confirmed Trump lost by more than 11,000 votes.
Appearing to lay the groundwork for 2024, Trump has endorsed a slate of his loyalists who espouse his “big lie,” including former GOP Sen. David Perdue, relentlessly attacking Kemp in the process as a “sellout” and “coward.” But Trump appears headed for a showdown of his own, as some of his favored candidates, including Perdue, are behind in the polls.
“We have to win,” Trump said in a tele-town hall for Perdue in Georgia Monday night. “We want to win, and we have a governor that’s done the worst job of any governor in probably decades on election integrity.”
Cementing his break from Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence appeared in Kennesaw, Georgia, at the same time on Monday to rally behind Kemp and tout what he called “the Republican Party is the party of the future,” in what could be as an indirect swipe at Trump for continuing to falsely claiming 2020 election fraud.
“I know the polls look good — real good,” Pence said to applause. “But don’t let up, don’t slow down. Keep chopping.”
Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich, turning the heat on Pence, said in a statement to ABC News that the former vice president is “desperate to chase his lost relevance” and “parachuting in to races, hoping someone is paying attention.”
With Kemp polling better than 50%, according to data compiled by FiveThirtyEight, Pence’s endorsee is expected to not only win renomination but surpass the need for a runoff with Trump’s pick. Polling also suggests Perdue would be a weaker candidate in the general election this fall, where Republicans will face Stacey Abrams, running unopposed for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination — a point Pence hammered.
“I’m here because Brian Kemp is the only candidate in tomorrow’s primary who has already defeated Stacey Abrams, whether she knows it or not,” Pence said Monday, praising Kemp without once mentioning Trump.
Perdue lost a Senate runoff last year to Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Georgia’s other senator, Rev. Sen. Raphael Warnock, will likely defend his seat in the emerging battleground against Herschel Walker, the Georgia college football legend Trump endorsed who is holding steady as the frontrunner in the GOP Senate primary, despite allegations of violent behavior, which Walker has denied.
Secretary of state race
In a closer, but arguably more consequential race, Trump has directed his ire at Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who famously refused in a January 2021 phone call to “find” the former president more votes, and endorsed challenger Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.
The winner of the secretary of state race will play a key role in the next presidential election if Georgia again comes down to the wire.
Hice is one of at least 23 election deniers were running for secretary of state in 18 states, according to the States United Action, a nonpartisan advocacy group tracking the uptick in election deniers running for office. Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican critic of Trump and co-chair of the group, warned that if Trump were to get his loyalists in place for 2024, it would presumably be much easier to ensure a loss wouldn’t happen again.
“People tend to focus just on the federal races and federal elections but forget that they’re run by the states. And that’s why these elections are so important,” Whitman told ABC News, describing the thinking behind their strategy: “We change the laws, so we can change the referee, so we can change the outcomes.”
So far, more than 850,000 votes have already been cast in Georgia – surpassing the early vote in the 2018 and 2020 elections, despite new election rules inspired by unproven claims of fraud surrounding the 2020 election which Democrats argue have restricted the vote.
“We know that increased turnout has nothing to do with suppression,” Abrams said at a press conference on Tuesday morning. “We know voters want their right to vote to be made real and be held sacrosanct. And so they are showing up.”
Raffensperger, providing reporters with an update on voting in Georgia on Tuesday, declined to answer a question about his race from the state capital, saying “Since we’re in this building, I really have my secretary of state hat on right now.”
