One of lime and another of sand in the Republican primaries in South Carolina that served as a thermometer to measure Trump's influence in the party.
Voters have not forgiven Congressman Tom Rice, one of 10 Republicans who voted to censure Trump in the
impeachment
proceedings over the Capitol storming.
However, Nancy Mace, who was highly critical of the then president's role in the events of January 6, 2021, has survived Trump's wrath against her and won her district's primary, almost guaranteeing her return. to Congress in the November 8 elections.
Nancy Mace, 44, is a peculiar figure within the Republican Party.
She was a waitress in her youth, she was the first female graduate of Citadel, South Carolina's military college.
In the House of Representatives she has advocated for causes such as the legalization of marijuana.
After the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, she criticized the role of Trump and his hoax that the elections had been stolen from him.
Although Mace voted against
impeachment,
Trump's political prosecution for his responsibility in the events, the former president never forgave her.
She continued to try to ingratiate herself with Trumpism, proclaiming her loyalty to the former president and praising his management and his political proposals.
However, Trump strongly supported another candidate, former congresswoman Katie Arrington, to challenge her for her position in her first as a candidate in the Republican-leaning first district of South Carolina.
Mace, however, had the support of party heavyweights in his state and managed to raise more funds than Arrington for his campaign.
The provisional results gave her 53% of the votes on Tuesday night, compared to 45% for her rival, enough to consider her the winner.
Her result proves to her once again that the support of Trump, who turned 76 this Tuesday, is not infallible within the Republican Party.
In the November 8 elections, she is the clear favorite against Democrat Annie Andrews.
Congressman Tom Rice, 64, has not suffered the same fate.
He is the first victim among the 10 Republicans who voted in favor of Trump's impeachment and shows the fate that can befall more than those who aligned with him.
The most significant is Liz Cheney, who is measured in the Wyoming primary on August 16.
David Valadao, congressman from California, maintains a slight advantage in a vote that has been open for more than a week.
Some others have not even stood for re-election.
Although Rice had five terms as a congressman, his vote earned him accusations of disloyalty within the Republican Party.
Unlike Mace, who tried to ingratiate himself with Trumpism, Rice has stuck to his guns.
His defeat has been resounding.
He has achieved around 25% of the vote, compared to 51% for Russell Fry, the candidate sponsored by Trump, a 37-year-old state congressman.
Instead, one of the leading proponents of the conspiracy theory that Trump won the election but was robbed of the presidency has clearly triumphed in Nevada's Republican Senate primary.
Adam Laxalt, former state attorney general, openly supported by Trump, son and grandson of senators, aspires to take the seat in the upper house from Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.
Nevada is one of the few states where Republicans are confident of taking a Senate seat from their political rivals.
With forces currently evenly matched (each party has 50 senators), there are only half a dozen states out of 34 that elect senators where the competition is really open.
He is a defender of the conspiracy theory of replacement, according to which the left wants to change the face of the country and leave whites in the minority, replaced by immigrants, which has inspired hate crimes such as the Buffalo shooting last month, which left 10 dead.
Despite this, he courts the Latino vote, key to his state.
Another election denier, Jim Marchant, who said he would not have certified Biden's electoral victory in Nevada, has won the Republican primary for secretary of state.
Mayra Flores celebrates her electoral victory at a party in San Benito, Texas. VERONICA CARDENAS (REUTERS)
The first Republican Latina congresswoman from Texas
Along with the primaries, this Tuesday there was a final vote for Congress.
The substitute was chosen for the seat in the House of Representatives that had been vacated by the Democrat Filemon Vela, who retired before completing his mandate.
The election was only to complete that mandate, that is, until the end of the year, but it has left a result for history.
Mayra Flores has prevailed with more than half of the votes and thus becomes the first Latina Republican congresswoman for the State of Texas.
He has also won in a district with a Latino vote and traditionally a Democrat.
For this reason, his victory may be a sign of the problems that the party of the president, Joe Biden, is going to have in the November legislative elections, in which 34 of the 100 senators and the 435 members of the House of Representatives are renewed. .
It also indicates the shift to the right of the Latino vote.
Even so, Flores herself will have a harder time on November 8, because in those elections she will face a more powerful candidate, Vicente Gonzalez, who has won the Democratic primary of a redrawed district that in theory gives the Democrats some advantage. .
Gonzalez is now a congressman from another neighboring district.
Mayra Flores was born and raised from humble beginnings in Burgos Tamaulipas, Mexico.
She assures that her parents and grandparents raised her "with strong conservative values and always putting God and family first."
She came to the United States at the age of six, she stresses that she did so “legally”.
Her parents were migrant workers, she claims that she worked alongside her parents in the cotton fields of Memphis, Texas, to earn extra money for clothing and school supplies.
She is a health worker by profession, specializing in respiratory care, which has put her on the front line of the battle against covid.
Married to a border patrolman, she advocates a tough policy against irregular immigration.
She is for guns and against abortion.
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