Trump’s prosecutor wins, McCarthy’s successor is defined and other election conclusions

Vince Fong, a California state lawmaker and former aide to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, won a special election Tuesday to fill his seat — representing the most conservative district in the deep blue state. Fong succeeds McCarthy nearly five months after he resigned from Congress following his removal as speaker.

Fong will now serve until his term ends in January and will again face his Republican opponent – ​​Mike Boudreaux, the former Tulare County sheriff – in the fall to seek a full term.

Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and Oregon also held primary contests on Tuesday, with the presidential primaries in Kentucky and Oregon yielding notable protest votes against President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.

Here are some tips.

Biden encountered significant resistance in the Kentucky primary, and a protest vote against him in Oregon faltered.

Nearly 30 percent of voters in Kentucky’s Democratic primary supported a non-Biden option, a notable underperformance for the president among Democrats in the state. The protest vote against Biden was nearly double that against Trump, who won about 85 percent of the vote in the Republican primary. Participation also fell in the Democratic primaries, with around 184,000 votes counted, compared to the more than 537,000 recorded in 2020.

In Oregon, a write-in campaign protesting Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza significantly underperformed, with less than 5 percent of all votes in the Democratic primary being cast as write-ins. In neighboring Washington state, the uncommitted election option won nearly 10% of the vote in the Democratic primary in late March. Trump was unopposed in the Oregon Republican primary.

Fani T. Willis, the lead prosecutor in Trump’s criminal case in Georgia, won the primary in a landslide.

The Democratic primary for district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, ended in a remarkable blowout. Fani Willis, who is suing Trump and others over their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, crushed his opponent, Christian Wise Smith, winning with 87% of the vote.

Scott McAfee, the judge overseeing Trump’s case in Georgia, was also re-elected with a huge lead: 83% of the vote. He and Mrs. Willis were considered the favorites in their respective races.

The result for Willis signaled confidence in her performance among Democrats after a romantic relationship with a lawyer she hired to handle the prosecution came to light in January. Trump’s defense lawyers said the relationship was a serious conflict of interest and asked Judge McAfee to remove Willis from the case. The Georgia Court of Appeals will review Judge McAfee’s decision to let her stay on the case.

A progressive candidate in Oregon loses in a closely watched Democratic primary.

Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a progressive candidate for Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District, was defeated in the Democratic primary by Janelle Bynum, two years after narrowly losing to a Republican opponent for the crucial seat in 2022. Ms., will face Rep. Lori Chavez -DeRemer, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary in what will be one of the most closely watched House races this year.

Mike Schmidt, the progressive district attorney for Multnomah County, which includes Portland, was trailing his opponent, Nathan Vasquez, a prosecutor in his own office.

Vasquez, who was previously registered as a Republican, blamed Schmidt for Portland’s recent problems with drugs and crime. Vasquez has vowed to prosecute even minor crimes amid a rise in homicides, homelessness and overdose deaths during Schmidt’s tenure.

Schmidt, who had previously campaigned to make low-level crimes a lower priority in 2020, recently toughened his stance on drugs and shifted staff to prosecute more violent crimes in response to voter concerns.