Zombie Voters Still Showing Up To Vote For Nikki Haley’s BRAINS.

Nikki Haley ended her campaign for president on March 6, but she continues to draw votes away from Donald Trump in primary elections. Last week, Haley managed to get 22 percent of the vote in Indiana’s primary, but that one’s open to any voter so there may have been some bored Democrats voting. But Haley also picked up votes in yesterday’s Republicans-only primaries in Maryland (19.9 percent) and in Nebraska (17.8 percent). Even in very MAGA West Virginia, where Donald Trump got 88 percent of the vote, Haley still got 9.4 percent of the total, in a primary that was open to Republicans and independents.

Is that good news for Joe Biden? Could be! It’s not at all clear that Biden will be able to pick up a lot of Haley voters in swing states, but if Republicans and independents who lean Republican just stay home or write in Calvin Coolidge, that would be helpful.

ABC News reporters interviewed some of Haley’s zombie voters from recent primaries, or at least the ones who didn’t try to eat reporters’ brains, and some actually do plan to vote for Biden. In Indiana, they found at least one voter who usually votes for Democrats and ignores primaries, but made a point of going to vote for Haley because “I loathe Trump.” Other Haley voters they spoke to were definitely sour on Trump but not sure they can bring themselves to vote for Biden, just definitely not Trump, and we hope that holds through November.

Not too surprisingly, Politico notes that Trump continues to be weakest among Republican voters in affluent suburbs — particularly in the Maryland burbs around DC — but adds,

But it’s more concerning for Trump that she’s at 23 percent in Douglas County, Nebraska, the population center for that state’s 2nd Congressional District. Now-President Biden won the Omaha district’s electoral vote in 2020 thanks to GOP defectors, and Tuesday’s primary showed they’re still not on board with Trump.

Remember, Nebraska does that weird thing where its five electoral votes aren’t winner-take-all, but instead gives two electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote, and then one to each of the state’s three congressional districts.

In the not-presidenty parts of the primary, the big news was in the Maryland Democratic primary for US Senate, where Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks won the nomination over US Rep. David Trone in a fight for the seat held by Sen. Ben Cardin, who’s retiring this year. Trone, who pumped a lot of his own money — $62 million! — into the campaign, which Politico points out was the second biggest self-funding bid for the Senate since that of Rick Scott (R-Florida), “who actually won his race.”

For her part, Alsobrooks benefited from strong support from much of of Maryland’s Democratic leadership, with endorsements from Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, and Rep. Steny Hoyer.

Alsobrooks will go on to face former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in the fall. Hogan was popular with voters from both parties as governor, but in an overwhelmingly Democratic state in an election where control of the Senate is at stake, Alsobrooks can probably rely on high voter interest in the election. Add to that Hogan’s record of opposition to abortion rights, and his hopes of flipping the seat may be a challenge.

If Alsobrooks wins in November, she would become just the fourth Black woman elected to the Senate. The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body currently has just one Black woman member, California Democrat Laphonza Butler, but she pledged to serve as a placeholder until the end of the current session. The 19th notes that if Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware) wins her bid to replace retiring Sen. Tom Carper (D), the Senate might for the first time in history have two Black women serving at the same time, and wouldn’t that be a nice way to make some wingnut heads explode?

And finally, in West Virginia’s GOP Senate race, Gov. Jim Justice won the primary for the seat held by Joe Manchin (“D”), who’s also retiring. Justice is the favorite to win the seat over Democratic nominee Glenn Elliott, the mayor of Wheeling, who does at least have Manchin’s endorsement. That means that, to hold on to the Senate, Democrats will need to win all eight of their most-closely-contested incumbent seats, including those of Jon Tester in Montana (eek, we don’t know, but he’s running against an admitted liar), and Sherrod Brown in Ohio, who may have the advantage over Trump-endorsed car dealer Bernie Moreno.

Interesting times, kids.

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[Politico / The 19th / ABC News]

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