To Western states holding highly anticipated primary races today
should give us yet another look at how much power former President
Trump has on the Republican Party. Laura Baron Lopez is following
the elections in Wyoming and Alaska. And she joins me now, so hello,
Laura. We know you're going on the road, most recently in Wyoming
just last week looking at this Liz Cheney race. What does it look
like for her there, so Liz Cheney is likely to lose.
Tonight because of the fact that that's what all the polling shows.
So if she somehow pulls off a miracle than that would be a stunner
for everyone considering that Republicans outnumber Democrats in
the state 4 to 1 and the Republicans that we spoke to in that state
overwhelmingly oppose her. They support her the frontrunner right
now, which is Harriet Hageman. She's a lawyer, and she ran for governor
in 2018, and she has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
And really the dividing line here is that Democratic voters are sweet.
Between party lines to vote for Cheney because of her work on the
January 6th committee, and because of the fact that they see her
standing up for the truth and confronting Trump and his election
lines. That's the very same reason that so many Republicans are voting
against her. And the poll that I'm talking about is a University
of Wyoming poll that shows that Cheney is down by some 29 points.
Cheney's at 28% and Hagemann's at 57%. So it's not looking good for
her even with the Democrats crossing over Change party, so I know
We've been talking to a lot of analysts if she were to lose. What
are they telling you? About what
That would say about Republic Republican Party and Donald Trump really
would fit into a pattern that we've seen every primary night, where
a number of election deniers continue to win the Republican nominee,
whether it's up or down the ballot, secretary of state races, gubernatorial
races, Senate races and House races, and actually, the Washington
Post had this recent investigation. You know where they broke down
the data, and it showed that across battleground states major battle
Ground states.
Some 62% of the GOP nominees that won their primaries have denied
the 2020 election results and said that Trump won so ultimately where
even if Cheney were somehow to win, it really shows that former President
Trump has a big grip on the party right now, a formidable for so,
Laura, stay right here, but we do want to turn right now for a moment
to Alaska.
Because as we mentioned two big races there for the house and for
the Senate that we're watching our colleague in a vase was in Alaska
recently talking to voters, And here is some of what they told her
about how polarized this elections become.
I mean, I lived here my whole life. I've been a voter for 10 years
and, um, it makes me nervous to see just such heightened representation
of people's feelings
for candidates. When you get into a lot of this radical bite, you
know, hardcore partisan stuff. I just don't feel like it. Um, is
good for the country and good for, you know.
The average American, especially the Aboriginal asking so, Laura,
I should say, you know, we're a bunch of a bunch of voters were expressing
their views. But let's talk about these races, starting with the
Senate race where Lisa Murkowski running for reelection,
and she's hoping to move on to the general election, But she does
face a strong Republican challenge. Tell us about she does. This
is an all party primary, so there's going to be some lot of names
on the ballot. The top four move
Of on Lisa Murkowski has faced up uphill battles before some of our
viewers will remember that she had to be a write in candidate previously,
and she prevailed. But this is different because again she is the
only Republican senator out of the seven that voted to convict former
President Trump, who is actually facing reelection right now, and
she again is up against, you know, Trump endorsed candidate and this
would be the fourth full term. If Macau see Makowski were somehow
To win she again is, you know, pushing for moderate voters, independent
voters to really come and rally behind her, and she's up against
Kelly, a former commissioner of the state Department of Administration,
and so again,
Very similar to Cheney. Murkowski is someone who stood up to Trump,
who decided that she was going to support the second impeachment
and vote for conviction. And and again, she's she's pretty much being
challenged by the former president, and by a lot of Republicans who
don't want to support her for that very reason, and it has become
an issue in that race. And as we mentioned, the house raised only
one house
CNN, Alaska. The House race involves the name We know from the past,
and that Sarah Palin What does that race look like again, So there
are two races right now. There is the special election race, which
Palin is running in to replace former congressman Don Young, who
passed away in March. And she is up against Republican Nick Begich,
who is of the well known baggage family in Alaska. Former Senator
Begich
What was is a is a Democrat. And so he's related to him. And then
again, she's also up against a Democrat, Mary Pell Tola, who a lot
of Republicans were concerned that Pelt Ola because this is in the
special election ranked choice that she could actually
End up getting ahead of the two Republicans if they split the vote.
Now, in addition to that, there is also a primary race that all of
these candidates are running in as well. And that features some 22
names on the ballot again and the top four are going to move on.
And so Palin is expected to advance. Uh
In that race to the November election, as well as the other two,
most likely so right now, though, there isn't very good polling in
this race in Alaska, so it's very difficult to say who could come
in first or who will ultimately win in November? Should say This
voting process requires voters to pay close attention to what they're
doing as they do the ranked ranked choice
decisions. Laura Baron Lopez, we thank you. Thank you.
And on our website. We want to tell you you can follow the live results
from tonight's elections as they come in. That is at PBS dot org